Front Nail Clipping Advise

[Guineapigfeet]

Does anyone have any tips of advice for clipping front feet?

I find them really tricky with my wriggly pigs and they get stressed and we (I) get stressed and BB drew blood today :-( major ouch. Back feet are a breeze, helped along by the fact that they are so far away from the teeth!

I feel the bottom line may be that we just need to handle them more but if anyone has any techniques that may help me do their front feet abit less stressfully, I'd love to hear them!

We usually have OH holding pig with their back to his stomach but his hands are quite big and the pigs are quite small and they seem to be able to retract their front feet into their bodies and I can't get to them! We tried holding them more along his arm length wise today and it worked pretty well on the back feet but front feet are still really hard to get to.

All of them were clothes tweeking too today which they don't usually do

 

[GPcrazy]

I haven't trimmed mine yet so don't speak from experience, but Squeak Dreams has a pretty good video on YouTube with different ways of trimming nails. The one is to wrap the pig in a blanket, exposing only the paw you need to trim. Maybe worth a try?

 

[Lady Kelly]

I found a guida once that was quite useful. The most useful comment I found was how to hold the pig, so I have the hand beneath the front legs but put the index finger in front of them so that it restrains a bit more neck movement and means I can see the feet more easily. Quite often with my wriggly pig I will do one foot and then give her a break and try another

 

[Anarchybmc]

I have a couple of methods, I sit them on their bums while I put my finger underneath their paws but if they wriggle around I get a blanket and let them nuzzle into that while I trim I hate that job!

 

[Guineapigfeet]

Thanks all. Will take a look at that video and maybe arm myself with a towel or something next time!

 

[Adelle]

I find less is more with regards to restraining them- i have used the same technique with both my latest additions aswell as my 2 elderly sows that are used to nail clips.. Both new additions are/where scared, jittery babies.

To clip the nails on the right, i plonk the pig on my lap facing the left hand side, get the clippers ready then put a pile of veg under their chin on my leg. Once they start tucking in happily, i gently lift their paw- holding the leg with my hand and their toe with my thumb and index finger (so feet cant be pulled back). I then turn them round to face the right hand side to clip the nails on their left.

I have never had any issues, and clipped both my scared new additions nails the day after they came home. One in particular is still very scared and shes been here for 4 months, and the technique still works well for her, whereas with my oldies they dont even need the veg pile anymore, as they know there is nothing to be afraid of.