Tattooing Qs

[Secuono]

Hey there, got my EquaTat pack today!
My Cali kits are now 5wks, ears are big enough that I marked them with a black Sharpie yesterday to tell which are bucks and which are females. I can clearly see where the blood vessels are, there's enough space for the tat in there.
One Doe is reserved to sell as a breeder, could I go ahead and choose the thickest female and tattoo her now?

Also, I'm wondering what kind of systems there are for tattooing rabbits? I'm not sure what to put in the ears, lol. I'll Google it, but in the meantime, any examples you guys use you'd like to share?

Btw, going to be tattooing all my adults as well.

 

[Cattle Cait]

I tattoo at five weeks, I'd say go ahead and tattoo her.

There's a lot of different methods that people use as tattoo ideas. I just put "BV" for Blu-Vu, and then the number. I put "BVF" for the Flemish crossbreds.

 

[skysthelimit]

Pretty much the same, except I am only tattooing things I sell or keep, so nothing under 4 mos has been tattooed yet.

 

[Secuono]

What is the # for or where does it come from?
I won't be marking all in a litter, just the ones I sell as breeders or I keep back to breed.

 

[Cattle Cait]

I just use the number to ID one rabbit from another, its not really in any certain order other then 1, 2, 3, 4...etc.

And I personally tattoo everything I don't eat, but I'm a records freak. I have what I sold to who, when, how much for...etc. Then if the buyer contacts me, "Oh, I lost BV23's pedigree!" its much easier to find that pedigree then, "Oh, I lost the pedigree of that black Checkered baby that I bought from you last year!"

 

[Secuono]

Would it be allowed in shows to have info in the right ear also, or two rows of tattoo in the left?
How would you do years? Since every 10yrs it will go back to 1. I know that's a long time, so I'm guessing most don't worry about that?

 

[Cattle Cait]

Just one row in the left ear. If you put a tattoo in the right ear, then the rabbit won't be able to be registered ever and ARBA rules dictate that it has to be in the left ear to be recognized by the judge as a legitimate tattoo.

I don't do years...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I do Buck's initial, Doe's initial, month, year, kit #. So I know that BF511 is out of Black Floyd and Feather, born May 2011, 1st kit marked in that litter. That way even if I lost all records, I know who a particular rabbit is and its' age just by looking in it's ear. I use "X" for November and "Z" for December.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I got an Equatat as well...tried it for the first time this weekend.... :x !!! Ever hear a rabbit scream? It was not happy with me...what to you people do to make them stay even marginally still and not scream bloody murder with the tattoo pen?

 

[LindseysWoolies]

I have found with mine that the 6 week olds take it much better than the 4 month olds I have. My 6 month old doe was even worse. Lol

 

[MamaSheepdog]

what to you people do to make them stay even marginally still and not scream bloody murder with the tattoo pen?

Hi Sistah! Queenpup and I did a few litters before moving them to my new growout cages. We went litter by litter, so say 6-8 bunnies each group. First, I cleaned the ears with alcohol and wrote my number in with a Sharpie to use as a template and so I would know where it was best placed to avoid veins. After marking each bun, I went back to the first one and I put a drop of Orajel on the mark, which smears it horribly, but it is still visible. I put my "hook on the cage" grooming table on my lap, and I placed them on an old T-shirt, "posed" them with their hindquarters well underneath them ("over posed" them actually!), and wrapped them snugly with the shirt so that only the left ear was out. I had a bowl of rectangular ice cubes (the kind you make in the plastic trays) and a small damp cotton rag to wrap the ice in. Queenpup held their head and rump, and I held the ice cube behind their ear, spreading the ear leather tightly across it to make a flat writing surface, and then I tattooed them. Rabbit ears must be very porous, because the inner surface would become wet from the ice cube, but it didn't seem to matter. I think the key is to be gentle- you don't need to press hard, just hold it at an angle as you would a regular pen and "write". I went over my lines a couple of times, and they came out very well. I wiped the excess ink off to check the results, and retouched as necessary. We didn't have any screamers, but some would struggle a bit. Any time they reacted I stopped immediately, so they settled down quickly since they were never in a panic. We just spoke softly to them until they were calm again and then finished the job.

