When do you guys start tattooing your rabbits? Also how do you determine what the tattoo will read? Thanks for the help!
Tattooing
- Thread starter Phil
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when I decide I'm keeping the bunny for my own herd OR selling a breeding animal into a new home. Otherwise I don't tattoo anything. Others will tattoo in order to keep rabbits with similar colour separate.
I tattoo with the name I give the rabbit... so Cindy, Elly, Omega etc. I used to do 1, 2, 3, and upwards I stopped at 55 and started with names.
Others will do year first letter of mom, first letter of dad, litter number, Gender and number it is in the litter . So A male rabbit tattooed last out of the first litter from elly and omega with a litter of eight born this year would 23EO1M8. Everyone comes up with their own method of tattooing. Some are more complicated than others, and others are extremely simple. One person I know simply does year and the number of the rabbit tattooed that year. So the first rabbit of the year would be 231 the last rabbit of the year might be 2399
You can only use numbers and letters No unusual symbols and no foul language.
I tattoo with the name I give the rabbit... so Cindy, Elly, Omega etc. I used to do 1, 2, 3, and upwards I stopped at 55 and started with names.
Others will do year first letter of mom, first letter of dad, litter number, Gender and number it is in the litter . So A male rabbit tattooed last out of the first litter from elly and omega with a litter of eight born this year would 23EO1M8. Everyone comes up with their own method of tattooing. Some are more complicated than others, and others are extremely simple. One person I know simply does year and the number of the rabbit tattooed that year. So the first rabbit of the year would be 231 the last rabbit of the year might be 2399
You can only use numbers and letters No unusual symbols and no foul language.
RabbitsOfTheCreek
Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member
I used to do the first letter of a rabbit's name and then the initials of of my names, but ran out of options quickly when there would be two rabbits who have names that start with the first letter, so now it's letters in the rabbits' first and middle names (ex. Kyurem Master Mega has KMM while Marina Octavio would've gotten MOT)
I try to tattoo all the rabbits that leave our barn, whether it's a show, meat breeder or pet rabbit, so that's usually about 8 - 12 weeks of age. I have found that people sometimes contact me years later to find out about a rabbit that has one of my tattoos in its ear.
When I'm raising meat pens I tattoo earlier, as young as 4 weeks, which helps me keep accurate weight records.
I don't usually put the rabbit's name in the ear since we show most of our rabbits. Most ARBA judges try very hard to be objective, but especially since Alaska has a relatively small show population, judges are likely to remember rabbits with name tattoos. I think having a more nondescript alphanumeric code might help keep a judge from recognizing and subconsciously pre-judging a particular rabbit.
Similar to many breeders, I use the initials of the sire and dam, but I add a number which reflects my judgment on the quality of the bunny, with males ending in odd numbers and females ending in even numbers. So a litter from Kobuk x Moostruck will be KM1, KM3, KM5, etc. for males, and KM2, KM4, KM6, etc. for females, in order of best to least.
If I repeat that pairing, the litter number goes in front. Thus Kobuk x Moostruck's second litter would be 2KM1, 2KM2, 2KM3, etc.
If I have two rabbits with the same initial, e.g. bucks Kobuk and Kibble, the younger buck, Kibble, becomes KB, so that Kibble x Moostruck kits would be KBM1, KBM2, etc. Basically each sire and dam gets a unique initial/initials.
It's amusing to note that this does leave a record of my mistakes - occasionally a "3" ends up being a female, or a "6" ends up being the keeper.
