# why Tattoos ?



## magic_girl (Feb 28, 2008)

hi i wanted to know why do rabbit have tattoos in there ear i have rabbits but they don't have tattoos i could of got papers on mine but they did't have no tattoo in there ear.do people do there own tattoos like the number and letters in there ear do they have to have tattoos to be showed. thank you


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## ZakuraRabbit (Feb 28, 2008)

They need tattoos to be shown (at least in Norway they do) as many rabbits at shown look just the same, they need the tattoos so they can tell them apart.


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## MsBinky (Feb 28, 2008)

Some breeders like to use tatoos for identification purposes as well, whether to know which baby is which, identify their buns from other breeders (like when breeders buy off each other I guess), and also I know some breeders like to have their bunny back when a person decides not to keep it so the tatoo helps with that as well.

I think there were other reasons (other than for show) as well but I can't remember them. Personally, I strongly dislike them but I do understand their purpose.


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## BlueGiants (Feb 28, 2008)

Regarding Showing: It's a ruleby the American Rabbit Breeders Association that all rabbits have to have a permenant tattoo in their left ear to be shown. Imagine having 20 Black Mini Rex Bucks on the table at one time. How would anyone be sure they got back their rabbit? How would we be sure which rabbit won? And if it wasn't a permenant tattoo, what would stop someone from changing a number every time they show? How would we keep track of how many times each rabbit won (and if it's a Grand Champion)?

Regarding ownership: By tattooing my rabbits, with my initials and a number, I am sure where each rabbit is going when it leaves my barn, I will usually find out ifit gets sold again, or if it gets dumped in the local dog pound. (And I can usually get it back!) It's a great way to identify your rabbit (and prove ownership) if a rabbit is stolen or gets loose. (Instead of saying I lost my brown bunny", you can give a tattoo indentification.

Regarding pedigrees: I can be sure of the parentage of every rabbit in my barn. I can track genetic problems and tendancies, health issues, life spans, birthing records, etc. of every rabbit I have. 

It takes me about 2 minutes to tattoo a bunny. 2 minutes of discomfort is worth a lifetime of security.


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 28, 2008)

Is there a minimum or maximum of letters and/or numbers, BlueGiants?


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## magic_girl (Feb 28, 2008)

how many people tattoo there own rabbits do you make up your own letters and numbers and do it hurt the rabbits when they get them:?


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## Lias_ark (Feb 28, 2008)

*Bo B Bunny wrote: *


> Is there a minimum or maximum of letters and/or numbers, BlueGiants?


Some of my rabbits have a combination of letters and numbers in the tattoo. Some have only one number or letter.

Yes I am sure it hurts. Does getting a hurt? There are clamp tattoos and electric tattooers. I have a BASS clamp tattooer and and EZ tatt. I have had rabbits scream with the clamp style. Only once. The electric tattoo is probably moe irrattating then painful


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## TinysMom (Feb 28, 2008)

I only tattoo rabbits I show or that I sell to other breeders. The system I use for my tattoos is pretty common among lionhead breeders....which is sort of interesting when you have an "E1" tort buck from one breeder, an "E1" black buck from another breeder and an "E1" chinchilla buck that you bred yourself.

:biggrin2:

The system I use starts with letters - I used A-Z for my first 26 litters and then went with "AB, AC,AD" till I hit "AZ" and then I went with "BA, BB" etc.

My does get even numbers and my bucks get odd numbers. So for example - an "A5" from me would be the 3rd best buck in the litter (the best buck would get the A1 spot). 

I've been known to have five in a litter - four of which were bucks. In that case I had "A1, A3, A5, A7 & A2"...only the letter wasn't A - I forget what it was.

Every breeder has their own system for tattooing and what combination they use. The only limit is the size of the rabbits' ear to be honest with you. Cocoa has "Cocoa" in her ear and my friend had a buck that had the tattoo "Ooops". 

