How to tattoo your rabbit

I recently answered a question on a rabbit forum about tattooing your rabbit and the response I got was unexpected. MANY people responded with thanks and questions, so I decided to expand that post here. At the bottom are some questions I received and my answers.

What you'll need.

• Tattoo Equipment. For me this is a (copying from the box) "Stone Small Animal Tattoo Outfit with release". Product #2745. It has 5/16" digits, and the 'release' is a spring loaded bar to push the ear off the tattoo pins. These come with the numbers zero to nine only. So if you want to use your initials or have the number eleven or twenty-two, you will need to buy letters and another set of numbers. This size is good for medium 6lb rabbits to the giant breeds. If you are doing a dwarf breed, you'll need a smaller model. Your tattoo can be up to 5 digits with this model.
• INK. The kits usually contain a bottle of ink which is big enough to do maybe 50-100 tattoos depending how frugal you are. You can use black on any color rabbit. I guess you can get other colors, red, green. I use black.
• And Q-Tips to apply the ink to the tattoo.
• A bath towel to wrap the rabbit up so he is immobile and secure. This is for their safety and yours. A rabbit has sharp nails and can tear you up if they are frightened and trying to escape. Also, a rabbits spine is also relatively fragile and they can injure themselves by flailing about.

The tattoo goes in the rabbits left ear. The right ear is only tattooed by an ARBA Registrar for two reasons, when you register your rabbit or when it becomes a Grand Champion.

Wrap the rabbit securely (real tight) in a bath towel. It is important to keep their front paws inside the towel or they will shoot out. Securing the rabbit is the most important part of the process. If they can wriggle or squirm away they can at the least make your job WAY harder than it has to be, and at the worst hurt themselves by tearing their ear while you are clamping it. Two people are really needed.

Ready? OK, here we go!

Put the towel on your work surface so it is long-ways left to right. Sit the rabbit on the towel facing away from you. Bring one side over the rabbit and snug it under him. Pull the free end of the towel to snug it up and bring it over in the other direction and wrap all the excess towel over its back. Like a burrito. I wrap the bunny up and then my helper holds them securely while I clamp the ear.

Hold the rabbit in front of you with the rabbit facing to your left. Hold the clamp in your right hand with the handle going off to your right. This will orient the tattoo correctly.

Hold the ear with your left hand and place your tattoo between the veins to reduce the likelihood of bleeding. On white rabbits this is easy. On black rabbits I like to tattoo on a bright day or I have my helper hold a flashlight behind the ear so I can see the veins.

Have your helper hold the rabbit very firmly, and remember they like to back up. Squeeze the tattoo clamp firmly making sure all the pins penetrate the ear.

Then take a Q-tip (mix your ink ahead of time) dip it in the ink and RUB it into the tattooed area. I rub pretty vigorously, use a lot of ink, and probably use 2-3 Q-tips (no double dipping, please!) per tattoo. Some ink may come through if one or more pins fully penetrate the ear. No biggie.

Tips:

• Get your clamp, letters/numbers set up first and check it BEFORE you wrap up and tattoo each rabbit. You can do this on a piece of paper. This will eliminate mistakes. Like I sometimes put a "B" as the last digit if it is a Buck. "D" if... well I have had more than one buck that ends with a D. LOL
• You do not have to clean the ear with alcohol. I know some people say they do and some sources recommend it to clean the ear and remove wax. I don't and I don't know anyone that does. I have never had an infected tattoo and have never really seen or heard of one.
• DO NOT clean the ear after you tattoo it or wipe it with Vaseline or Neosporin. Unnecessary and will only cause the tattoo to lighten up or disappear all together. My newly tattooed rabbits ears just have a big black splotch. That gets cleaned up by them or wears off in a couple weeks and only a perfect FOREVER tattoo is left.
• Be prepared to buy letters and numbers you don't need to re-tattoo rabbits you buy who's tattoos fade or leave all together. I've re-done two this year already where the tattoo was GONE. Like it was never there. Good thing I knew which rabbits they were by sight. And they have been in the same cage a while, too.
• Does it hurt my rabbit when I tattoo it? Well, does it hurt when you get a tattoo? People vary in their tolerance and so do rabbits. A few, maybe 1 in 10 or 15 will scream like there is no tomorrow! A few will jerk or hunker down real tight at the instant of clamping. Most do nothing at all. This is QUICK and over in a fraction of a second. The rubbing in of the ink is nothing, and once you get it down the whole tattoo process takes 15 - 30 seconds. Changing the numbers in the clamp and getting the letters and numbers right takes way more time.
• What numbers and letters do I tattoo my rabbit with? In short? Anything you want. Many people use their initials or the initials of their rabbitry followed by a number. Some use a "D" at the front or the back if it is a doe, "B" for a buck and so on. Give it a little thought and go with it. You can always change down the road.
• At What age do you tattoo? I tattoo at 6 to 8 weeks of age. This is also when I determine sex, weigh, and sort them into keepers and fryers.
• How hard do you squeeze? Real hard, some of the pins may perforate. That's why they have an "Auto Release" which doesn't really work that well, which is why you hold onto the ear with your left hand and squeeze the clamp with your right so you can pull the ear off the pins. An ear is pretty thin for heavens sake!
• How long do you squeeze? About "two-one thousand" I guess.
• I know many people use the tattoo pen. I personally couldn't imagine taking that long or the rabbit staying calm that long for each tattoo, and i like my PERFECT, PERMANENT tattoos.

Why do you need to tattoo?

• A tattoo is a permanent, legal identification.
• Dogs, cats, goats, horses, sheep, and cattle are all tattooed and/or chipped to determine ownership.
• Animal identity. If you have 20 to 500 rabbits that all look the same, it allows you to tell one animal from the next.
• Showing your rabbit. It must be tattooed to be shown in any sanctioned show.

This is just how I do it and it works for me. I hope it helps you when you start tattooing your rabbits!