Tattooing age

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Her Farmstead Rabbitry

Her Farmstead Rabbitry

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2023
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Location
Marion, North Carolina
I am wanting to start tattooing the rabbits I plan to sell so I can keep track of who is buying which ones. I want to start selling them at 8 weeks instead of 6 weeks. I will still wean at 6 weeks. So is 6 weeks too early to tattoo? Also do any of you keep waiting lists? I am wanting to see how other people do it?
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
What do you think about tattooing at 6 weeks?
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Totally ok as long as you have enough real estate in the ear. Depending on the size of the kit you may have to adapt.

For internal record marking I have long considered a version of tattooing that would be similar to how mouse ears are marked: you have a code for each litter where you have a series of marks that correspond to a number based on whether they are in the right or left ear, near the base or near the tip, one mark or more. In this way you could do tiny dots, have faster, more pain-free marks, mark them earlier for tracking weight gain, etc, and on an adult they would be near invisible in the fur. I would not feel bad marking 3 day old kits this way, though my marks would never need to be higher than "12"....they would be able to be applied with a single poke per dot.

I never actually did it though.

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We used to use a system where no mouse needed more than 2 pokes. We could count to 6 that way, and most mouse litters were not over six (we bred genetically modified mice who had small litters--there was a protocol for larger litters which did occur rarely).

mice were marked at 1-3 weeks.
 
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eco2pia said:
Totally ok as long as you have enough real estate in the ear. Depending on the size of the kit you may have to adapt.

For internal record marking I have long considered a version of tattooing that would be similar to how mouse ears are marked: you have a code for each litter where you have a series of marks that correspond to a number based on whether they are in the right or left ear, near the base or near the tip, one mark or more. In this way you could do tiny dots, have faster, more pain-free marks, mark them earlier for tracking weight gain, etc, and on an adult they would be near invisible in the fur. I would not feel bad marking 3 day old kits this way, though my marks would never need to be higher than "12"....they would be able to be applied with a single poke per dot.

I never actually did it though.

View attachment 40811
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That's very interesting!
 
Official here dwarfs need to be 12 weeks for tattoo, bigger breeds can be younger, but i haven't seen any advice under 8 weeks old and maybe even 10. Part will be enough ear to tattoo in the first place, maybe also to wait untill ears are grown and tattoo doesn't distort? Although grown enough to show might be part of the reason, since this is service from breedregistry, not the breeder doing their own tattoo.
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
How do you let them pick the rabbits? Just go in order? Do you have them pay a deposit?
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When they're on the waiting list, I notify them when the next litter is born. First come first serve, I send pictures and they reserve the one(s) they're interested in. I don't do a deposit, mainly because I only accept cash and scheduling more meetups than necessary is a pain, but that's a good idea to create some accountability.
 
Rabbits By DK said:
When they're on the waiting list, I notify them when the next litter is born. First come first serve, I send pictures and they reserve the one(s) they're interested in. I don't do a deposit, mainly because I only accept cash and scheduling more meetups than necessary is a pain, but that's a good idea to create some accountability.
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How have you found your customers? I can't seem to find many customers. Where do you advertise? are there any good Facebook groups? Do you have a website? I have been trying to make mine but it's harder than I thought.
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
I am wanting to start tattooing the rabbits I plan to sell so I can keep track of who is buying which ones. I want to start selling them at 8 weeks instead of 6 weeks. I will still wean at 6 weeks. So is 6 weeks too early to tattoo? Also do any of you keep waiting lists? I am wanting to see how other people do it?
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You can tattoo newborns. I use a tattoo pen and make small dots deep in the ears to identify foster kits that are the same color as the kits in their new nest box. The dots are so small and deep that they don't affect giving the rabbit a proper tattoo for show purposes later.

For permanent identification purposes, if you use a pen, you can tattoo as soon as you have enough space in the ear. Young rabbits with small ears (Polish, Netherland Dwarf, Dwarf Hotot) just get smaller characters and shorter numbers. :)

Even when I've tattooed very young, I've never seen any distortion of tattoos as the rabbits grew.

I don't have a formal waiting list, except when I'm producing market pen bunnies for 4-Hers. I do keep track of people who want my rabbits, but most of my sales are by word-of-mouth, and people want the rabbits for different purposes, so I match rabbits to customers. Show rabbits depend on different characteristics than meat and pet rabbits, and I can't always predict exactly how many of each I'll have till the litter is close to weaning age. I certainly do not pre-sell rabbits, or take deposits; I've learned not to count my bunnies before they're weaned. :ROFLMAO:
 
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RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN said:
How have you found your customers? I can't seem to find many customers. Where do you advertise? are there any good Facebook groups? Do you have a website? I have been trying to make mine but it's harder than I thought.
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I advertise on craigslist and by word of mouth. I'm not on facebook. I do have a website, I created it using a free platform. Limited data and media, but I'm not able to afford much better right now.
 
Rabbits By DK said:
I advertise on craigslist and by word of mouth. I'm not on facebook. I do have a website, I created it using a free platform. Limited data and media, but I'm not able to afford much better right now.
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What platform do you use? Everything is so expensive! I'm 14 and trying to make my dream rabbitry come true with a small budget. If you told me I would spend all my birthday money on one rabbit, I'd go crazy. But rabbits are worth it!
 
RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN said:
How have you found your customers? I can't seem to find many customers. Where do you advertise? are there any good Facebook groups? Do you have a website? I have been trying to make mine but it's harder than I thought.
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I have a facebook page and I have listings on several free meat rabbit breeder websites. Some of them are Homestead Meat rabbits, Rabbitbreeders.US. I have gotten several people from the Homestead Meat rabbits website.
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
I am wanting to start tattooing the rabbits I plan to sell so I can keep track of who is buying which ones. I want to start selling them at 8 weeks instead of 6 weeks. I will still wean at 6 weeks. So is 6 weeks too early to tattoo? Also do any of you keep waiting lists? I am wanting to see how other people do it?
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You can mark their ears with sharpie marker.
 
RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN said:
You can mark their ears with sharpie marker.
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I've used Sharpies too, and it is a good temporary solution. But if you're promising certain rabbits to people, you'll have to check the marks daily. Some rabbits are more determined to lick it off than others. Especially if the bunnies are living together, or are still with their dam, they will clean each other up. And when you go to pull a certain rabbit..."Ugh, is that a mark... and what does it say???"
 

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