Care of Guinea Pigs - Caring For Your Guinea Pigs Nails

Care of guinea pigs is fairly straightforward once you know what to do. The nails are an important part of guinea pig care.

Nails
Guinea pig nails often require trimming. If you neglect to trim their nails they will get too long and your guinea pig will experience pain from them.

Naturally
A good practice to cultivate is to provide items which will help to keep your guinea pigs nails down naturally. This can be done by placing rough items into his guinea pig run. Things like bricks and rocks are ideal. As bricks are the cheapest solution and very easily available they are advisable to use. You must make sure the bricks do not have holes in them as this can harm the guinea pig. He may get stuck in one!

The Blood Vessels
Like all nails cavy nails have blood vessels running below them. Some guinea pigs have clear nails so this area is easily spotted. This area is the pink part that runs from the toe to the bone. There are some guinea pigs whose vessels are difficult to see. This is generally the case with black colored guinea pigs.
For guinea pigs with clear nails you just cut down to the pink area.

Black Guinea Pigs
If you own a black guinea pig with difficult to see vessels you may cut the nails a touch longer than normal. Many owners of these colored pets prefer to cut the nails a lot more often and only a little at a time. It is possible to cut these nails short but it does require a certain finesse.

Accidental Bleeding
When you accidentally do cut into your pet pig's vessels by trimming the nails to short it is important to stop the blood flowing first. Products are available from pet stores. One good product is known as "Quick Stop". This usually stops the bleeding very quickly. If you have no such product on hand you can use iodine as well.

Two People Nail Trimming
As a cavy pet will usually move about a lot whilst you try to trim his nails here are some tips to help. First of all if there are two of you it makes the job a lot easier. If you do have someone else there, get one person to put the guinea pig in a towel or cloth. Arrange the cloth so just the feet are sticking out and accessible. This person holds the guinea pig firmly while you cut the guinea pig's nails.

Solo Nail Trimming
If you do find yourself needing to do this job by yourself this is a good tip to follow. Get a tennis racket and place your pet piglet onto the wide end. Gently arrange the animal so that its nails are poking out from the strings of the tennis racket. Place a towel or cloth over the animal's head and it will feel safer and not move around so much.