Bearded Dragon nail question

[Sasha]

Just wondering what to do to keep Dexter's sharp nails in check. Not sure how old he is, we got him at the beginning of December and he is now 9 inches and 36g. In his tank he has a piece of driftwood and multiple Zilla vines that he loves to climb on. We also just put ceramic tiles down but he doesn't really like them and he refuses walk on them unless I pick him up and put him on the tile. I didn't think his nails were that bad until I saw my chest this morning and have all these tiny scratches where he was laying!

[MatthewM1]

I haven't seen them very often but they sell little beardy nail clippers. Just be cautious and only trim down the tip of you trim down to far you will make them bleed. Google clipping a bearded dragons nails and you should find lots of different info

Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2

[Sasha]

I think the clippers look like the clippers we use on our cat. I'll google it. I'm just not sure if it's good to do when he's still small.

[JeffreH]

Bricks or abrasive structures in the enclosure are a good way to keep the nails filed, but I understand that it isn't always practical given a your setup to use more rigid structures.

You can use nail clippers meant for humans or small animals - Look at the bearded dragon's nail and you should see the 'quick' on the underside, closest to his extremity. The nail should be black in color (unless your beardie has clear nails) and the quick will appear to more of a fleshy/brown color. This is cakewalk to explain with pictures, but I understand it may be hard to follow in words.

Anyway - get yourself a little pile of flour or corn starch. Cut the black NAIL tip, but do not cut into the quick (the hyponychium contains living vascular tissue and will bleed if cut). If it you do nip the quick and it bleeds a little, it isn't the end of the world. Simply dip the toe into the corn starch or flour and it should stop pretty quickly. Thats what I've heard at least, never have cut the quick on mine yet *knock on wood*

In essence, you are simply trying to trim off just the tiny tip of the black nail that is sharp.

Nail on top (represented by "-), Quick on bottom of nail (represented by "."):

---------------------------
.............................

There is no benefit or harm done to the animal by trimming its toe-nails. Purely for your benefit to prevent being scratched quite as much = )

[Sasha]

Thanks for all the info Jeff. It should be easy to do when he gets a little older, we do our cats all the time. His nails aren't colored yet he's still a little guy. If I was smart I guess I would drape a towel over my shoulder for now so I don't get scratched