Peg


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## polly (Feb 28, 2008)

Thats really interesting as we have rings round one of the back legs over here. We have no choice we have to order them from the BRC (british rabbit council) and different breeds have different ring size. and they also have the year they were born in them

Example - 07X32654 07 - year born X- netherland dwarf 32654- the ring No. they are up to 



06C01234 06-year C- lionhead 

I would much prefer to have a tattoo system but thats because once the rings are on nethies they are very hard to get off. SOme of the larger breeds can have their rings taken on and off which is easier. And better for the rabbit as its not unknown for a rabbit to not get the ring taken off when sold on and not being shown and if the rabbit puts on to much weight they can have problems.


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## BlueGiants (Feb 28, 2008)

Everyone has their own system of picking tattoo numbers. It can be any combination of numbers and/or letters. Some people use names, some use letters, initials, whatever. ARBA only requires that it be permenant and legible. The old style clamp tattoo kits usually allowed for 5 digits or letters. The newer handheld tattoo pens (much gentler!) allow more. But for the sake of the bunny, we try to keep it as short as possible.

In Europe, rabbits wear metal rings with numbers on their back leg. The ring is slipped over while the rabbit is young and small and grows into it.

The old style clamp tattoos does hurt them. If done properly, itwas over quickly and most of the time, the rabbit was fine. But it did cause pain and sometimes bleeding. The tattoo pins would most often go through the ear.

The newer tattoo pens sting a little (ummm.... I speak from experience...). But only the first two layers of skin are involved. There is no bleeding. You do it with the rabbits ear literally wrapped over your finger.


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## NZminilops (Feb 28, 2008)

We have rings here too Polly, they can be annoying! My first rung buck (pet), his ring rubbed all the fur off his leg and left sores, I had to cut it off.


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 28, 2008)

SO we were thinking of just putting TS20 in Tony's ear for his tatoo since he's our only show rabbit - and that will be fine?

Although I'd love to put Stewart20 LOL!


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## RAL Rabbitry (Feb 28, 2008)

You can put anything you want for a tattoo number. I use the first initial

of the doe's name and then the first initial of the buck's name and then

a number after that.

I don't think the EZTATs bother them much. At the last show I was at I did

at least 10 rabbits for other people that were showing for the first time and

their rabbits were pretty much grown and they didn't flinch.

Roger


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 28, 2008)

What are the EZTATS? My friend said she has this new Pen like thing? She said she would do Tony's for us.


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## RAL Rabbitry (Feb 28, 2008)

It is an electric tatto pen. You basically just write the tatto number in the ear.

Roger


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 28, 2008)

Cool


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## Lias_ark (Feb 28, 2008)

*RAL Rabbitry wrote: *


> It is an electric tatto pen. You basically just write the tatto number in the ear.
> 
> Roger


a lot easier said then done. I do like the EZ tatt but more difficult then I origanaly thought to get th nack of.


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## RAL Rabbitry (Feb 28, 2008)

I think the angle that you usethe EZTATmakes a big difference. 

I hold it at a 45Â° angle and it works great for me.

Roger


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## BlueCamasRabbitry (Feb 28, 2008)

I have all my show stock tattooed, even the pet rabbits that are shown in 4-H are required to have a tattoo in their left ear. 

For the non-show stock (like the mixes) I just take a permanent marker and write down a tattoo in their ear for when I can have them tattooed. 

My tattooing system is BSA-For Blue Sky Acres (and in some bunnies, it's BSAR) and then the first letter of their name; so for BSAM, that's Blue Sky Acre's Magic, and I love how it's B-Sam, lol. Then for Mississippi, his owners picked his tattoo, so his is MISSISSI and yeah. I think all EL's have to have some long tattoos, not sure though. 

Emily


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## BlueCamasRabbitry (Feb 28, 2008)

*BlueGiants wrote: *


> The old style clamp tattoos does hurt them. If done properly, itwas over quickly and most of the time, the rabbit was fine. But it did cause pain and sometimes bleeding. The tattoo pins would most often go through the ear.




That's true. I hate the clamp tattooers. I have a story about one.

