Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tegus nails are very sharp now and every time i try to handle him i usually get torn up and scratches all over my arms. how do you guys go about cutting the tegus nails. i dont want to hurt it.

that all really depends on your tegu. Mine sits still and just lets me trim his nails with a pair of finger nail clippers. Other people its a two person job where the wrap up the tegu in a towl. One person holds the tegu like this and the other person finds a foot and trims the nails. really there is no easy way to trim a tegus nails.
-----
Leo Gex
1.0 Giants
0.1 Red strip/hypo
1.0 Patternless
0.2 Normals
Others:
1.0 Giant plated lizard
1.0 Blue Tegu
1.1 dogs
2:0 chinchillas

is there a certain way to do it...about how much should be trimed off?

there is a blood vien that runs inside the nail about 3/4 the way down. Just trimming the tips back helps, doing it little by little allows for this blood vien to retreat without you clipping it. Its like clipping cat claws or dog nails. If you do cut to far it might bleed a bit but just tip the nail in while flour and it will act to stop the bleeding.

I use finger nail trimmers designed for human babies--they are very tiny. I just trim the very tips off the nails of my young or small tegus. My adult tegu wears down her own nails. This works for my beardies and uros as well. If you look at the nail, you can see the curve and the thickest part has the vein. Then there is a thin part at the end of the curve. Trim the end of the thin part.

i have a good way!!!i put my lg niles in a snake bag,hold it up and trim the tips that stick out of the bag.i have a white fine mesh type bag that is great,you can somewhat see the feet and animal in the bag.
-----
ball pythons
borneo ST,black,& red blood pythons
garter snake morphs easterns/checkereds/floridas/redsides
w.hognose
a few toads
1.1 super kids Memfis Lance and Linda May(co-dom)