How do you hold your bun while doing so? Do you do all nails in one sitting or let them go play inbetween or even take multiple days to get all nails done?
I always take a hold of mine and try to finish as quickly as I can safely manage to cause the least stress for both of us, but I always end up with a new scratch telling the tales of my last epic battle.
Specifically my 2kg heavy girl is giving me trouble. She always manages to land at least one good kick. Her husbun is less of a problem due to his smaller size, but he certainly is not happy about nail days.
Going to the vet instead is not an option for me due to not having a car as train/bus rides would be even more stressful for us and are an emergency only solution.
My girls brother was always chill about his nailcuts. He somehow gid not even mind me laying him on his back. He stayed there totally relaxed, let me do his nails, cuddle a bit and happily accepted a treat after and cuddled more.
Bunny tax of my girl demanding pets (gif) and of her late brother how he lay on my lap after a nailcut (pic)
by 111kitten111
32 Comments
I’ve bought a second hand groomer table. It’s very high, very narrow, and they stay put while I’m brushing them or trimming their nails.
First thing is having good nail cutters, specific for pets. Second is having light so you can see how much you can cut without risking to spill blood. Third I’d say having assistance so one holds the bun and one cuts, but if not available I place the bun on a towel on the bed and hold the front paws from behind, then put it on my lap, sitting facing away from me and cut the hind legs nails…
My male is chill and lets me cut his nails if wrapped in a burrito unfortunately that didn’t work on my new female. She would fight her way out of it.
What seems to be working is a tall and narrow table. There are still some scratches but at least I can cut those nails.
I sit down at a table (no rolly chairs), hold them tight to my chest, place a small towel over their faces so they don’t see, and snip away while holding one paw out (firmly but not in a death grip — if they freak out and start pulling like mad, I let them go and take a breather). It takes me about 20 min to get through all four paws. Since I don’t want to cut too deep, I just snip off the very ends so I actually trim their nails 2x a month instead of once a month.
I toss a blanket over mine before scooping her up into my lap. Seems to keep her calm in the dark and protects me from scratches. I keep the towel gently over her head so she can’t really see. I hold and my dad clips, or vice versa. Def easier with 2 people. We do 2 paws at a time. Or whatever she will allow before she starts squirming. We’ve def done it over multiple visits when he comes over. It’s basically a rotating scheduling. Odds are at least one paw could use a trim at any given time. Just do what you can
Firstly, trancing your rabbits, putting them on their back, is not recommended. They seem calm, but that is because they are locked in a fear state from being in a vulnerable position and are playing dead. It is extremely stressful for them. I did it too when I first got rabbits because I didn’t know any better, but you should stop immediately.
When I do my rabbits’ nails, I sit them in my lap and give them lots of pets and calming strokes between feet. I do the back paws by leaning them back a little and cradling them in an almost upright position in my left arm, holding the foot in my left hand and trimming with my right hand.
To do the front paws, I let them stand on their back feet and hold their front paw in my left hand and trim with my right hand. Letting them rest their front paw on your finger and pressing up a little can also help extend the nails and make it easier to isolate each nail.
I also teach my rabbits the phrase “all done” by releasing them and offering treats. This helps them understand that the unpleasantness is over, and they can just be resentful instead of scared.
I have my bun sit next to me on the sofa, rested up against my leg on one side and my arm wrapped around his other side. Get ahold of a paw and cut his nails, working my way to all his nails.
How many nails I cut at a time depends on him. Sometimes he’ll let me do all of his nails in one sitting, sometimes he’ll only let me get to a couple of nails before he’s done, usually it’s somewhere in between. I just pay attention to what he’s telling me. When he starts to get stressed or just over it, he gets squirmy and we stop. He knows that when he’s over it, he will be allowed to hop away without a fight, so he doesn’t fight me about it.
i have my dad hold them 🙏 life saver fr
Towel burrito, patience, and only doing half at a time so they have time to catch their breath and don’t get too stressed out.
