Nail Trimming for Iguanids and Chelonians

Keeping the nails of your iguana or turtle trimmed is very important since these animals have very sharp nails. No matter how clean you keep you enclosure it is always possible that your iguana will come into contact with some fecal matter since nobody is home 24 hours a day. By walking in its fecal matter your iguana will pick up bacteria from this fecal matter and be able to inoculate you with it while you are holding it. A simple method for avoiding this is to trim its nails. This may be done with a pair of ordinary nail trimmers or a pair of cat nail trimmers. Simply trim ONLY the very tip of the nail being sure to avoid the vein that runs through the nail. You may do this by looking under the bottom of the nail for the hollow tip and simply cut that portion of nail. In the event that you do accidentally cut through the vein and your iguana starts to bleed, DO NOT PANIC. No animal has ever bled to death as a result of loss of blood from a toe nail, despite what you may have heard. The bleeding may be stopped by using a commercially sold blood stopping powder for dogs or cats, you may also use flour or talcum powder. The best method for stopping the bleeding is to use a silver nitrate stick on it. These are usually only available from your veterinarian and if they do not use them they may be willing to order them for you.

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