# Nail trimming an angry hedghie. Scruffing?



## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

I've been trying to trim Squiggys nails since they're pretty long, but hes never had them trimmed before and he hates me touching his feet. I managed to get the worst nail on one of his front paws, it was so long it was curved inwards and getting into his paw pads. But to do even that I had to slightly scruff him  I absolutely hate having to do that to any animal. :? The second I even poke his feet hes a huffing ball of quills, and in his foot baths hes too busy trying to escape that I cant get him to pause even a second to try to trim. Any advice? And I imagine that like cats, scruffing doesn't hurt them, but its uncomfortable at least. I'm too afraid of getting stabbed to scruff him with my hands, so what should I do?


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## JLF1995 (Jun 22, 2011)

My hedgehog never likes it too, i cover his face with a towel to do his back nails because he hate watching it but when i do his front feet he must watch! Idk, they are weird at times ! :lol:


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

:| I've tried putting him on top of his cage so his feet fall between the bars. But he just gets up and tries walking around on the bars anyway. He's just so stubborn, and at the same time its one of his cutest qualities :lol:


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## PatHer (Jul 24, 2011)

I like to trim my hedgie's nails after a bath or foot bath. He doesn't like it either, but this is what I do: I prep some mealworms so that after the bath while I dry him, I give him one or two so he can calm down. I'm also hoping that he can relate his foot baths/ baths with mealworms that way he won't give me such a hard time cause he knows I'll be rewarding him after his bath. I put him in his snuggle sack, he walks in to burrow leaving his back feet out, so I roll the sack back till I see his feet, and gently cut away. I always give him 1 or 2 more mealworms if he's still awake, but he usually takes a nap after his bath (I'm guessing he's exhausted from trying to escape. Lol).

The key here is patience. It takes a good half hour to an hour just to get mine to cut his nails, but you have to be gentle and you have to keep trying. I'm sure mine will eventually get used it and realize the quicker he lets me do it, the quicker it's over.

My hedgie wasn't too fond of me touching his feet before, but every time I take him out to cuddle, I lightly pet his feet until he moves them. Sometimes he doesn't like it, sometimes he does, but the point is to get him used to it. I'm sure he'll come around eventually.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

I have nail issues too cause Hazel balls at any opportunity to trim nails... some things that have worked SLIGHTLY (meaning allowed me to get a nail or 2 at a time.)

-Bath with a bit deeper water and held her with my hand cutting longest under the water quickly

-Creating an island in the bath with a small upside down dish & face cloth over it...small enough that her feet are at the edges

-rolled up a fleece chunk and got it under her belly preventing her from balling up then held the fleece together at her back and lifted her up exposing her feet (squirms out fast but can usually get one)

-when she is splatted out snoozing near me on the couch with feet sticking out I have slapped a fleece over her quick and held her gently down enough to at least get one lol

- rolled her snuggle sack up to half size so her hind end sticks out and sometimes I can sneak trimming one :shock: 

It's frustrating to say the least :mrgreen:


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

Hissy-Fit-Hazel said:


> -rolled up a fleece chunk and got it under her belly preventing her from balling up then held the fleece together at her back and lifted her up exposing her feet (squirms out fast but can usually get one)


Maybe I'll try that.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

I'll try nearly anything within reason to get her nails trimmed....I have not dared to try scruffing her yet. I feel it's a last resort for me because I have to do it on my own and really trying to scruff her AND trim nails is really a 2 person job imo.


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

Yeah I'm slowly figuring that out :lol: I was able to get his worst nail by scruffing him gently using his blanket, he didnt mind that. But once I touched his foot he balled up and huffed.


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## Judi (Jul 9, 2009)

If you can really scruff them, they're not that mad.

I don't think it hurts. I think it might hurt their dignity a little bit, but their bodies, no.

Anyhow, cutting a hedgehog's nails is like cutting a toddler's nails. They may put up a real fight, but you just grab on and get it done. Then they can forgive you later  If you can get hold of a foot, don't ask your hedgie if she likes it. Just clip the nails as quick as you can. Do one foot a day if it makes you feel better, until it's done.

They're easier than bird nails, especially parakeets. Those little guys can draw blood in about ten places in about five seconds.


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

I trim Kashi's nails in the bath. That way he can't roll into a ball.

I used to be able to get maybe 2 feet per bath... but he's gotten used to me handling his feet now.

