Clip hamsters nails

[Lorena]

I am a bit concern about Sweetie nails as they appeared to be a bit too long and this might be the reason why she doesn’t go on her wheels as often as she used to do. I’m scared to clip them off but I’ll do it if necessary. Do you guys clip your hamsters nails?

 

[RainbowBrite]

I have not had to do this yet. I know some people take their hamster to the vet for the first time just so the vet can teach them how to do it. Another tip is to use a magnifying light or similar so you can get a good close up of the nails. I can understand you are nervous as I would be nervous to do it too.

 

[Member ID2]

I clip nails but it very much depends on the hamster how easy or difficult it is.

Often i only clip one or two nails (and sometimes none) depending on how tolerant the hamster is.

You'd need baby scissors or clippers, whatever works best, a glove or gardening glove for a hamster who bites, good light and excellent eyesight or in my case, magnifying glasses.

You need to be very careful not to cut the quick because that would cause pain and bleeding.

My advice would be to see a vet or vet nurse the first time. They can give very wriggly hamsters a little gas first or show you how to do it if you have a calm and tolerant hamster.

 

[Maz]

I have clipped our hamsters nails before, but only syrians, not dwarf hamsters. I think it can take time and patience and if your hamster is fairly tame it's possible if you do it when they are out of the cage and distracted by a piece of food eg - then you can just do one or two nails at a time, that are visible, at various different times. That's the way I do it. And I use a small pair of nail scissors as I think I can see more precisely where I'm cutting. The main thing is to not take any real length off at all just the very very end tip. This might not shorten them much but it avoids cutting the quick of the nail (which can be very painful for the hamster and also bleed a lot!). The theory is that if you keep taking the very tip off, then the nail gradually gets shortened over time as the quick reduces in size (the longer the nail, the further the quick has grown).

Another method with a dwarf hamster is one where you let them walk on a grid temporarily and snip their nails as they protrude through the grid.

This video shows one way of doing the mesh method (which I haven't tried) but means obtaining a mesh bird feeder!

Do you have a photo of her nails? They tend to only get overgrown as they get older. You can also add something in her cage so her nails regularly get roughened to help keep them from getting too long. Eg a rough granite tile, or a terracotta plant pot base or some sterilised stones from the garden or beach. Putting a tile eg under the water bottle or food bowl, means their nails are roughened every time they go for a drink or food.