Dealing with the fearsome bite of Lucy the hamster | Animal Magic

We had been warned that Lucy was not especially friendly. She’s a pet who prefers her own company.

But unfortunately her claws were becoming so long that there was a risk she would come to harm if they got caught in something, so action was required.

I felt confident that I could hold her steady with my left hand, whilst using my right hand to manage the claw clippers. But I needed a volunteer to steady her tiny paws just enough to make sure it was only the claws that I trimmed.

Lucy was a perfect lady initially. But like any Syrian hamster, her incisors are sharp enough to cut through wood.

I explained to her owner that any hamster is allowed to choose not to cooperate. So, to keep everything calm I was going to pick her up by her scruff, just like her mother would have done when she was a newborn.

Lucy would then usually empty her cheek pouches of any food that she had recently saved in there. I wanted her owner to know that it might look to them like she was vomiting. She would also probably toilet herself, and her eyes might seem to pop out of their sockets.

I reassured her owner that her eyes would be fine, and immediately return to their normal position once I put her down.

So, with the stage set, we began.

I picked her up in my left hand, and with a colleague clipped the first three claws very carefully. But then there was a bit of wriggling, and the next thing I knew there were large drops of blood on the table.

I thought that I had harmed Lucy.

Instead my colleague calmly reported that Lucy had actually bitten her. Unfortunately she had ripped her thumb away, causing a long deep wound, which was bleeding profusely.

Needless to say, we all wore gardening gloves to complete the task.

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