A degu will not sit still, so plan around that
A degu is a busy, social rodent who investigates everything, including your scissors, and trimming his nails safely means designing the session around movement rather than demanding stillness. His nails are small, grow into fine points, and sit on quick feet that he pulls back reflexively. Work with a helper, in a familiar room, at a time of day when your degu is naturally calmer, and treat completing two feet in a relaxed session as success. Everything you need should be laid out first, because a degu left mid-session in a carrier while you fetch scissors returns to full alertness and the negotiation starts again.
Holding a degu, and the tail you never grab
Your helper should cup the degu in both hands against their body or let him sit on a towel on their lap, supporting his whole weight while you steady one foot at a time. A degu's tail is a hard rule in handling: it can shed its skin if grabbed, a defence against predators that leaves a painful injury, so the tail is never a handle, an anchor, or a way to stop him walking off. If the degu dives for a sleeve or a pocket, let him settle there and work on the foot he leaves accessible.
Cutting degu nails with a quick close to the tip
Use small, sharp pet nail scissors and strong light, and take only the transparent or pale tip of each degu nail, stopping well short of the darker, thicker base where the quick runs. On a degu whose nails have overgrown and curved, shorten them gradually across two sessions a short interval apart, because the quick recedes as the nail shortens and a single aggressive cut on a long nail is the one most likely to bleed.
When a degu nail catches the quick
If a degu nail bleeds, press a clean cloth gently against the tip and keep him held quietly until it stops, then return him to his enclosure to recover with his companions rather than pressing on with the remaining feet. Watch the foot over the following day for swelling, limping, or the degu chewing at the toe, and contact a vet if any of those appear or if the nail has torn rather than cut cleanly.
Wear and checking between degu trims
Degus dig, climb, and run extensively, and a degu's nails wear meaningfully on rough surfaces provided for that purpose, such as textured tiles, wooden branches, and digging boxes with suitable material. Check length during normal handling by feeling whether the tips feel sharp and hooked and by watching for nails snagging as he climbs onto your hand. Social grooming within a degu group does not shorten nails, so a colony needs every member checked individually, including the shy degu who is handled least and whose nails are usually the longest.
Splitting the degu job between two people
A degu nail session is a genuine two-person task, one pair of hands for a wriggling animal and one for precise cutting, and it goes best when those roles are agreed before anyone opens the cage. Swap roles between degus in a group so both people learn to hold and to trim, and note any individual who needed the session split across days. That shared record prevents a second attempt on a degu who was already finished, which is an easy mistake in a multi-degu household. In KinsLe, Care Teams lets you assign the holder and trimmer for each degu and mark the nail session complete with a timestamp once his feet are done.