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Tattooing rabbits for breeding and showing is an important part of operating a rabbitry. A permanent tatoo allows you to positively identify stock so you know each rabbit's parentage, and when you are showing you have to have a permanent and unique identifier in the rabbit's left ear to make sure you know which rabbit is yours. When you have multiple rabbits of the same breed, color, and type, they could certainly get mixed up on the showing table, so the tattoos. This personal tattoo must be in the rabbit's left ear, as the right ear is reseved for an ARBA (American Rabbit Breeder's Association) registrar to tattoo champions. Even for those who do not plan on selling or showing their rabbits benefit from tattooing so that you can tell each rabbit apart, keep track of pedigrees, and prove ownership in the event that a rabbit is stolen.
Tattooing may sound complicated but it takes very little time. There are two ways to tattoo rabbits: a clamp-style tattoo, or a tattoo pen. We use a tattoo pen to give us more flexibility on how long the series of letters and numbers are, and because a hand-drawn tattoo is easily touched up later and seems to grow better with the rabbit, remaining more legible as the rabbit's ear grows and stretches the tattoo marking. We usually tattoo our rabbits at weaning. At this age, they seem to not mind the tattoing at all and sit perfectly still for it. Older rabbits sometimes wiggle more (and often seem to feel the tattoo pen more), but you can tattoo at any age.
It's important to note that when you first receive your tattoo pen, we recommend using an orange or banana to practice on. This will help you determine the best needle depth to adjust your needle to as well as giving you some practice holding and using the pen before you make any permanent marks on an animal.
Tattoo Supplies:
Tattoo Pen
Ink
Ink well
Wrap to hold rabbit still
Alcohol
Gigi numbing spray
Cotton balls
Vaseline
Fine-tip non-toxic sharpie (for stenciling)
Surgical gloves
Washcloth
Bag Balm
First, get all of your supplies gathered together.
Then, get your rabbit out of their cage and spray their left ear with the Gigi Numbing Spray.
Now, wrap your rabbit in the tattoo wrap (you can buy or make your own, or a towel wrapped around the rabbit works in a pinch), securing them so that their left ear and their face sticks out of the wrap, and so that the back of the wrap is secured tight enough that they cannot back out. Make sure they aren't wrapped too tight and that they do not seem in distress.
Next you will want to clean the rabbit's ear with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to clean it. Starting with a clean ear reduces the chance of infection as the tattoo heals. We like to spray the ear a second time with the numbing spray and let it sit for another 2-3 minutes to take full effect. Sometimes the first spray isn't enough and the rabbit will jump during the tattoo process. When we spray a second time, the rabbit usually sits still for the entire process and doesn't seem to feel a thing.
At this point, we get our tattoo pen out and remove the protective rubber tip oer the needle, make sure the needle is set to an appropriate depth, and get a bit of ink poured out into the ink well, making sure to put our gloves on before the ink so that we don't make any unecessary stains on our hands.
Open the vaseline and bag balm containers so they are ready when you need them.
Now, we use the sharpie to stencil on what we are tattoing. We use the rabbitry identifier "AH" for Arbor House, followed by a series of letters indicating the parents of the rabbit, with a number at the end which corresponds to how many rabbits this particular buck/doe cross has produced. For each litter, we tattoo the heaviest rabbit at weaning with the first number in the series we are using, followed by each of its littermates in order of weight. So, the first cross we make between a buck and doe will be numbers 1-5, for instance. Then the next litter will start at 6, and so on. This rabbit is from the first crossing of this buck, Blackbeard (Bb) and doe, Bunnywunny (Bw), and is the heaviest at weaning, so he received number 1. The tattoo will read AHBbBw1. By tattoing using this system, we can easily look at a rabbit's ear and know what buck and doe they came from as well as keep track of each offspring individually.
Writing the sequence out first means you make sure you have enough room to fit all the letters, that your letter placement stays straight, and that you get it placed exactly where you want it. If you don't like the results after the stencil, just wipe it off with alcohol and begin again. It's easier to correct with the sharpie than it is once you've tattooed.
Before beginning with the tattoo, smear a bit of vaseline over the area you will tattoo. This keeps the ink from bleeding as you tattoo so that you can more clearly see what you have tattooed.
Now, it's time for the actual tattoing. Turn on the pen, dip it in the ink, and begin your tattoo. Once you reach the end, wipe the ear clean with a cotton ball to see if you missed any spots. If you did, just smear some more vaseline and keep at it until you get the tattoo how you want it.
When you are done, wipe the ear clean again and finish with a layer of the Bag Balm. This will soothe the rabbit's ear and help it to heal quickly. Release the rabbit from the wrap, give them a pat to tell them they have done a good job, a treat if you have one, and return them to their cage. Sometimes the rabbit will mess with their ear or even scratch at it some, so keep an eye on it as it heals in case you need to apply more Bag Balm or an antibiotic ointment.
That's it! Just rinse out your ink well (we use our utility sink in the mudroom, but any sink will do if you are careful), clean the ink out of the tip of the tattoo pen (the TB Tatt pen disassembles easily for cleaning), and put all your tattoo supplies away in a safe but convenient location so it is all ready to go next time you need to tattoo.
