rabbit health care

Question
hi there hoping you can help please,



i have 2 young rabbits (lops) and wondering how often i should get the claws cut and is it best to take them to a vet for them to be cut.

both rabbits are great,one more friendly than the other but when they are being held they jump out our arms when they want to and there claws are really sharp.is there anything we can do so the claws can be kept trimmed like something we can put in there cage.please help thanks!!



all the best.  

Answer
Hi Robin,

If you have never trimmed a rabbit's nails, I would suggest going to your vet and allow them to show you how to do it.  Clipping the nails themselves are usually pretty easy.  Just like with any other animal, clip to just forward of the quick.  The quick is the red vein running in the center of the nail.  It is easy to see with light colored nails...a little more difficult to do with dark nails.  With dark nails, use a bright miniature flash light, known as a pen light, to shine behind the nail and you can see the vein.  The real problem in clipping their nails is preventing them from kicking their back legs unoppossed.  The muscles in their hind legs are so strong that they can kick their back legs with such force that they basically break their backs and are paralyzed.  We have seen this all too often.  We can "trance" our buns and lie them on their backs cradled in our arms.  Most suggest a "bunny burrito" which is nothing more than wrapping the rabbit in a large towel to control the kicking.  This will prevent unopposed kicking and the resulting spinal trauma.  I would suggest you have either a rabbit savvy vet or a breeder in your area to train you and be with you the first couple of times you trim the nails.  Rabbit nails grow at different rates depending on the breed of rabbit and what type of surface it lives on.  We generally clip all our bun's nails about once a month.  The idea is to keep them as short as possible since they don't have to burrow like they would in the wild.  I don't know of anything you can really put in the cage to help....not that wouldn't cause additional issues anyway.  In the wild, hopping on the dirt and the burrowing they do keeps their nails down....but that is almost impossible to recreate in a domestic envirionment.  Something you can do to help your bun is to offer a very special treat that they really like...but the only get it after a nail trim.  They will learn.

Randy