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Nails/Nail Trimming Tips on cutting black nails?

ihrmaniac97

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Hi, haven't had to post here in a while, my guinea pigs are doing wonderful so far. Just have a question about clipping their nails, First few months I had them I would just take them to a grommer for 5 dollars per pig, and now just tonight I decided I would try clipping them. First, I did my pig with clear nails, his were easy to see the quik and it was a breeze, he didn't move one bit and just relaxed, they've both gotten super comfortable with me. Now, my second pig has one back foot that is clear, and the rest of his feet are black. His front feet don't have long nails at all, so I only bothered with the back feet. got one side done, but was fearful of doing the black ones, so I am leaving it for a couple days to go to the groomer and am going to see how the groomer does it. But for now, any tips on cutting black nails? I don't have any quick stop powder or anything so I didn't want to risk cutting a nail I couldn't see through or have no experience with.
 

spy9doc

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You don't need Quick-Stop.........cornstarch works very well, and you can even use flour in a pinch. Then put pressure on it for a bit.

Most folks say to shine a light through the black nails......but they must have a helper.>( Try holding the cavy with one hand, cutting the nails with the other, and a third hand is needed to hold the flashlight......and it takes forever to do the trim. You can try shinning a light through them to see if you can determine where the "quick" begins, and then estimate where to cut. If you happen to have a clamp to hold the flashlight and attach it to a table, that might be workable. I usually just cut less off the black nails and cut them more often.
 

Beatrix187

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What I do is to first cut the white nails, then I have an idea of how much to cut off for the black nails. I just wing it then, maybe cutting slightly less of the black one.
 

ZiggyPig

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What I do is to first cut the white nails, then I have an idea of how much to cut off for the black nails. I just wing it then, maybe cutting slightly less of the black one.

Same here. With my dogs too, they are smaller dogs and each has a couple black nails that drive me nuts.
 

MysticalMysty

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My piggie, Nova, has all black toenails. I've noticed that her back toenails grow faster than her front toenails. As such, I trim her back nails about every 2-3 weeks, but her front nails I can get away with every 4-5 weeks. Usually what I do is just take off the tip of it for her fronts (my piggies are only 4 months old, so their nails are pretty pointy/sharp) and that tends to work for her. Then for the back, I only cut off what I am almost positive is a good length. I've never drawn blood from any of my piggies, but I do get little squeaks and squeals. If I do hear one, then I use that as a guideline for the next nail.

I hoped I helped somewhat!
 

ihrmaniac97

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Same here. With my dogs too, they are smaller dogs and each has a couple black nails that drive me nuts.


Yeah one of my pigs has 3 sets of nails black and one clear. For their first time neither of them squeaked or anything, no kicking either, they're very good and calm because I take them out a ton :)
 

MysticalMysty

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Yeah one of my pigs has 3 sets of nails black and one clear. For their first time neither of them squeaked or anything, no kicking either, they're very good and calm because I take them out a ton :)

That's awesome that you have such calm piggies! Mine only squeak if I've gotten too close to the quick; a bit of a "back off" signal. They're also very, very squirmy, haha.
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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Both Sly, who has four black feet, and Pooper who had three black feet, did NOT like their nails cut. Since Sly is now a senior, he's mellowed out quite a bit with the nail clipping, but Pooper was a biter and I had to wear gloves while his nails were clipped. It takes two of us to do our pigs nails, more so for comfort of the pigs and keeping them calm.

Using a light shining under the nail can help, but we usually just trimmed less, and more often. Scooter and Punkin both have white feet (accidentally, I know some people will only take pigs with white feet to avoid clipping dark nails) so they're a whole lot easier to do.

I did have styptic powder in case of an accidentally clipped quick, but for some strange reason found that flour worked better.
 

ihrmaniac97

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yeah, I got both of mine at 3 or 4 months and it's been a year since then, they just love getting out of their cage and I never had a squirm or squeak while clipping nails, same when they had a lice treatment and I gave them a bath. Went to the vet a few months back for it, and turns out the bath cleared up all of the lice, so was a small infestation. didn't even squeak or squirm at the vet, they're so calm :) got them free from a breeder.
 

lisa325

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Ditto Guinea Pig Papa, we have quite a mixture of light and black nails here. We follow the rule to use two people, trim less, more often, just concentrate on taking the tips off. I also use an emery board afterwards to smooth out the edges. To date we have never had an accident ( fingers and toes crossed)
 

jaycriae

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I once asked the vet to show me how to trim Bitters' back nails while she was there for unrelated reasons, and the VET clipped too short and made her bleed. Now I just take off the tips. They might be a bit longer than I'd prefer, but it's better than risking injury.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ZiggyPig

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I'm going to second [MENTION=35161]Guinea Pig Papa[/MENTION] on the flour recommendation - I have hit the quik on a couple of black dog nails over the years and have never found styptic powder to work as well as some flour and some pressure. It's good to have on hand, for sure, but I would always reach for the flour first
 

ZiggyPig

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I once asked the vet to show me how to trim Bitters' back nails while she was there for unrelated reasons, and the VET clipped too short and made her bleed. Now I just take off the tips. They might be a bit longer than I'd prefer, but it's better than risking injury.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's what happened when we got our first rescue Cavalier. They took all the new rescues to a groomer and the groomer cut most of her nails so short that there were a few I could actually see up into - like they had holes in the bottoms. She still won't let us touch her feet unless we have loads of treats in our hands - then we can trim them. Or now she trusts us enough to get things like pine needles and stuff out of her paws, but otherwise, NOPE.
 
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