# She's Got a Tattoo!



## Kwings (Dec 21, 2010)

My Mini Rex who i call piglet has a tattoo in her ear! i just saw it today while i was feeding and holding her i touched her ear and saw blue, and said "HEY! you have a tattoo!" 

Besides that someone tattooed her, what could it mean? Is there a database with registration numbers for rabbit breeders? The Tattoo says BM42 This is one of my craigslist bunnies so i didn't get her from a proper breeder but evidently someone did. 

Thanks!


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## giraffe_baby (Oct 15, 2005)

I know for shows they tattoo the ear ( 4 H ect) but thats all I know about them


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## Kwings (Dec 21, 2010)

Ooooo I didn't even think about 4H!! 

Sometimes i wish they could talk, I want to know her past! lol it might be interesting.


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## wolffeathers (Dec 20, 2010)

Right ear or left?

ARBA registration tats go in one, breeder tats go in another.

Breeder tattoos mean very little. It's just a means to ID your individual rabbit(and its pedigree) from your possibly hundreds others that look exactly like it. Same deal for shows. Judges and owners use it for IDing rabbits. Once you reach a certain amount of rabbits, it's hard to keep up with the individuals and their correct paperwork. So you would tattoo the ear and put the tat number on the pedigree and it's basically that's rabbit social security number. Met a breeder at a local show and he was showing me all of his bucks of a certain breed and while a couple showed very minor difference, most looked very much like the other. In the midst of pulling them out to show, he found one without a tattoo. Went home and didn't have a number on the cage either, so the rabbit was basically an unknown, didn't know who it's parents were or how old it was. Basically said it was worthless to him now, because he couldn't 'honestly' place the rabbit with a correct pedigree. (sad thing was, it was one of the better looking bucks of the group, breeder was none too happy about it)


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## Honorine (Feb 27, 2006)

Some well known breeders tattoo their initials of either their name or their rabbitry in their ear, common in Flemish Giants, the first two or three letters tells you who the breeder is. I do that sometimes, put my son's initials in the ear, but sometimes with the Mini Rex or Florida Whites I put a code that tells me who the mother is, what cross they are etc. Meat pens I often spell out the mothers name, with one letter per rabbit, as I normally do not plan on keeping them.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

The only thing a tattoo in the left ear means, is that the rabbit is LIKELY pedigreed OR the first owner just kept good records and tattooed everybody. If you can trace her back to her original breeder, then you could likely get her pedigree.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

BM42 sounds like a breeder tattoo, registration numbers are generally longer, aren't they? It probably means she is a purebred rabbit, though. After all, how many folks keep tattoo kits if they aren't serious about their rabbits?


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## Kwings (Dec 21, 2010)

I still have the number of the lady i got her form, i might text her and ask her if i could have the number to the place she got her from if she still has it. I'd be interested in contacting them and seeing if i could get her pedigree.


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## The Bunny Ranch (Nov 3, 2010)

We tattoo everyone. 2 letters 2 numbers in the left ear. If that was 5 numbers in the right ear then she could have been a champion. The right ear is usually reserved for the ARBA. 

Hope this helps!


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

If you can join a local group of rabbit people...either a general rabbit group, or a mini-rex group, you can say "i have a minirex doe with BM42 tattoo in her ear. If anyone recognizes it, could you help me out with some information on her?" (that's what I did in an online yahoo group about a doe I had that was supposed to have a pedigree, but the previous owner wasn't responding to my emails about it. (I got an almost immediate response from the breeder)

BM could either be the initials of the farm, the owner, or the 2 parents (Barry the Buck x Martha the doe) (I've recently been exploring the different reasons for tattooing and the "what's your scheme?")

To be shown a rabbit MUST have a tattoo in it's left ear. As mentioned above, many breeders just tattoo everything in a litter to keep track of who's who. 

If you do ask in a group about this doe, it's quite possible that the original breeder will come forward, but will tell you that they will need to charge you for pedigree information(parents, grandparents). Some sell their rabbits as pets without a pedigree and charge more for a pedigreed rabbit.


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## Pat Lamar (Jun 19, 2002)

I believe the ARBA stopped using letter/number combinations for registering rabbits... they now use an insignia in the right ear, instead. The BM42 would have to be a breeder identification, usually for show purposes. When I had a lot of rabbits, not every rabbit got an ID tattoo... only those that were going to a show. However, every rabbit had a DESIGNATED tattoo number for hutch card/cage and pedigree purposes, and if later sold or shown, would then be tattooed.

Pat Lamar


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## The Bunny Ranch (Nov 3, 2010)

I wasn't aware that the ARBA stopped doing digits. That's amazing. 

You learn something new everyday.

Thanks Pat!


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## Reauxman (Sep 14, 2002)

ARBA allows either the registration or the circle R to be tattoo'ed on registered animals. I wouldn't register anything if the entire reg number had to be put in the ear, too much work the the whole $3 we make per animal registered, which we must pay postage from. 
Reaux
ARBA Judge/Registrar


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

That is correct, the registrars use a R in a circle to indicate registered now. 
I don't even think I own any rabbits anymore with a registration number in the ear. 

A lot of times, more well known breeders have a tattoo letter prefix that becomes recognized in that breed fancy, and a lot of times, you have hundreds and hundreds of people that simply choose numbers and letters at random. 

The fact that it's 42 tells me that the person didn't breed much or is fairly new to rabbits or culled very hard. People that have been around awhile would likely have numbers in the hundreds.

Go on mini-rex yahoo and ask who uses BM as an ear prefix. Maybe you will get an answer.


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## Kwings (Dec 21, 2010)

Is this mini rex yahoo? 

http://pets.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/NMRRC/

If not could you send me a link? I don't use yahoo (i'm a googler  ) and i don't know how to find their groups and stuff like that lol. 

Thanks!!


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Yahoo isn't just a search engine, you know. I use google as my search engine, too. Yahoo is a whole package sort of thing. Home page setup, groups, chats, IM...anyway...

http://groups.yahoo.com/ will take you to the groups homepage. There you can search for whatever group you're interested in. In this case, just put mini rex in the search box. There are likely a dozen groups for mini rex since they're very popular. You may well find one for your area.

ALSO...look into the district rabbit groups. I use distrcit3 for all things local...clubs, shows, rabbits in general. I'm not sure what district Indiana is in, although should be easy to find out.
eta: You are in District 8. This is their homepage:http://www.arba.net/district/8/


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## Reauxman (Sep 14, 2002)

lonelyfarmgirl said:


> The fact that it's 42 tells me that the person didn't breed much or is fairly new to rabbits or culled very hard. People that have been around awhile would likely have numbers in the hundreds.
> 
> QUOTE]
> 
> ...


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