Review: PediPaws Pet Nail Trimmer

I got a PediPaws pet nail trimmer to review recently and after seeing the commercials a while back I was pretty excited to try it out! I really think the method is a great alternative to the standard guillotine nail clippers we use.

The PediPaw is a rotary nail grinder with a sandpaper disk enclosed within a housing that keeps the nail dust from flying everywhere. There’s a hole in the housing where you put your pet’s nail.

The instructions suggest several methods to get your pet used to the PediPaws before using it on them (it does make a whirring sound), but we found that ours seemed to be okay with it after just a minute of being around it.

We tried it on Honey first, who has several black nails that are hard to clip because we can’t see the quick. She was a bit wary at first but she’s a pretty trusting dog and relaxed quickly. It had been several weeks since we’d last clipped the dogs nails, though, and while they weren’t long they were in need of a trim, and it seemed to take a while with the PediPaws (you’re not supposed to leave it on the claw for longer than five seconds due to heat from the friction).

My husband ended up getting the clippers out anyway to get the nails started, and then used the PediPaws to file away the rough edges. We did the same with Chip who had no issues with it, and we’ve found that after the initial clipping to get the nails down the PediPaws has been great for maintenance, just as long as the nails don’t get too long between sessions because it will take a while to get them down.

There was also a bit of a learning curve to get used to what direction you’re supposed to hold the claw and move the unit at the same time, since you don’t want the claw just skipping around on the rotating disk.

The biggest complaint I’ve seen about the rotary nail trimmers has been battery life, but so far the two C batteries (not included) have held up well after a couple of uses. The unit also came with three replacement sanding disks though we’re still using the first one that came on it and could probably get a couple more uses out of it.

Though the orange housing contains the nail dust there is a slight smell, as you’d expect. It also impedes your view when trying to maneuver the unit around the claw but I don’t see any way around that.

Overall I would recommend it if you’ve got issues trimming your own pets’ nails. I would suggest using it pretty much for maintenance, though, and not for going from long to trimmed nails, otherwise you’ll be at it for a while.

The PediPaws retails for about $20 and can be found at Amazon or purchased directly from the PediPaws website (warning: sound).