Hey, I'm new here, and this is my first post. We took my baby ferret to the vet the other day and the vet cut one of her nails using the scruffing technique. The only other time we had cut her nails we waited until she was asleep, then did them. Problem, though. I just tried now with the scruffing deal. I went to cut one of her nails and when I applied pressure, she made her little dooking noises and squirmed. I wasn't anywhere near the quick, so I wasn't cutting into that. Why did this happen? It freaked me (and her) out, so I called it quits and she's now rolling around the other room with my girlfriend. Any suggestions or help here? Also, suggesting the Ferretone technique won't do much good... she won't even try that stuff... heh

Also, I figured I'd include a picture so... this is a sleeping Buttercup. No other pictures exist at present time, but there are some on an undeveloped set of film. I'll post those when I get them.

Hi there & welcome to PT!!

Buttercup is beautiful! it sounds to me like she may have squirmed because you didn't have her scruffed quite right. try muving your hand up a little higher or down lower as each ferret is different in where the scruff is most effective.

I actully recently started a thread on this read that & see if it may help any: http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18842

One of my ferts won't touch ferret tone either BUT he will eat ferretlax willingly.

Hope this helps some... Can't wait to hear more stories about her!!

what a doll What kind of nail clippers are you using? She might have vocalized because the nail clipper edges were dull which tends to squeeze the nail putting pressure on the quick. To them it feels like you're pinching the quick, which hurts. You might need a different set of clippers. I use a nail clipper intended for babies (human). And, when using human nail clippers, always turn them to the side so they clipper edges are parallel to the side of the nail (and look at the side of the nail while you're doing it...easier to see the quick). If you do it looking at the top of the nail, you may put unnecessary pressure on the nail and quick or may cause the nail to split. On the other hand, most babies hate being scruffed and will blow a fuss everytime you do it, and will also vocalize to communicate their annoyance with the entire situatuion lol
If you want to get her to try a lickable treat such as ferretone, ferretvite, nutrical, etc...wipe a wad of it on her nose; this way she has no choice but to lick it off Now is a good time to get her used to treats like these as ferrets imprint at a very early age as to what they will and will not consider food. It will be harder to introduce these things to them when they are adults.