I wish my husband would help me but of course he won’t. He loves the bunnies and can’t stand to see them in distress, so I get to do all the scary stuff myself.
My male black rabbit bites his own nails, thank God because it’s really hard to trim black bunny nails. You need to do the squeeze squeeze cut technique. It’s when you squeeze lightly with the clippers twice to see if you’re near the quick. If they flinch, you’re too close. But my old void bunny would flinch dramatically every time I brought the clippers near him so that didn’t work.
I use the usual method – bunny on lap, facing away from me, wrapped in a towel with face covered. She’s not really on her back, more upright than anything. Although I’ve had her for a few years, she still puts up a huge fight, snorting and kicking and scratching and twisting about so much I’m afraid she’ll break her back. The last time she jumped just as I clipped and I cut her quick REALLY low. I’ve never seen a quick bleed that much, it looked like a massacre afterward. FYI- if you don’t have Quikstop to staunch the bleeding, cornstarch and pressure on the cut part of the quick works eventually.
ETA- I used a penlight held beside the nail to visualize the quick.
https://youtu.be/W9KemnaTGIs?si=7mTuFA4eF-DDzQWc
This is by far the best and least stressful method I have ever tried. Since I started doing it I can cut the nails by myself without any help from anyone. The rabbit never runs away and the whole ordeal takes 4-6 minutes.
Edit: well more like 6-8 to be honest. I don’t know why I said 4-6.
Oh yeah- while we are on the subject, what type and brand of clippers do you all use? I can’t seem to find a brand that is both small enough to give me the control and view I need, and sharp enough to cut through the nails cleanly.
Tangential, but I actually do my nail trims in the bathroom. I have RGB light bulbs and shift them to bright green when I do nail trims so that it’s easier to see the quick. Two of my rabbits have black nails and this has been really helpful in finding the quick. It makes nail trims faster since I don’t have to spend a ton of time examining the nail for the blood vessel.
We never had to trim our bunny’s nails. He wore them out naturally.
I have a little ritual. I put on a YouTube video (usually some let’s-player with a relaxing voice, or something to that effect) sit them in my lap facing away from me, and do the front nails.
My boy gets very wiggly, so I usually let him hop around and act all offended for ten minutes or so before finishing up with the back legs. I do the back legs in the same position, just leaning them back against me, and gently shifting their weight onto one back leg at a time so that I can clip the nails on the other leg. My girl is a little less wiggly so I usually focus on just getting her done quickly with no breaks (if possible).
I burrito them sometimes. But I do quick work. I flip them on their backs gently on my lap, trim trim trim, and they’re free to go. The slower I go, the worse it is for the both of us. One of my boys needs his teeth trimmed (found out he’s inbred after we adopted him) and the vet gave me the go ahead to do as I do with the nails, Flip, trim, and free to go. Be aware of where your buns Quik is, though, so you don’t hurt them ♡
I use the tag-team method. One of us holds our bun(s), outdoors on our patio, facing me while supporting their bum, and I quickly get cracking with the clipper. I look at each nail in the sunlight and make sure not to trim to far down to the quick. We are done in less than 3 minutes from start to finish (if Im feeling bold, I try to file down a nail or two, but if they are seriously annoyed, I settle for the brisk nail clipping and call it a day).
My roommate holds my rabbit so he doesn’t kick (he hates grooming at all lol) and I take each paw and cut them myself. I try to be fast but thorough.
So…this probably won’t work with every bun, but mine is chill about nail clippings. I set him on the closed toilet seat and take one of his front paws and snip all of those claws. For the back paws, I generally hold him so he’s vertical and just snip at those. 🤷♀️
Do one paw, release bunny, and give snack, repeat. Keeps bunny happy, keeps my blood inside my body.
