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akane

akane

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I tried out my tattoo kit on the meat rabbits tonight and came up with some questions. How hard do you need to push the ink in to a tattoo? I was just painting it on with a brush. How soon can you wipe the extra ink off if not covering the tattoo with anything? I want to throw them out in the colony but I want to make sure the tattoos are legible first.
 
Use a q-tip and a decent to rub the ink on firmly and then rub vaseline on the whole tattoo. Then you can wipe off the excess and you're done.
 
Trim the brush short, maybe 3/8" long, the shorter bristle make them stiffer, I have found that a poke and swirl motion seems to work the best for me, Better to do a really good 'crimp' and heavy ink job than do too little and have a illegible half faded tat.
 
When I used the clamp I would smear tattoo ink right on the little pins so it was guaranteed to go in the ears then I would smear some in the ears with my fingers and massage it in some more. And Prep H over top helps it heal up nicely.
 
When I tattoo my rabbits [at weaning]
I will sometimes clean the ear with an Alcohol wipe.
when it is dry I clamp quite hardly, I remove the
self release plier and rub the ink in with an acid brush.
I allow the rabbit to clean itself, I don't wipe the ear.
It has worked for me for all these years, if it ain't broke,
don't fix it!
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
I dont wipe the ear either.I let the ink dry a few minutes because the rabbits will lick each others ears.
 
Did a second batch and it didn't go as well. They were a little less used to being handled. They all screamed and threw a fit. My wrists hurt. They got all torn up holding flailing rabbits. I noticed on the previous tattoos even where the ink was gone it was a little hard to read because of the hair growing in the ear. I was told to avoid the fringe because of that but the hair goes a fair distance in to their ear. I don't think even if I lined it up exactly I could stay clear of the hair. Maybe I'm just trying to tattoo them too young.
 
Champagne d'argent doe x 5.5 lb mini rex buck. 6 weeks old.
 
I'm thinking that's going to be pretty small yet. One thing you might try is wrapping the rabbit in a towel, perhaps. leaving only the ear out. I know some people have reported that the rabbits struggle against the towel, but I've found that youngsters really calm down if they can't move...although I've not tried that with tattooing which is probably at least slightly painful.
 
Luckily I have plenty of meat rabbits to practice on before doing the purebreds. I've been putting them in a box and the first group didn't take it too bad. One did manage to pitch himself off the table but that was after I was done and went to return him to his cage. The last 3 though have hardly been handled and decided I was murdering them. One wouldn't stop until I closed it up in the box for a couple minutes. He's screamed murdered every time he was pulled out of the nestbox since he was a week and a half old so I knew he wasn't going to take this quietly. I have 2 adults to try tattooing and then we'll see how the tattoos look in a few weeks before I do the purebred kits.
 
A little trick when Tattooing.
To protect your wrists from scratches:
Save the tops of those socks that develop
holes somehow. Cut off the feet and save the top.
Cut a thumb hole in the side, and slip your
thumb into the hole with the piece rest covering your wrist.
This will help to limit some of the scratches.
You can wear these at Rabbit Shows too.
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 

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