nail cutting without burrito?

[Diamond]

I recently tried to burrito Lily to trim her nails, and I don’t think it was a good experience for either of us.  I mostly freaked out because I wasn’t sure where her legs were in the bundle and I was afraid I’d pull one at a weird angle and break it.  I had watched some burrito videos on youtube, but they were pretty inconsistent.

So, does anyone have a relatively low-stress way to cut a rabbit’s nails without the burrito?

[Beka27]

Are you able to just hold her upright? My rabbit is smaller (about 4 pounds) and I can hold her upright with one arm. I hold her under her arms with my left hand and snug her bottom into my left side with my left elbow so her legs aren’t dangling loose and I clip every nail I can with my right hand. I can do all 8 toes, all 4 front right nails (not including right dewclaw), and 2-3 front left nails and left dewclaw. I then switch her to my right arm and with my left hand clip the right dewclaw, and the remaining front left nails.

If you’re not comfortable doing this by yourself, can someone hold her for you while you clip or vice versa?

[Zombie-Sue]

You could try setting her in your lap and just covering her eyes with a washcloth while you gently pull her legs out to clip the nails.

If that doesn’t work, you could try trancing her, flipping her on her back. I don’t know how big she is, but my rabbit I quickly but gently kind of flip him into the elbow of my arm, then put him between my thighs. There are videos of this on youtube, also.

If you’re still not having luck, go to the vet or a shelter and ask if they can show you. I know it’s intimidating at first, and rabbits are fragile, but my relationship with my rabbit improved ten times when I stopped treating him like he’s made out of glass. As long as you use common sense, you’re probably not being as rough as you think. One way I learned how to better handle him was by watching the vet.

[Elrohwen]

I do one of my rabbits like Beka, but with a partner (much easier to have someone else hold the rabbit while you clip). For my female, I put her on the counter and cover her eyes and she’s mostly calm.

[rayray]

I usually have to use a partner to help. Ziggy will NOT tolerate being held with one arm/hand. So clipping by myself is nearly impossible without some blood loss from both of us.
To be extra difficult, he won’t let anyone, besides me, hold him full stop; so I’m usually the one doing the holdling. I just guide my assistant on where to cut.

[Diamond]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Thank you all very much for the suggestions. Lily’s a 2.5 pound dwarf, so that’ll definitely make it easier, but she’s also really fidgitty. I’ll try just covering her eyes, and if that fails, I could probably find someone to hold her for me.

[rayray]

Best of luck to you!! Another suggestion I can make (as I started doing this myself) is holding/touching Lily’s feet every day. It’s been a week and Ziggy now lets me hold the foot so at least he’s getting more accostomed to being handled in that way. Last night I was able to cut 2 nails, but I think I need sharper clippers.

[DaisyBunz]

I think burrito-ing is really difficult to do. My Flemish Giant mix is impossible to burrito or hold while clipping nails. I take a few raisins and place it in front of her, or I buy special bun-salad bowls and keep them on hand(I only buy them from this website). As she gorges on the ‘treats’ I just pick up one front paw and quickly clip nails. My oldest sits on the other side of her body so she won’t escape and gently strokes her while I clip away, and before we know it, we are done.

It’s a good idea to make ‘grooming time’ treat time! If you do it discreetly she’ll barely notice the clipping and just enjoy the food. A hard nail file(not the cheap foam ones) is good as well. These are less difficult to use and there is no chance of you cutting the quick.
I try to avoid the nails getting too long all together. Wild rabbits have filed nails because they walk on hard ground and dig a lot, but pet rabbits don’t. Flat cat scratchers for claw sharpening with corrugated cardboard for the scratching part are good to put in your rabbits cage(drape a towel or blanket over it to encourage digging at it). I also have several cinder blocks by the levels in my NIC cages. The bunnies will hop onto the cinder blocks to get onto a level and they will rub the nails on it as the do so. It’s also good to put one under the water bottle for the bunny to stand on it and the nails with rub against it.
Those really help for me, they might help with your bun, too.

[Beka27]

Another tip is to remove the rabbit from her space entirely so she is less comfortable. Having her stressed by being in a strange place can help make them more complacent (this is why lots of buns, even feisty ones, can be handled at the vet with no problem, they’re out of “their space”).

I bring my rabbit into the bathroom for nail clipping and that’s the only time she’s in there. It’s very quick, I can trim all of her nails in less than 5 minutes, so she isn’t stressed for that long.

[Boing]

My bunny is big, and someone here once posted that the ‘burrito response’ is due to a prey response, so I’ve never tried it. I close the door to his pen, and do one paw at a time. I leave him on the ground, gently and firmly hold him in place, and do a paw, In between paws he gets craisins, is petted and can hop over to my cat for consolation. It does prolong things, but he is happier than when I tried to do things really quickly to get it over with.

[Zombie-Sue]

I’ve never heard of a “burrito response”. Are you sure you’re not thinking of trancing? There aren’t very many towel-shaped predators that will fully envelop their pray lol.

[DaisyBunz]

Trancing is hard with large rabbits like my Flemish Giant, but works with my mini lop mix. I just hold her so her tummy is resting on my chest, sit cross legged, and lay her down on my knees slowly. Is this considered trancing, cuz it works. Or is trancing something else?

[Fiona Hopsalot]

I cut Fiona’s nails the first day I had her (brave, huh?) with putting her on her back between my legs. She was extremely agreeable and the trimming was uneventful. I’m wondering if it isn’t due to everything being *new* to her.

She doesn’t mind that position or being held in the crook of my arm like a baby, but I am not so sure she’ll be that complacent at the next trimming but crossing fingers. I was looking at the burrito method as well and found several ways to do so.

[Zombie-Sue]

Posted By DaisyBunz on 01/12/2014 06:26 PM

Trancing is hard with large rabbits like my Flemish Giant, but works with my mini lop mix. I just hold her so her tummy is resting on my chest, sit cross legged, and lay her down on my knees slowly. Is this considered trancing, cuz it works. Or is trancing something else?

Yes, that’s trancing. Some people think it’s cruel but it’s a pretty common thing to do.

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