When I first was having Magic tattooed (I think for Spring Youth Fair in May last year) The person who was there had a clamp tattooer, and of course I'd never seen it done before, so I was curious as to how it'd work. Well Magic did OK through the process, but he flinched every now and then. When his tattoo was finally done (I can't remember what it was then, I'd have to find the show cards from then If I still have them) I just did as instructed to rub off the ink and etc. etc. 

About 4 days after the show, the tattoo was gone, and Magic's ear (where it had been tattooed) was swollen and it had a scab on where the tattoo had been. Basically, needles had caused his ear to bleed, and so he was in pain from when he first got the tattoo, but of course I didn't know. Well it took a good 2 months for his ear to heal all the way completely and before I'd let anyone with a tattooer even touch his ear. I swore to myself and to my rabbitry that I'd never ever let a clamp tattooer touch my bunnies ears again, and since then they've only be tattooed with EZTat, or the electric ones. 

Well at the last show, there was a tattoo kit - clamp style. I wanted it really badly, but I of course would have learned how to use it the best way, pain free, and easiest style possible so it wouldn't cause harm or pain or the tattoo to go away - but i didn't get it. Oh well. I have the pen-o-matic or something like that. It's just a needle in a retractable "pen" type of thing with black india ink....it works worth crap though. Figures...but I have enough money now to buy a really nice one ! 

Emily


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## GoinBackToCali (Feb 29, 2008)

After taking a poll of the breeders here as to what they use, I bought the EZ-Tat pen..I LOVE IT!

Here, the rabbits are required to be tattooed so as there is no mix ups at the show table. However, I can ALWAYS pick mine out (yes I just tooted my own horn)

Tattoo's are usually only required for show rabbits.. but I am speaking of the norm here, other areas I can't speak for.

A breeder friend of mine has all his Tattooed in case for some reason they are put in the wrong cage or something. he has detailed records based on the ear Tat..I dont have as many rabbits and can keep up with mine with simple cage cards..


As for my system, it depends on the kid whos showing them. My oldest sons first 3 buns were his intials DBP and the number of the rabbit, so it was DBP1 DBP2 AND DBP3, the next set were DBP4 DBP5 and DBP6.

The mother's we usually show in the breeder class .. we did not intially really have a system, but for instance the one my son is partial to is J93, as in his birthday June 1993, my other son's breeder show doe is A98.. August 1998. The subsequent offspring of those does that we show as breeders ONLY are usually numbered A98-1 and A98-2. As in the offspring that are specifically for breeder showing, as in they are usually a fine rabbit specimen, but they dont match any of the other rabbits to make a set of 3. The ones that go into sets get numbered with the kids intials and a number..

That may sound confusing.. but for instance, last fair season, we had a litter of 10, and only needed three sets of 3. So we had one extra. We always show the extra as a breeder. So they were all the offspring of J93. So it went something like this..

My oldest son showed:
J93 as a breeder (the mother)
and
DBP13
DBP14
DBP15.

My youngest son showed the extra bunny as a breeder.. so he showed

J93-1
and
SCP6
SCP7
SCP8

Then the 3 that were left went to a friend of the boys, as
ATD1
ATD2
ATD3

Basically that kids intials..

Did I confuse you much? LOL

It really requires a notebook to keep up with who's kit is who's and who belongs to who..

It may sound confusing, but I dont have a large scale breeder program, so I am able to keep up with them..


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 29, 2008)

Cool. 

I have one bunny to tat, and I am not putting a skull and crossbones or "Mom" in a heart.


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## BlueGiants (Feb 29, 2008)

*Bo B Bunny wrote: *


> I have one bunny to tat, and I am not putting a skull and crossbones or "Mom" in a heart.


Hmmm... maybe a nice rendition of Jessica Rabbit? LOL! :roflmao:


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## GoinBackToCali (Feb 29, 2008)

Skulls and crossbones rock...

But then again I am a pirate...


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## Bo B Bunny (Feb 29, 2008)

*LOL Tony might like that! *

*BlueGiants wrote: *


> *Bo B Bunny wrote: *
> 
> 
> > I have one bunny to tat, and I am not putting a skull and crossbones or "Mom" in a heart.
> ...


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