# Help Trimming Rat's Nails



## Trenix (Aug 30, 2013)

My rat's nails are becoming unbearable to the point that it's hard to even play with them anymore or even have them on my shoulders. Nail clippers and files are out of question, I tried small animal clippers, human clippers, and several types of files. Even with two people and with the most sociable rat, I can barely trim/cut one nail within an hour and I have three more rats to go. They also rip me and my fiancé apart just trying to get them to hold still. Food doesn’t keep them still nor does trying to clip their nails while they’re half awake. To hold them down any tighter will cause them an injury so any sort of filing or clipping is literally impossible for my rats.

Anyway now I’m trying to find the best and most natural way for my rat’s to trim down their nails. I’ve heard that chinchilla lava ledges are supposed to help, but looking through reviews I’ve read that they smell bad, aren’t very effective in nail trimming, can be chewed, and are very expensive. Another idea is using a brick, but I want something that’s way thinner. So basically what I’m looking for is some sort of flat surface that is rough enough to trim my rat’s nails while they go about playing, eating, and drinking. Something like the size and shape of a chinchilla cooling stone.

Is there such a thing? Any tips?


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## kjgannon09 (Oct 16, 2013)

There is a type of sandpaper or grit paper that you can buy for birds that is supposed to help file their nails. They also have sand perches for birds that I buy for my rats because they love to climb on them and they also gradually file their nails. They can be kind of pricy, but they do last a very long time.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

I like bricks for this purpose.


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## Trenix (Aug 30, 2013)

Is there anything that can be bought at home depot or Loews? Something like a tile made out of cement or something similar to it? I don’t like the idea of using paper, but rather something like a stone. Otherwise I guess I have no other choice but to use a brick.


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## ahrat (Aug 12, 2013)

Bricks are what I used for my first girls, and what I use for my boys now. I blop it down in front of their food bowl, which attaches to the cage, and make it so they have to get up on the brick to get the food, that way I know they're getting on it.


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## MamaPickles (Dec 12, 2013)

Do they pee on the brick? We had our first nail clipping experience last night and while it took me nearly 45 minutes for all four boys...I get the feeling they'll get used to it. If you use a brick, do you then never have to trim their nails? 


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## ahrat (Aug 12, 2013)

My boys pee only on their puppy pad really. Occasionally they'll pee on the brick, but it can be washed just like a pee rock.


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## MamaPickles (Dec 12, 2013)

Wait....puppy pad?! Does that work?! 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Funny, we had the opposite experience with Fuzzy Rat, we had her outdoors so much her nails wore down and as she got older they barely grew so she would fall off our shoulders. I'm over 6 feet tall and I'm afraid I have to admit she got pretty good at bouncing.... 

Our current girls have terribly sharp and long nails, but they are pretty good at not tearing up flesh anymore and for now I suppose I prefer the nails to dropping them all over the place


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## MamaPickles (Dec 12, 2013)

ahrat said:


> My boys pee only on their puppy pad really. Occasionally they'll pee on the brick, but it can be washed just like a pee rock.


 I repeat...puppy pad?! DO share! Do you use it in conjunction with fleece?!


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## ahrat (Aug 12, 2013)

I don't use fleece for other than making hammocks, or if it gets cold for a little extra something for them to curl up on/in. I have an All-Living Things Luxury Rat cage, and I put a puppy pad on the very bottom, use 3-4 nice pee rocks on it to hold it down, and then that's really the only place they'll pee! Occasionally a dribble near their food dish, and sometimes, being lazy boys, one puddle randomly somewhere, but for the most part, they really like to pee on their rocks onto the puppy pad. It really helps with odor too. I never thought my boys were smelly by any means. I knew their pee had a bit of an odor, but once I started using puppy pads, there is honestly almost no odor. I also use a litter pan for their poops, and honestly, they're worse at that than peeing on the puppy pad. I don't really mind if they pee and poop on the puppy pad, because it's so easy to just fold up in the bottom and throw out.


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## MamaPickles (Dec 12, 2013)

Interesting!! I could easily make the bottom of ours a "litter level". We have a litter box and a pee rock on top of it. One or two of them uses the litter box and the other two totally don't. Peeing, however seems to be really happening a LOT in their "bedroom". I think I might try both rearranging as well as a puppy pad


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## ahrat (Aug 12, 2013)

They're great. I keep them in there for like almost a week if I can. If there seems to be a lot of poop, I just shake it out, and smell it, but usually it lasts for a while. I got a pack of like... 5 maybe a month ago, and I still have one left, and I just put a new one in! I paid probably maybe 7 dollars for them? But that was at a local pet shop. You can get them at a dollar tree for a dollar.


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