Are your hamster's nails too long? - Page 5

debs · 02-23-2011, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by souffle

If they are very long they will curl over and dig into his pads and hurt him. They can also damage eyes and ears when they wash.
What we do is get a bit of wire mesh and sit the hammy on it. Put a glass over the hamster so it cannot run about. The nails normally drop through the mesh and if someone hold the hamster up the other pesron can clip the nails protruding through

I would expect a vet to charge yes. Some will give a very short gas anesthetic to get it done if the nails are very bad and disabling the animal.

is that for syrians or dwarfs?, my dwarfs nails look long but they arent curl up yet. looks like he has wee furry paws.

Goliath · 02-23-2011, 12:31 PM

:/ i'm very sad.... I'm really afraid that he's gonna get hurt but i dunno... they clip them at petland but after a bad experience with buying a pet from there and it not making it, i don't feel like i can trust them to do it...

Goliath · 02-23-2011, 12:34 PM

Mine is a dwarf too, i don't know how well it would work, if i did the mesh thing.

Becca27 · 02-23-2011, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goliath

Okay.... you have to know my sweet Goliath to know why i can't cut his nails. He would never ever let me near his paws. Would it cost money to get a vet to do it??? His nails are really long and he has no patience for things to scratch at. Are there any other ways to get their nails trip once they're this long. I'm not at all worried about his teeth because he chews everything.

I tried to get Harley's done at the vets and they quoted me £7 for it if thats any help if ur trying to get an idea of the price.

**Hope** · 02-24-2011, 04:24 AM

I used baby scissors to trim Boris' nails, getting him to stay still was the hardest part! I think that the mesh idea would work really well if you had another person, one to hold the wire and the glass bowl, the other to do the trimming.

souffle · 02-24-2011, 05:58 AM

Yes that is for a dwarf. We have no problems with syrians but it is easier with two people. You need one person to hold a syrian and one to clip. You need to hold the foot quite firmly and press down on it so the toes splay out. We use small sharp nail scissors or baby nail scissors. If the foot is steady you can run along the whole foot in one go if you are lucky.
We never try and do all the feet in one day. Even two nails a day and they are soon done is fine.
It is best to get them out while they are still dozy and do this as they are stiller.
I will try and get some pics but we only have a chinese at the moment!

Pickalilly · 03-12-2011, 12:49 PM

Little Picks gets very long nails because she is a Campbell's Russian Dwarf and I take her to the vet to get them clipped. To be honest, she does nip, and would never let me cut her nails without risking herself injury. She is a delight to hold when she is eating, though, as she purrs and loves it! Anyway, the vets are great with her - one holds her and puts her paw out while the other clips. If you are too nervous to cut your hamster's, then take her to a vet that have experience in hamsters!

Jaybee · 04-06-2011, 12:07 AM

Nail cutting is a lot easier with two people, one to hold the hamster and one to cut. Sometimes you can get multiple nails in one sitting. I've only had to cut my robos nails, and I would take her to the CHA and she would help me cut her nails.

SnickersTheFirst · 04-07-2011, 01:53 PM

I adopted Cooper a couple of weeks ago and I've noticed some of his claws are missing and the ones he does have are really long and bent to one side. I don't want to stress him out at the vets but I'm worried I might cut them wrong myself. What should I do?

Are rabbit nail clippers okay? Also, is Cornflour okay to use instead of a styptic pen?

jojow · 04-21-2011, 05:20 AM

Just wondering - is it ok to scruff dwarves? Topaz's claws are starting to curl under and i want to trim them before they cause real issues, but given that i am right handed and the way I can hold her, i've only managed her left side! I used to scruff my syrian charlie to trim her teeth (now that's scary!) but someone told me you shouldn't scruff a dwarf. I wondered if anyone knew whether it was ok? I thought of trying to get someone else to hold her while I did the other claws but haven't got anyone good at handling hamsters!