Trimming Your Rabbit's Nails
The Trimmers
A trip to your local pet store will reveal a large variety of nail clippers. While generally not available in the small animal section, the cat section is often a good place to start, and the dog section may be worth investigating as well. You will likely see guillotine-style trimmers, scissor-style trimmers, and others, like those shown here, that look somewhat like a spring-loaded wire cutter. Those of us who have trimmed the nails of countless MCRS fosters seem to fairly universally prefer the latter. The guillotine-style can be more awkward to use and frequently make it more difficult to actually see the nail. The small scissor-style are harder to get good leverage with, and fingers can easily get stuck in the small handles at the least opportune times!
The Hold
If you talk to a variety of rabbit owners, you may find they all use a different hold when trimming their rabbit's nails. Many like the "bunny burrito" (wrapping bunny up in a towel and pulling one leg out at a time for trimming). It's important to find what is most comfortable for you and your rabbit, but here is one method that has worked very reliably for us. Note: If you are new to trimming your rabbit's nails, it can be very helpful to have two people - one to hold the bunny, and one to trim nails. As hard as it may be to believe if you are new to the process, you will likely be able to accomplish the task on your own once you and your rabbit are more comfortable.
Pick your rabbit up and put him on his back (see Rabbit Handling).
Let your left arm slide out slowly so that rabbit slides gently down onto your lap. When his back is resting on your lap, slide your left elbow out far enough that the rabbit’s head falls into the space between your arm and your ribs. This can be done kneeling, but is much easier if you are seated so that you have a lap.
Make sure that your left hand continues to support the rabbit’s back/hips during this maneuver and maintain the firm but gentle pressure on his ribs. Once you have the rabbit in the correct position, slide your elbow back in so that you are gently holding the rabbit’s head against your body but be sure that you can still see his nose and that his nostrils are not pressed closed.
From this hold, you should be able to take your left hand out from under the rabbit’s hips and hold either back foot to trim toenails. Once both you and the rabbit are comfortable and secure with each other, you will also be able to remove your right hand so that you can use it to hold the trimmers.
The Cut
Much like human fingernails, rabbit’s nails have a pink "quick" that runs down the middle of the nail that should not be cut. Trim just past the end of the quick. The amount of nail trimmed off will vary based on how long it has been since you last trimmed your rabbit’s nails.
Tips for dark nails
If your rabbit has dark nails, you may not be able to see the quick. Sometimes, you can sit in front of a bright light or have a helper hold a flashlight to allow you to see the quick.
If that does not work or is not possible, you can simply shave thin slices off the end of the nail. A cross-section of a nail that can still be trimmed will look like the illustration at right.
The lighter section on the bottom is "dead" and indicates you are still far from the quick. When you get closer to the quick, the hard dark part of the nail and the white, flaky part of the nail will be about even as shown at right. We recommend to stop trimming when you see this, even though there is still some room before you would actually hit the quick.
If the dark section is greater than the light section, definitely do not cut again.
