tattoo-ing sheep ears, does it work?

[sandy10m]

My herd is growing, and I would like to avoid tags to keep track. Has anyone used tattoos and ink? I have 2 rams, and I want to keep track of the daddy of each ewe lamb, so I can alternate mating.

First question: does the tattoo ink work by itself? In other words, can I rub the tattoo ink in the ear of an animal, and it stays for a long time? Kind of like a permanent marker?

Second question: Are the tattoo colors of black and green permanent for years? Or do the colors fade?

Third question: if not, what tattoo equipment have you found that is affordable, dependable, and permanent? I don't need to see the numbers from far away, only to identify the daddy of the ewe to make sure she mates with the other ram. And keep track of month/year of birth

Thanks in advance.

 

[Island]

My herd is growing, and I would like to avoid tags to keep track. Has anyone used tattoos and ink? I have 2 rams, and I want to keep track of the daddy of each ewe lamb, so I can alternate mating.

First question: does the tattoo ink work by itself? In other words, can I rub the tattoo ink in the ear of an animal, and it stays for a long time? Kind of like a permanent marker?

Second question: Are the tattoo colors of black and green permanent for years? Or do the colors fade?

Third question: if not, what tattoo equipment have you found that is affordable, dependable, and permanent? I don't need to see the numbers from far away, only to identify the daddy of the ewe to make sure she mates with the other ram. And keep track of month/year of birth

Thanks in advance.

I can only answer your second question, as I haven't done my own tattooing.
Yes, the ink lasts for a long time. Like all tattoos it does fade slightly, but can still be readable many years later, at least that's the case with my goats. I have two almost 9 year old NDs that were tattooed as babies, and their tattoos are still visible.
I hope this helps, sorry I couldn't answer your other questions!

 

[secuono]

You need to inject the ink. Rubbing onto skin is worthless.
Buy a tattoo clamp or tattoo pen and black ink. Other colors are hard to see. If ears are black, every color will be iffy. Use ear notches instead or tip ear of one like DNR cats are done. Tip lamb ears by the ram with the tipped ear to keep them all on track.

Containing the rams while doing anything other than the tag will be difficult. Head halter, snub very tight to wood post. Another rope around loin and tie tight to fence to stop jumping and thrashing.

 

[secuono]

Clamps come in two sizes, 3/8" & 5/16".
Regular & rotary.
You have to put ink on the needles, clamp, then rub more ink on/in with a brush.
Tattoo is just dots and can be difficult to see, even days later.

Pens come in all sorts and are usually just jailbroke toothbrushes. But you can buy human guns these days, too.
1-5 needle tips. The more tips, the better it works, darker tattoo.
Go over it a few times.

If you're only IDing one, you don't need anything besides a blob, a line, a letter, a number. No need for more than one mark to tell them apart.

Numbing sprays & creams are useless. They only gum up tattoo pen needles. I've tried them on myself and none stopped any pain from needles. Plus, the rabbits reacted the same way with or without the numbing.

I use a pen on my rabbits.

 

[Ridgetop]

I used India Ink on both rabbits and goats when tattooing. The important thing is to get the ink under the skin. I used to use a clamp tattoo kit and then rub in the ink. However make sure that the holes are not bleeding profusely or they will wash out the ink. Blot any blood until it stops the rub in the ink and seal it in with either Vaseline or antibiotic cream.

If you are tattooing adult rams, they wil not want to hold stil for you to do anything to their ears. The best way to tattoo is to tattoo very young kids or lambs. I sometimes had to "refresh" the tattoos in both rabbits and goats. For that I used a tattoo needle and did it by hand.

 

[Ridgetop]

BTW, you can get very small tags that fold arund the ear edge. These seldom tear out. The drawback is they are so small you have to catch the animal to read the tag. If you just want to identify the animals in the field you can use paint and paint brand them on their sides. I recommend shearing them first since the paint doesn't leave a clear impression on wool. Put the paint brand on both sides so you can read it easily. You can get paint branding irons from Premier or use any branding iron that comes in numbers. You have to place each number one at a time on the animal so use a chute or head gate to hold them in place. Another way to identify different animals is to use spray paint. The stuff sold for sheep is water soluble but you can use regular spray if you are not planning on using the wool. Since you have only 2 rams, you could ut a different color on each. However, since you are planning on breeding and want to know which ram is which, ear tags or tattoos are best. You will need to put scrapie tags on your lambs anyway, so having a scrapie tag in one ear and the flock tag in the other ear works. That way if one tag breaks off (this happens) you still have the remaining tag to ID the animal. Keep good records, and remember to write the new number down if you replace the original ear tag with another. (This also happens)

 

[secuono]

Alternatively, since it's just 2 sheep, you'll eventually be able to tell them apart by their looks and voice, even if they seem identical.