RABBITGIRLFORTHEWIN
Well-known member
I marked my rabbit's ears with sharpie a few days ago. I have to remark. Stayed on for 4ish days.
Tattooing age
- Thread starter Her Farmstead Rabbitry
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My tattoo routine is timed for weaning/separation by gender.
My does kindle in a growout cage (2’x4’). At 4 weeks I remove the nestbox; at 5 weeks I remove mama into her normal cage (2’x3’). At 6 weeks, I move all of one gender into a second growout cage. On that day, everyone gets checked out for anything that would make them a freezer bunny — malocclusion, poor structure, etc. Toenails are trimmed, overall quality is determined, and tattoos are done. Prior to this point I use a Sharpie low in the ear to mark kits so I can track growth — bucks are marked in the right ear with a single digit while does are marked the same way on the right.
My permanent tattoos are 6 characters and look something like “4BL2D5.”
In this example, the tattoo means:
The litter was born in 2024.
The sire is Bucko; the dam is Lassie.
It’s the second litter of the year with these parents.
This is the 5th doe in the litter.
The “Sharpie tattoo” for this doeling would have been the number 5. The lower in the ear this is applied, the longer it lasts.
My does kindle in a growout cage (2’x4’). At 4 weeks I remove the nestbox; at 5 weeks I remove mama into her normal cage (2’x3’). At 6 weeks, I move all of one gender into a second growout cage. On that day, everyone gets checked out for anything that would make them a freezer bunny — malocclusion, poor structure, etc. Toenails are trimmed, overall quality is determined, and tattoos are done. Prior to this point I use a Sharpie low in the ear to mark kits so I can track growth — bucks are marked in the right ear with a single digit while does are marked the same way on the right.
My permanent tattoos are 6 characters and look something like “4BL2D5.”
In this example, the tattoo means:
The litter was born in 2024.
The sire is Bucko; the dam is Lassie.
It’s the second litter of the year with these parents.
This is the 5th doe in the litter.
The “Sharpie tattoo” for this doeling would have been the number 5. The lower in the ear this is applied, the longer it lasts.
I know this is an old post, but I'm also wondering about tattooing now that I have some purebred kits. (with mixed breeds going to pet homes it didn't seem necessary).
For our kits that look alike, we use gel food coloring. I've also used permanent marker but it smells chemically and I didn't want to mess with that on tiny babies. The gel food coloring is much stronger than the dripper bottles and a dot in the ear (plus record keeping, as you were suggesting) does a great job of distinguishing our look-alikes. Of course, it will wear off over time, but our one kit with green in his ear has kept it for two weeks now.
In our recent little of four, we have three very different colors. Last time, we had three black otters and three chestnuts. As little ones, it was hard to tell which one was which among those sets so the colors helped a lot!
Silly question, but how do you know the order? I don't watch my does kindle so I have no idea what the birth order is. Do you just pick an order?
kusanar314
Well-known member
I think it's just the order that you pick them up in. So, pick up baby, check for gender, write down number and proceed with tattoo.
I tattoo mine in order of quality as well as sex (bucks odd number, does even numbers). So I know, for instance, that HSU2 was the doe I judged as best, and HSU6 was less impressive.
It is interesting to see how they turn out as they develop - sometimes HSU6 may end up one of my best-producing does. Doing it this way has helped me learn to assess 6-week-olds a lot better than I used to.
