Velvet and the Guinea Pigs’ September 2010 Update
Ok, so I have 7 guinea pigs (2 of which are my brother’s but I look after them) and a rabbit, called Velvet. They all live in their hutches inside the ‘animal shed’.
This morning I trimmed all of the guinea pig’s nails with my new nail clippers which I bought yesterday for £4 – bargain! My rabbit, Velvet, has his nails trimmed at the vets as his nails are black (so you can’t see the end of the blood vessel called the ‘quick’), quite tough and generally hard to do. Here’s the link to my article on trimming guinea nails.
Guinea pigs have 14 nails in total, 4 on each front paw and 3 on each back. So in total I trimmed 96 nails! The nail clippers I use are of the scissor style as I find these easier to use.
Before I trim any nails I always clean out the hutches first, so if a quick does start bleeding, there will be less of a chance of an infection setting in as any soiled bedding will have been removed.
Firstly I trimmed Hazel’s nails. She is one of the easiest of the guinea pigs to do as she doesn’t try to turn to look at each nail in turn (as Orchid does). Her claws on her front paws are white in colour and so the quick shows up quite easily so there is little danger of the nail being accidentally cut too deep and causing it to bleed. Her back claws however are a light brown colour so I have to get the light just right before I can see where the quick ends.
Orchid, my pink-eyed white guinea pig is quite tricky. Not because of the colour of her nails, their white and it’s very easy to see where the blood vessel ends, but because she is one of the wriggliest guinea pigs I have ever had – although Aurea is the wriggliest pig of all. I have to be really careful when doing her nails as it’s so easy to catch the quick when she is constantly moving to try to look at each nail as I cut it. Unfortunately, with one of her nails, on her left back foot, the end of the quick was caught and it bled for a couple of seconds. I monitored it carefully, and it is now fine. I will continue to keep an eye on it for the next couple of days or so.
Next I trimmed Pixie’s claws. She kept fidgeting quite a lot at first but soon got used to it. Like Hazel, who is her twin, half her nails are white, and half are darker in colour; this is because she is of the dutch colouring. With one of her nails, one of the black ones, I trimmed it about half a millimeter too far in, and a little blood seeped out. Luckily it wasn’t a very bad cut as there were just a few specs of blood. Black nails are always the trickiest as in some cases it is impossible to know where the quick ends.
After trimming Pixie’s I went to open Charcoal and Star’s hutch, and Star came running up to the front so I chose to do hers next. Star really dislikes her nails being cut and actually bit me twice! Luckily not very hard. Again her nails are hard to do as they are all very dark in colour. She also fidgets a lot so even if I do align up the nails and the clippers right, it’s hard to not catch the end of the blood vessel as she is constantly moving.
Star is the guinea pig on the left, and her sister Charcoal is on the right.
Aurea is the official wriggly pig – or at least she was today. Because she has long, spiky hair it makes it even harder to see her claws, especially as she won’t stay still! Unfortunately I did catch one of the claws slightly too deep, but it is fine now. Aurea’s claws vary quite dramatically in colour. One paw had black claws, one has white, one has brown, and the last one has two that are white and two that are black.
The last guinea pig whose claws I trimmed was Gerty’s. She is a very quiet and shy piggy and it is very easy to do her claws, but because she is long haired, (although not spiky like Aurea is) it can be quite hard to see her claws. Also her nails are dark in colour too, but like Charcoal she is easy to do.
So all in all, out of 98 claws, only 4 of them ended up being cut slightly deeper than I intended.
Whilst I was trimming all the claws, my rabbit Velvet, was trying to get my attention by ripping up his newspaper under his bedding into shreds and making a lot of noise. Once I’d finished with the piggies, I played with Velvet and let him out for a run whilst I cleaned out his hutch too.
So now all my guinea pigs are in their freshly cleaned out hutches, with their nails shorter and more comfortable for them. Oh and Velvet’s in a nice clean hutch too!
September 26, 2010
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Maddia (Admin) · 
4 Comments
Tags: animal shed, guinea pigs, madeline dyer, nail trimming, rabbits, velvet and the guinea pigs september 2010 update · Posted in: My Pet Updates
4 Responses
I just signed up to your blogs rss feed. Will you post more on your guinea pigs and rabbit soon?
Yes, every month I try to do an update on my guinea pigs and my rabbit… Soon I will be changing it to an update about all my animals so I can include the farm animals and my giant african land snails too!
hi just wonderin how or wheres the best place to get a panda liked guinee pig?? black and white? from middlesbrough, hows the best way to go back it can i order one in?
Hi, you can buy guinea pigs from most pet shops and garden centres and even breeders so you’ll most likely to have to look around your area.
By ‘panda’ I assume you mean a black and white guinea pig? This type of guinea pig is called a ‘Dutch Guinea Pig’ and can be white and any other colour, (not just black).
Some breeders may specialise in different colours of pig so you may be able to ‘order’ one, although remember they are not like toys that you can order in and ignore after you’re bored.
If you see a guinea pig you like you should watch it in its surroundings and see what type of personality it has, e.g if it’s shy or lively. You should also get more than one piggy as guinea pigs are social animals and don’t like being on their own.
Make sure you buy a healthy guinea pig too, one who is intersted in you, has bright eyes, and no runny nose, ears or eyes. Don’t buy a sick guinea pig because you feel sorry for it.
Hopefully this has helped you :) Any more questions feel free to ask!