I hold my bunnies in what I call “shrimp position,” where they are sitting upright with their back against my stomach and their little back feet up on the air, curled up like a little shrimp. Use a little bit of water to wet the very tips of the toes, barely takes any at all, this will keep the claws visible for cutting. I have a cutter with a light, which is very useful for my boy with dark nails.
For my old gal, her nails are clear and easy to cut, for my boy I do “squeeze, squeeze, cut.” His reaction tells me if I did, in fact, position the cutter correctly. Flinch? Too low, could cut the quick. No flinch? All clear. Have styptic powder/pen on hand since bunnies do not clot very well. I cut across, then on each edge (think north south east west, makes the tip of the nail look like a square gem, it’s hard to explain) to remove sharp edges, but your bunnies might not be patient enough for this to start.
Do one paw, release bunny, and reward good behavior. If your bunny seems to have the patience to do more, then do more. If not, don’t push the issue as you may damage your bond.
Edited to add a more helpful description.
Braver than me. I always took mine to get his nails trimmed by a vet tech.
I do all at once so they learn over time that once I start clipping I won’t be done until we’re done. I do it on my lap with bun facing away. For some nails, I need to hold them in a human sitting position with the back feet up and their back against my chest. If they struggle, I give them a second and go right back to what I was doing. They get a treat at the very end
Sneaky sneaky one at a time. When they get long I try to sneak up on one nail per day. It annoys him, but there’s no trauma.
Burrito the Bunny! Lol I burrito Remy every single time I cut her nails! She absolutely hates it, fights me for the first ten minutes I have her in my arms, rips her feet back when I go to cut one of her nails,and obsessively chews on the towel for the first 10-15 minutes! Honesty though. I think she’s realized that she’s not going anywhere once I’ve got her, and she gives into the irritation I’m causing her….Lol After the first 10 minutes of hell, she will decides to just sit there until I’m all done! Lol then she gets treats, cuddles, and lots of kisses!
https://preview.redd.it/2yvt4frqjqpb1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72507edf4a7c95252e9540268c4363af13ada7b7
My mother holds my baby bun, while I cut her nails within 2-3mins…
Then i leave her be, and let her groom herself
I just give him something to snack on and then go paw by paw
like put a big piece of apple in front of him and he’s fine with me lifting his front paws while hes munching away. back paws are a bit of a problem because he doesnt like me lifting them so I basically just slide the nail trimmer directly onto the nail while hes standing (Im doing this on the couch so it’s easy enough). My biggest problem are his dewclaws because even though he lets me lift his front paws I can never get a good angle to actually get to them. So my very convoluted way of trimming them is to basically hold his snack in my mouth so he rests his paws on my chest and I can access them from the front lmao.
I cut my boy’s nails either with him sitting on my lap, or while he’s sitting beside me, along to my thigh. On my lap is easier ofc, but he gets pissed off quicker. I bribe him with fruits and pets as long as I can, if he’s getting pissed, I let him go, then do another session later the same day or the next.
I put them on a table with a towel. I’ll sometimes put my arm round them but I makes sure to speak softly and let them know it ok. Of course they feel anxious but I do try to be fast and I only cut of the very tip of the nail so I don’t make them bleed. There are some videos of YouTube that can help. Treats are great too.
Put them in the carrier on a high table
I wrap them in a towel and cut the claws on the front paws first, then when they’re ready I’ll move to the back. They’re calm & relaxed throughout the whole process and don’t feel the need to escape or bite. When my youngest girl is feeling a bit panicked I’ll give her a carrot biscuit to distract her from the clippers, she has a heart condition so I need to be extra careful around her and the bunito towel wrap is the most effective method for me!
i have someone else hold mine with a hand on his chest under his front paws and a hand support his bottom/feet. i’m able to clip all nails in this position
https://preview.redd.it/0qh0knbicypb1.jpeg?width=1872&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=edfd8709ca2a04b42fe45eaf21f1cd6936c665f7
this is how my mom (yes i know she’s covered in paint) cuts our little guy’s.