Trimming Rabbit Nails

Since pet rabbits are not able to dig and wear down their claws inside your house or apartment, their nails will invariably grow too long. Keeping your bun’s nails at an appropriate length is very important. Long nails may potentially curl into your rabbit’s foot, or they may snag on something, causing great discomfort to your pet.
A rabbit’s activities of daily life at the ranch can sharpen the nails into miniature daggers. By leaving these claws unclipped, you may find your arms fairly shredded and bloody, even when the rabbit you're holding is not panicked.

Additionally, the claws curl such that when the rabbit walks on a flat surface, the long nail pushes the toe upward, creating pressure at the far end of the toe’s walking surface. If the fur pad is not dense enough, long nails can contribute to sore hocks on front or rear paws or both.  Trimming your rabbit nail is not always an easy task to do.

Before trimming

After Trimming

You can always have a vet do it for you, but that can be costly.  So here are some helpful tips to do it at your own home or at the ranch. 

First lets learn about the basics of the rabbit nail. Each bunny nail has a quick. A quick is like a blood vein. See the diagram to the left. Cutting the quick will cause your pet to experience some pain, and he/she will bleed. So your objective is to cut just above the quick at an 45 degree angle. If you do accidentally trim the nails too short, use flour or styptic powder to stop the bleeding. If your rabbit has very dark claws, it may help to find the quick by shining a light behind the nail. Please  keep in mind that some rabbit are startled by the sound of clipping.  Here is a video of example of trimming rabbit nails.