tattoos always fail, why?

[golden rabbitry]

I always have to retat my rabbits. The tattoo heals and the crust peels off to show a very thin tattoo, parts are missing and the ink just didn't set. I have no idea why. I thought it was the pen or that I wasn't pushing hard enough on the ear but nothing fixes it. what am I doing wrong?

 

[SableSteel]

Try getting new, fresh ink, and clean it off (with a damp cloth, no oils or anything) after you tattoo it.

 

[michaels4gardens]

do you push firmly with your thumb, while you rub the ink in to the holes ??

 

[hotzcatz]

I leave the ink on the tat and don't try to clean it off for a couple of days. The tats are still somewhat incomplete sometimes. It's a clamp style tattoo and I'm not really happy with it since it's pretty traumatic for the buns. I breed for temperament and they get handled a lot as babies. Having a big traumatic experience of getting an ear clamped and ink rubbed into the holes and etc., can't be a pleasant experience for them and they're skittish after that. Not that I can blame them.

Since we don't have shows, I was thinking maybe ear tags or even notches? Notches would be as traumatic as clamp tats, though. Maybe microchips?

 

[michaels4gardens]

I leave the ink on the tat and don't try to clean it off for a couple of days. The tats are still somewhat incomplete sometimes. It's a clamp style tattoo and I'm not really happy with it since it's pretty traumatic for the buns. I breed for temperament and they get handled a lot as babies. Having a big traumatic experience of getting an ear clamped and ink rubbed into the holes and etc., can't be a pleasant experience for them and they're skittish after that. Not that I can blame them.

Since we don't have shows, I was thinking maybe ear tags or even notches? Notches would be as traumatic as clamp tats, though. Maybe microchips?

I worked for a rabbitry that tried the "notch" thing, it didn't work out well, [for human or rabbit]
and, a lot of the rabbits had a vein that ran too close to the outer edge of the ear,
those bled a lot..
The owner had us go back to tattooing after about 3 months..

 

[hotzcatz]

Thanks for letting me know, Michael! I'd kinda thought the notching wouldn't quite be the proper answer but I'm looking at whatever options are available.

All the bunnies get an official ear number, but the only ones who get an actual tattoo are the ones who stay here. The bucks don't always get a tat since there's only about six of them and they all have their own hutches, it's the doe herd who has confusing members. When there's four or five white ones and four or five black ones, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. I need some way to positively ID them for breeding purposes. There's no bunny shows, so it doesn't necessarily have to be a tattoo.

 

[golden rabbitry]

do you push firmly with your thumb, while you rub the ink in to the holes ??

I use a pen and leave the extra ink on and cover it with Vaseline to keep it clean. Don't run it in

 

[michaels4gardens]

do you push firmly with your thumb, while you rub the ink in to the holes ??

I use a pen and leave the extra ink on and cover it with Vaseline to keep it clean. Don't run it in

I have only used the "clamp" kind of tattoo ,
[I am sure it hurts, like any other piercing, but one second and it's done]
I look at the blood veins in the ear, and make sure the tattoo is not going to peirce any of the
ones I can see easily. [if I pierce a big vein, the bleeding can push the ink out]
I make sure the ink paste is pushed/rubbed into the holes made by the tattoo needles,
by rubbing it in well with my thumb.
I let the excess ink wear off , it is gone in a few days, along with the inflammation from the
tattoo wound.
I rarely have any issues with reading the tattoo...
[except for black rabbits, who must sometimes be picked up, so I can get a good look]

 

[hotzcatz]

Yeah, that's pretty much been my method, too. Clamp, try to miss the vein (so far only one has screamed during the process), rub in the ink and let the excess stay. I still hate tatting them since they seem so disappointed in me afterwards and it takes awhile to get them friendly again and some of them never get to the same level of friendly as before. These are angoras, they have to be handled a lot for coat maintenance so temperament and bunny attitudes are pretty important.

FWIW, I've started using green tat ink on the black bunnies, so it's a little more visible than the black. I may switch to red although that wasn't an option at the feed store.