Nail Clipping

[acapae]

For rats I use human nail clippers, and for cats I use small spring loaded ones. But piggy nails are quite thick comparatively and I can't decide what would be best.

What do people use for clipping piggy nails?

 

[MJG]

You can buy special clippers for pigs they are only about 3/4 quid and they have a guild too

 

[zombieprincess]

I use these style clippers



By far the best they are really sharp and get right through thick piggy nails. Just make sure the clippers you buy have a small "hole" in the blade. Some clippers for small animals have holes more similar in diameter to cat clippers, and piggy toes can slip through that gap quite easily.

 

[TheCavySlave]

I use a pair very similar to the ones above, work well! As long as they're sharp and grip the nail fairly well, it should be okay.

 

[acapae]

I use these style clippers

By far the best they are really sharp and get right through thick piggy nails. Just make sure the clippers you buy have a small "hole" in the blade. Some clippers for small animals have holes more similar in diameter to cat clippers, and piggy toes can slip through that gap quite easily.

Ah, I struggle with the action of the scissor-type nail cutters as it causes pain to my hand/ wrist joints. I might try with my spring loaded cat ones first and see how doable that is first. They have a guard you can put across the blade which only allows a few mms of nail to be cut at a time, thus preventing toe injuries.

You can buy special clippers for pigs they are only about 3/4 quid and they have a guild too

I've not heard about pig-specific ones. Do you have a link? And what's a guild in this context?

 

[zombieprincess]

Ah, I struggle with the action of the scissor-type nail cutters as it causes pain to my hand/ wrist joints. I might try with my spring loaded cat ones first and see how doable that is first. They have a guard you can put across the blade which only allows a few mms of nail to be cut at a time, thus preventing toe injuries

Ah fair enough. I have used the spring loaded ones, with the guard for piggies (usually rabbits because those are some seriously tough nails) and they are absolutely fine. If I were you I'd just attempt it with what I already had and see how it is.
I'm just more comfortable with the little scissor ones as I find them a bit easier to get around their outside toes. The outside toes on piggy front feet can be a nightmare to get too and the nails on those are prone to curling as they age so can be tricky to clip

 

[LilyandGeorge]

With the above - I use the type in the above link. Before that, I tried to use human toenail clippers but they did not open wide enough to get their hind toes - mine are middle aged piggies with quite thick nails. They used to hate nail clipping but it's much, much easier now.

 

[AlbiePercy]

I have recently switched to using the scissor type cutters on my pigs, but prior to that I used to use clippers designed for human babies. They worked quite well until we got new wiggly pigs!

 

[3Tyger]

I also use the scissor type in the link above for my piggies.

I'm not sure what spring-loaded cat one's with a guard that you mean, but those ones sounds great for my cat - do you know where I might find some?

 

[acapae]

Ta for all the replies

The outside toes on piggy front feet can be a nightmare to get too and the nails on those are prone to curling as they age so can be tricky to clip

Thanks for the heads up! Oldie rats often have thick curling toenails on the outside toes of their back feet, but I hadn't considered where piggies might have that happen. Mine are both young (can't remember exactly, but one just under a year, one just under two), so hopefully lots of time to practice technique before I get to that stage.

I'm not sure what spring-loaded cat one's with a guard that you mean, but those ones sounds great for my cat - do you know where I might find some?

These are photos of mine.


Annoyingly, they were surprisingly difficult to find. I bought the above from Lidl during one of their pet weeks, which doesn't help you much. This design is common, but they're ususually aimed at dogs and thus much larger in size.

 

[Piggies4us]

I did our girls for the first time last weekend and I just used regular human nail clippers and they worked great!

 

[3Tyger]

Thanks, i shall keep an eye out for some like that

 

[acapae]

I did their nails for the first time the other night. It was surprisingly easy