This technique is explained in the ARBA's book Raising Better Rabbits and Cavies, which you get as part of your membership. The article is entitled "The Gentle Art of Tattooing". The author mentions that writing at an angle pierces more of the skin layers and creates a better tattoo.

 

[Secuono]

I've read 5 characters is most common, is there an actual limit in the show world? Do you have to use letters and numbers only? I don't show, but if anyone wanted to do that with mine, I'd want that to be possible.

 

[Smith's Rabbits]

I would like to hear more ideas for what to put in the ears. We have been doing the bucks letter and then the does letter and a number for boys, and does letter first for girls, unless I already know the name then I do a short version of the name, such as Griffin is GRIF, Dexter is DEX, Jazz is JAZ. But it seems like there is a better way out there, I just havn't found it yet. My friend does ours ears and uses a clamp, she only has one set of letters so each one can only be used once. I am considering getting the Tattoo pen though.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I started with a clamp set also with one set of letters and two sets of numerals 0-9. With a small herd you can make sure to name each breeder with one of the 26 characters of the alphabet without duplicating, so Buck's initial, Doe's initial, month-year-kit # worked for me.

 

[curlysue]

I use H if the mother is a himi and b if the father is black,then add numbers.that way i know what color the parents are.

 

[grumpy]

I got an Equatat as well...tried it for the first time this weekend.... :x !!! Ever hear a rabbit scream? It was not happy with me...what to you people do to make them stay even marginally still and not scream bloody murder with the tattoo pen?

L.O.L. You're right! They can scream bloody murder. It's a little unnerving the first couple of times it occurs.

For the longest time, I'd wrap them tightly in a bath-towel and tattoo them. A few years ago, I came upon a really neat "Tattoo-Box". It's adjustable with a hole in the lid for the ear to "pop" out of it. The top locks into place, and the floor is adjustable up and down to raise or lower the rabbit to the required height. Works fantastically, while leaving both hands free to do what needs to be done.

I've got a double set of letters and numbers with up to 5 digits/letters in the clamping pliers. I don't tattoo any unless they slated for the breeding pens. For replacement stock, I've got "business-sized" card holders on every hole in the rabbitry. I just make darned sure whenever I move one of those rabbits, the card goes into my pocket when I move the rabbit. The card then goes into the new-holder on that pen. I put the sire, dam, d.o.b., litter size, sex, on the card.

All does are tattooed with RK###. With my bucks, I've tried to be a little more "novel" insofar as I've given each of them a name. BUD, BOB, BEN, TAZZ, FONZY, etc. My oldest buck was an accident! RK001, was supposed to be a girl...his sex "changed" as he matured!

Grumpy.

 

[ilovehome]

After we had one break its back, we stopped holding them. I tried the tight fitting tattoo bag, but did not like it either. Now, I put a towel in a small rabbit carrier and leave the lid open, put the bun in and clamp quickly. No problems so far.

 

[ottersatin]

When I tattoo a Rabbit whether it is an adult or a Kit,
I set it on the table and clamp it's ear. If the rabbit moves,
I move with it. I never wrap the rabbit or hold it too firmly.
I have heard too many stories of rabbits squirming and breaking their Back.
Not something I want to happen to any rabbit of mine.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

A few years ago, I came upon a really neat "Tattoo-Box". It's adjustable with a hole in the lid for the ear to "pop" out of it. The top locks into place, and the floor is adjustable up and down to raise or lower the rabbit to the required height.

You wouldn't happen to have any pics of it that you could post, would you?

In the article "The Gentle Art of Tattooing" the author mentions a box made by Fred Cremer of Bakersfield, CA that has an adjustable tilt and length feature. I did a google search on him, and he was a rabbit judge and director of the Kern County Rabbit Breeders' Association. Sadly he passed away in '02, but I am going to contact the club (and probably join) and see if anyone has the design for one of his boxes. I would be able to tattoo the bunnies without help if I had a box.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

We use the clamp mostly, but need to use the pen for touch ups....we don't hold them when we clamp, I just put one hand on their back so I can grab them if they try to take a nose dive off the grooming table.