I'd say to keep working on getting him used to you touching his feet, and use the bath trick 

Also, if you move your hand towards them from where they can see (so from beside them) they huff a lot less than if you are making fast movements above their heads... I've found that that helps a lot


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

:lol: I tried the bath trick, wouldn't work since he just wiggles away and tries escaping by scaling the tub or climbing up my arms. Btw I love your signature pic of Kashi, that is just too cute <3 Even if he wont let me touch his feet, we are making monumental progress in bonding, just today he willingly climbed up my tummy to take a nap with me on the couch, I just couldn't stop my heart from fluttering  It seems like hes really starting to love me just as much as I do him. I'm trying to see if he will let me touch his feet if I give him a mealie after. So far no, hes not happy with even mealies :lol:


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

SquiggyTheHedgie said:


> :lol: I tried the bath trick, wouldn't work since he just wiggles away and tries escaping by scaling the tub or climbing up my arms. Btw I love your signature pic of Kashi, that is just too cute <3 Even if he wont let me touch his feet, we are making monumental progress in bonding, just today he willingly climbed up my tummy to take a nap with me on the couch, I just couldn't stop my heart from fluttering  It seems like hes really starting to love me just as much as I do him. I'm trying to see if he will let me touch his feet if I give him a mealie after. So far no, hes not happy with even mealies :lol:


Awww sweet sweet Squiggy ^_^
You guys will eventually get there  Kashi is still a bit huffy when I touch his feet, but I keep doing it so that he gets used to it 

Kashi tries to scale the tub too, but once you get a hold of on of his legs, he will stop... so I don't know if that would work with Squiggy too. The bath is honestly the only time I can clip his nails >_<

Thank you ^_^


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Try bathing in a low basin or rubbermaid bin that isn't so big to wiggle away far. Takes me 2-3 tries before I get a decent gentle grip on a foot...then a couple seconds to settle down and usually Hazel will stand still just long enough for a nail or 2 each try.


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

:lol: Well it appears that trimming Squiggy's nails is a two person job. I had my bf hold him with a towel on his back while I distracted him with mealies to get his paws. Only managed to clip one set on his left paw, so gonna do this every night til they're all done. :roll:


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## newfie_nurse (Apr 28, 2011)

Clipping the nails is DEFINATELY a 2 person job in my world. Sadly I only have me. But I brought Chloe to work to show her to the gang and luckily one brave soul helpped me.  
I pinned her around her belly and front end with some fleece and Courtney trimmed all of her back nails with a breeze.

But in return i have to help her cut her 100lb Boxers Nails! At this point in time I think its a fair trade :lol: Chloe is unbareable. Still havent managed to get those front claws!


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

I can usually get in a snip or two when he falls asleep on me during cuddle time. Though he usually wakes up right away and huffs and pops at me :lol: Apparently last night he had a blast pulling up every corner of his liner and tossing him blankie on his wheel :roll: Looks like I got some fixing to do.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Hmmm found a new trick (at least to me lol) this worked very well for us. I got a rolled up fleece under Hazel as she walked over it then lifted her up holding it together at her back just barely allowing her to touch....and was able to do almost all her nails. She just gently hung like that wondering what the heck! She squirmed a bit but this seems to work ok....give it a go and see how it works for you.



















Not great pics but you get the idea


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## PatHer (Jul 24, 2011)

What a GREAT idea! Seems easy enough. I'll have to try this.


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

I was doing something similar before but actually picking her up and holding in my palm but she could still ball up pretty good. It never occured to me that if I just let her hang close to a surface that she would let her legs dangle for me ( I tried the cage top and cooling rack ideas and they never worked for us) 

She did squirm free a few times but this was way less stressful for both of us


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

I brought him out last night for some cuddling since I got home from running errands late, and when I was wiping his poop boots off with a baby wipe, I noticed a few dots of what looked like blood on the sheet. I checked his poo and his liner, but it was clean. Then I got a look at his paws and it turns out that another nail had over grown inward and gone through the skin  I was so ashamed I hadnt gotten to it sooner, but hes just too wiggly. After a few attempts solo, I finally got my bf to do that trick by holding him with the blanket under his belly. I managed to get a majority of his nails, but not before he wiggled out and poked my bf a few times :lol:


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## Hissy-Fit-Hazel (Jul 15, 2011)

Yaaaay! so glad it worked for you too  It's such a pain in the butt when they won't cooperate for a few seconds.


