Sharp Nails!

[Coco]

Just a quick question..2 of my rats have got really sharp nails and i was wondering is there anyway of getting them a little bit shorter so there not so sharp. When sparky grooms the others they squeak a lot because they are so sharp. Any help will be appreciated!

 

[user 78]

You can try trimming their nails, provided they're long enough. You can use a pair of baby nail clippers, and you take off just the tip of the entirely white part. The pink in their nail is the quick, and cutting too close to that can cause your rat to bleed and is quite painful.

If that's just a bit much for you, or their nails aren't quite long enough to try it, you can also place thing sin their cage to help wear them down. Sanitized bricks, rocks, and tiles are just a few. Anything with a rough surface that can stand to be peed on and cleaned regularly.

 

[Coco]

We've clipped them before and we have rocks and bits of branch in the cage but it seems to make them come back twice as fast and sharper! We're both covered in scratchs from them climbing all over us!

 

[user 78]

Even when I've trimmed their nails and that, they'll still scratch me. I've only had one rat that was such a sweetheart she let me file the tips a bit.

 

[chicky82]

I attempt to trim my boy's nails whenever they get too sharp and only with a bribe do they let me such as a piece of cookie, something they can't run away with I always get someone to hold the rat while I do the trimming. I have 2 rocks, a branch and a fiddle stick shack for them to climb on but they still need trims once in a while and sometimes you just have to wear long sleeves when you are playing with them :roll: