Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hamster nails? To trim or not to trim?

Can I do this or should I take him to the vet? Or is there something I can put in the cage?
Answers:
If your hamster tolerates being held well, you can gently file them down with an emery board for people nails.
Usually hamsters will trim their own nails, by chewing them with their teeth.
If your hamster is not doing this, check his teeth. (I know this sounds weird, but if he's not keeping his nails in check, something is up.) If hamsters do not have enough good hard things to chew on in their cage, the teeth can overgrow and cause them to have problems eating, grooming, and doing other things that involve their mouth.
best option for anything your not sure about is get a vet to do it. better to be safe than sorry. Im sure they wony=t charge a high fee for this.
twigs they sell at petsmart
i would consider taking him to the vet since they are pretty good at taking car of animals
but you can also do it if you dont want to spend all that money.just be very carefull while doing it becuase hamsters can be very dangerous when not happy. i have never trimmed my hamster's nails but i think he does it his self because he is very smart
i have a Guinea pig is it you r first time? if it is then go to a vet and watch what they do and when you feel confident then you can do it
You can make your hamster a little box, and line it with sandpaper. Unless your hamster is unusually lazy, he'll try to get out of the box, therefore filing his nails on the sandpaper.
Do not trim them if you do. You will be injuring your hamster and that is just animal abuse.
The best/cheapest way is putting a brick/stone in the cage. They run around it or scratch it so it wears the nails. Something suitable for the cage, I use long flat surfaces of a broken brick. Hope it helps.
Ok, do not attempt to clip his nails. NOT a good idea. Bring him outside and let him run around on the cement, but watch him cause he'll get away (I know duhh). Drag him across it if you have to w/o hurting him and it should file them down. Or try a finger nail file or sandpaper. :P
some of my dwarfs always need their nails clipped. it seems that some of them trim their own nails %26 some of them don't. 4 the ones who don't i use baby nail clippers and i think this is usually a 2-person project: 1 to hold the hamster and the little paw; the other clips. this way you don't clip too far down to the "quick" which is the pink spot in the nail. you just want to clip the white tips. .
it doesn't matter if you trim there nail or not but i don't cause i don't need to but if there making it hard for your hamster to walk you can try trimming them if you cant you can take him/her to the vet. :)

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