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## lemme (Aug 25, 2011)

trimming a hedgies' nail is one heck of a challenge! :? i usually just hold him and try to grab his foot while he huffs and puffs. im used to being stabbed. after that, i give him a treat as a reward. maybe someday he'll understand "oh im being trimmed! i shud just wait for the treat calmly" haha


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

:? Well it seems that I didnt trim enough last time, so Im trying again lol. But now he knows what the clippers do so he balls up and huffs until he thinks its gone. Im out of mealies right now, so I gotta make a petstore run for more, but I'm gonna try getting them before hand. If I can just get him to hold still though >_< Its really his hind paws that are the biggest problem, and he wont let me anywhere near them. :lol: Such a feisty lil guy.


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## lehaley (Jun 25, 2011)

Felix's front nails look ok, but his back nails are pretty horrendous. I know that I need to attempt a nail trimming, but I'm absolutely dreading it! This thread gave me a few ideas, so thanks guys. 

I think I'm going to try clipping a few during his next foot bath since he can't ball up and see how that goes. I'll probably try lifting him up with a piece of fleece too, since that looks like it worked pretty well. I think the key here is going to be doing it either during or directly after bath time, since he's much less huffy then.


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

Well using fleece or a rolled up towel is a little too thick, so once he balls up I cant get to his paws. Though the solution turned out to be just using one of my bfs socks :lol: I do that sling idea and I manage to get most of his nails in one go. Though once he gets frustrated I set him down for a little while til he calms down and try again


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Nail trimming is probably 95% of hedgehog owner's LEAST favorite part about being a hedgie slave! I am an extremely patient person, but after 45 minutes of struggling with my Milly and only getting 2 or 3 nails done, I'm so exasperated I'm ready to cry. That's when I say, "Hannah, put Milly back in her cage and try again tomorrow!"

I have never tried scruffing. Milly is comfortable with me, but she is an extra fussy hog with a big attitude and if I'm doing something she doesn't like, I get stabbed over and over until I stop annoying her. Nail trimming is usually NOT one of those just-grab-a-paw-and-clip-away things, as quills can hurt quite a bit when your hedgehog balls up around your hand.

With that said, I have had the MOST luck with the burrito method. I lay a piece of fleece folded in half on a flat surface, then set Milly down so the edge of the fleece is by her tummy (so her front paws are off the fleece and the back paws are on it). Then I pick up the sides of the fleece and collect the excess at her back, and pick her up that way. Her front paws stick out just far enough that I can clip them, and if she gets fussy/wants to ball up, I tighten my hold on the fleece so she can't pull her paws back into the fleece and then I wait for her to calm down. (If you would like me to make a video of this, let me know and I can post it for you... It's hard to explain)

Also, nail scissors work a lot better for me than pet or infant nail clippers. On a good day, I can set Milly down on my computer desk, lay a piece of fleece over her front half and rest my hand on top of it, and sneak in from the sides to get her back nails. They are a bit sharper than clippers, and the fact that they are shaped like scissors makes it easier to get at nails that have started to curl a bit.

As for those teeny nails on the inside of the front feet, I have no advice. I cannot for the life of me get those clipped and there's a good chance I'll have to set up a vet appointment soon to get that done because they're curling now and it won't take long for them to start affecting her mobility! 

Good luck.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

I have so few problems with Archimedes' nails, but maybe that's just because there's two of us doing it. I hold him (frequently adjusting position to snag his little feet) and my boyfriend goes after the nails. We use cuticle trimmers too, which give a better view and more potential angles to come from, compared to normal nail clippers. I can only imagine that it might be hard to do if it were just me, so I sympathize with everyone who has difficulty. Maybe part of why I have it easy is because Archimedes has been "trained" (so to speak) since he was a baby to be desensitized to having his feet (and nose/mouth/ears/etc) touched and played with, the point of that being to make it easier if a vet needs to look at - and it makes him less squirmy about having his feet handled for nail trimming, too.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Being desensitized to having their feet touched doesn't seem to make much of a difference in lots of cases :lol: I've played with Milly's feet regularly since I brought her home... she doesn't care at all if I touch them, but she does NOT like being told what to do, or being forced to stay in a position she doesn't particularly want to be in. I could play with her feet for an hour straight, but the second she realizes I'm trying to get her in a certain position, she becomes difficult, stubborn and huffy. She's also this way during bath time. She is usually pretty okay when she's hanging out in the water, but when I try to re-position her so I can get at her other side or something, BAM. She wants nothing to do with whatever I'm trying to get her to do.

