Cutting Nails

I the wild us guinea pigs would keep our nails short by walking on hard surfaces, while this would still be the ideal way to keep nails short the modern lifestyle doesnt always allow it.

We have to trust the humans (eeeek) to cut them down for us.

Mummy says she is glad my nails are clear as dark nails scare her.

What mummy does is she sits me on her lap and distracts me with romaine so that I am not watching what she is doing, then she carefully cuts a little bit of each nail, we do this little and often.

With clear nails the humans can see where the quick ends (this looks like a dark pink line in middle of nail) if a human cuts the quick it hurts and we bleed (this means we can guilt trip them for ages heehee)

If your quick is cut the humans can use a styptic pencil or dip the toe in cornstarch or flour to stop the bleeding, dont worry its not that serious and you get lots of sympathy food.

With dark nails your human should only cut a little bit of the ends each time as its not obvious where the quick is.

Some humans put a brick under the water bottle so the piggy wears the nails down on the brick, mummy says she cant do that as I am so silly when I popcorn I would probably bash my head on it.

Mummy's top tip is, you dont have to do all the nails at once, if I am too restless or agressive she will stop with the ones she has done and come back to the others another day, sorted.

If your human trims your nails little and often you shouldnt have problems with them curling, although the older you get the more they tend to harden and curl grrrrrrrrrrrr.

If your human is afraid to cut your nails lots of vets will do it for them for a cost.