Tattooing? how?

[golden rabbitry]

So basically my rabbit is pregnant with my first pedigreed litter and I want to tattoo their ears because I acualy want to identify the rabbits. None of the parents have tattoos or are registered. I have a few questions and hope you guys could help me
How do I register and Rabbit?(should I....)
How do I come up with a tattoo number?
Should I become a member of the ARBA?(just did)
Do I tattoo them myself and if so where do I get a stamp?(pen or stamp?)

 

[MeadowView]

To register a rabbit, they must be fully pedigreed to start. That means a three generation pedigree. All ancestors must have a tattoo number, a recorded weight that falls into the breed standard and be of an accepted color. In addition, the rabbit you are registering must meet breed standards and be free of DQs. You also must be an ARBA member.

Tattoo numbers can be anything that isn’t profane. Many breeders have a system where certain numbers or letters mean different things, but for me the best tattoos are the rabbits name or an abbreviation of it. For example I have a rabbit named spike, his tattoo is SPK. A number means nothing to me. A name means everything.

Are you working with one breed specifically and showing them? If so, yes, become an ARBA member! The resources you get from there are worth the membership fee. If not, don’t bother There are many resources online for meat and pet rabbit breeding.

Personally I like pen tattooers better. It’s hard to NOT hurt a rabbit with a clamp. Anywhere that sells rabbit supplies should have both options available. If you go the pen route, practice on a banana. If you go the clamp route, practice on a piece of cardboard to gauge how hard you actually need to press. Each kit will come with instructions.

 

[golden rabbitry]

Do rabbits have to have registration # or ear # to pedigree the babies?

 

[MeadowView]

They should be tattooed, yes. Registered, no. If you can’t do it, there are usually people at shows who will. Just IMO though. If you are selling pedigreed rabbits as show or breeding prospects the parents need to be tattooed.

 

[golden rabbitry]

What do you recommend for tattooing? Clamp or pen?

 

[SableSteel]

Personally I like pen tattooers better. It’s hard to NOT hurt a rabbit with a clamp.

I agree, I prefer pen. You probably should have researched this all before breeding if you were planning on pedigreeing the babies, though. The parents don't need ear #'s but I personally would not ever buy a 'pedigreed' kit from parents without ear tattoos. That indicates not only a poor record keeping system but also that the parents had not been shown. Most rabbits aren't registered. You should become a member of ARBA if you are even vaguely interested in breeding rabbits. You can choose whatever tattoo you want, EXCEPT: it has to be alphanumeric (A-Z, 0-9, no symbols such as &, - or '), nothing inappropriate (I once registered a rabbit who's grand sire was named F*ckface, yikes), and relatively short (ARBA has no max for tattoo length, but max of 30 for name length. Pedigree programs and show programs often don't like more than 6 characters)

 

[golden rabbitry]

Well I wasn't planning on the rabbit breeding thing to go so far, but the rabbits I do have have pedigreed and tattooed parents, I just have to tattoo them. I plan on just doing the first 2 letters of the sires name, first 2 of does, the litter #, and even # if female, odd if male(going through 1-9) <br /><br /> __________ Sat May 11, 2019 2:50 pm __________ <br /><br /> Another question
How do i keep my rabbit still? I did my buck a week ago and it all scabbed off! It took me over an hour to tattoo him and now it's gone. I tried again, this time making sure to press harder with the needle and it was so frustrating i cried. How do you keep your rabbit from shaking their head?! I gave up on the tattoo until my anger settles cause the last thing i want is to hurt my buck

 

[michaels4gardens]

https://www.google.com/search?q=rabbit+ ... 1PM:&vet=1

 

[shazza]

i just use a towel and wrap them up like a burrito, lay them in my lap, and kinda scrunch over and use my body to apply pressure. they still wiggle but it's not as bad and i can usually move my hand before they ruin their tattoo. some are wigglier than others. just go slow if you need to. i also usually go over my tattoos a couple of times to make sure they're readable. i use a pen and tend to have a heavy hand with it (i also am one of those people that dents the pages underneath the one i'm writing on because i press so hard,) and i've never done a tattoo that faded out to be unreadable, and some of my oldest tattoos are going on five years old. which is of course nothing compared to tattoos we humans get, but all the rabbits ive gotten that were already tattooed, or i had someone else tattoo, i've had to go over theirs because the ink faded out within a year. so pressing a little harder seems to be the way to go.

 

[michaels4gardens]

First I should say, I only raise standard size meat rabbits...
I have not used a "pen" ,.. I have only used a plier /clamp type, -- I have never had a problem with any tattoo fading at all, ever . The only precaution I use , is to make sure the "tattoo" is not going to pierce the blood vein that runs near the perimeter of the ear...

 

[hotzcatz]

After the pen makes the holes in the ear, are you rubbing in the ink? At least, with the clamp tattoo, that's what has to be done, perhaps it's the same with the pen type of tattoo as well?

For tattoo numbers, we just use the last digit of the year and then go sequentially from there. This year started with 900. Of course, this duplicates the numbering system every ten years, but most rabbits don't last ten years so we haven't had any duplicates yet.

To keep track of years, we have an annual name theme. This year it's flowers, so everybunny with a flower name (Petunia, Dandelion, DaffyDill, etc.) will be a 2019 bunny. Last year it was Roman names (Caesar, Nero, Cassandra, etc.) , before that it was Atmospheric Conditions (Gayle, Phineous Phogge, Sirocco, etc.). There's been Spices, Famous People, Virtues, etc., etc.

 

[shazza]

pens inject the ink as they make holes, like a tattoo gun an artist would use to give a tattoo to a human. so you don't have to rub ink in the holes like you do with a clamp.