To anyone who says clipping hedgie nails is an easy task - shhhhhh. :lol: No point posting about how easy it is when really, it's a giant pain in the butt for 99% of us no matter what method we use or how patient we are.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

hanhan27 said:


> To anyone who says clipping hedgie nails is an easy task - shhhhhh. :lol: No point posting about how easy it is when really, it's a giant pain in the butt for 99% of us no matter what method we use or how patient we are.


I didn't say it's easy. I'm completely aware of how frustrating it can be, and I sympathize. :] I said that Archimedes in particular isn't too much trouble, and the reasons why I think that is - having it be a "team effort", the cuticle trimmers we use, and playing/holding his feet regularly. Even with that, I pretty much need to reposition him in my hands and get ahold of his foot again after each nail that's cut. Not "easy" by a long shot. My comment was meant to be helpful, that's all.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Moxie, Archimedes sounds simple to do. I always expect a little flailing and readjusting after each foot, or sometimes even after each nail with a well adjusted hedgehog. I hope you never have to experience a "fun to trim" hedgehog, they can be so frustrating and can make you feel like a complete failure. 

Desensitizing their feet helps, but for some hedgehogs it doesn't matter. I encourage playing with hedgehog feet daily. Touch their feet, rub their feet, and hold their feet still. The more often you do it and hopefully they will react less when you really need to do it to trim nails.

However, while desensitizing their feet helps, you will run into those that it doesn't matter. I have had hedgehogs who I can sit and rub feet. I’ve even had one that would sleep while I was doing it, however, if you try to trim their nails, and you awoke a beast inside them.

A second person works for some, for me I personally need to feel the movements of the hedgehog to ensure that I can detect when they are about to flail so that I can react accordingly

Sometimes holding the hedgehog in different positions helps. I've had some that would only work with me if they were standing up; others were fine rolled on their backs, some I press against my chest.

I've had hedgehogs who would curl up under water when they saw a nail clipper come near them. Others, if you held them against your chest and let a foot slip through your fingers worked, and yet others where I shoved their head in the crook of my arm, and tried to catch a foot as they pushed backwards, then trim. Others would flail about and no matter of "pinning" them down would work, you just had to hope they would settle for one second and be fast at the clipping. I've even had one who would let you rub her feet, her tummy, her ears, whatever, it didn't matter to her, but after trimming just a couple of nails, you weren't dodging her quills, you were dodging her teeth. 

For those that curl up quickly, I use a piece of fleece. I hold the hedgehog with a piece of fleece between them and my hand. I try to hold my hand against their stomach and when they curl up, the fleece will help reduce the “ouch” from the quills. It doesn’t work for all, but it can help. 

Burrito method can work, but that only works with a hedgehog that is uncurled in the beginning. Get a real defensive one that curls up or raises its quills and forget about it. Same goes for scruffing.

This has become a bit long winded, maybe I need to write a nail trimming article with the different approaches and personality types I’ve worked with over the years…


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm sure it'll happen eventually! I don't at all intend for Archimedes to be my only hedgehog, and I know nail clipping is the same as most things - it depends on personality. Archimedes also happens to be pretty chilly about baths, and the sound of water actually soothes him - we would take him in the bathroom and have the faucet running when he used to be in angry-quilling mode, and it helped him relax a lot. I don't expect any future hedgehogs to react the same way, though. Actually we only clip his nails after a bath, which is when he's kind of zoned out and the nails are softer. The first attempt at trimming his nails when he just came home, which was just my boyfriend trying to do it, he (the boyfriend) nicked the quick and got a reflex bite in response. We've been doing the "team" method since then, haha.

My boyfriend had a previous hedgehog that was much worse about having his nails trimmed, but fortunately didn't need them done very often. We also recently visited our breeder and while we were there some of them were getting nails trimmed - one of them was curled in a tight ball huffing the whole time and had one foot held out away from her body so it could get done.


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## silvercat (Oct 24, 2008)

I find nail clipping a bit easier if done during the day. Annabell is still half asleep. She doesn't like if but tends to just stare at me with a sad face rather than spend the energy to scrunch up. She gets plopped on her back in my lap, with my legs cradling her. I tend to manage to get 3 of the 4 feet done before she's woken up enough to start really protesting.


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