Someone donated a set of dog clippers to us! They’re used, but the previous owner clearly took great care of them — they’re really clean. I’m going to use them to trim the long-haired Angora rabbits we’re looking after.
Clipper challenge: the rabbit
This rabbit is one we were fostering at home while looking for a new family, and we asked anyone interested in adopting to get in touch.
First I clicked on the attachment — 13 millimeters — and the clippers have a two-step setting. Let’s go! Oh, the sound is scary. And… I can’t cut much hair at all. The fur is so fluffy that it just slips away from the blades. Some of you said to go against the direction the hair grows. Is that right? It seems so. It was my first time using clippers, so it was all trial and error. It was cutting, but I honestly wasn’t sure what the right way was. It felt more right than before, at least.
My customer was not happy. “I hate this! I’m losing my fur!” Please don’t push me with your nose. Then it was back to slow, steady work.
Next customer: a guinea pig
Next I tried a guinea pig. Oh, I can do the guinea pig much better! There were complaints, though. What’s so bad about it? Don’t you hate hairballs? All done — nice and neat, and very, very angry.
Why we trim them
When rabbits and guinea pigs groom themselves, they swallow a lot of hair. That can lead to hairball problems, and in the worst case the hair blocks their intestines, which can easily kill them. So we humans help them with their grooming as much as we can. Dogs and cats are generally fine, but these animals are small.
Usually I trim their fur by hand with scissors, but since we have clippers now, I took on the clipper challenge and evened it out to about 1.5 centimeters. Looking good, sir! I think we can leave it alone for quite a long time now. The customer himself, however, is furious.
We had lots of other animals like this one, and I planned to bring them in one by one to introduce them. Anyone interested was asked to contact us.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii. See you next time!