Come discover hairless guinea pigs of Windham, NH!
Nail trimming is an important part of taking care of your new friend. I like to use a regular pair of human nail clippers for this. There are many different kinds of clippers on the market. You should pick the one that you are most comfortable with. It is always wise to have some Quick stop or fresh clean corn starch on hand. You should consult your veterinarian if you have any questions.
Try to stay relaxed. You do not have to trim all the nails at once. Doing one paw at a time over several days will still get the job done. It is easiest as a 2 person job; one person to hold the ferret the other does the trimming. For proper technique on how to hold and scruff a ferret please ask your veterinarian.
Have your helper scruff your ferret with one hand and support its lower body with the other. Then you can take and look at the first nail. The nail coming out of the paw will have a red vein or quick in the middle of it. The tip of the nail will be white. You may have to look carefully to find the quick. Once you see the quick follow it until the nail turns completely white. The completely white tip is what you will be trimming. It is important to remember to never cut the quick. The quick will bleed and hurt your ferret if it is cut. When you are ready to make your cut leave about 1/16-1/4 of nail from the end of the quick to your cut line. If you are concerned with hitting the quick you can always trim father down.
Holding the nail still proceed to trim. If everything has gone well proceed to repeat this process with the rest of the nails. Your ferret may get restless after a short while. Let them play and finish the job later.
You can also trim the nails by your self, you will need nutrical, ferrovite or other simaler product for this. Place a 1” strip of the nutrical on the ferrets stomach. While they are distracted licking it off, start clipping their nails. You will probably not be able to trim them all. Just remember you can always finish the job tomorrow.
Important Note:
If you cut the quick remember to remain calm. There will appear to be a lot of blood. This is nothing to panic about. Open the bottle of quick stop or corn starch and take a pinch of it press it onto the end of the nail and hold it there. The bleeding should shop. If the bleeding continues for more than a couple of minutes call your veterinarian immediately.
Remember if you find this too difficult to do your self your veterinarian will be happy to to it for you.