Telling them apart

[halfstache]

Kind of curious how everyone keeps track of which baby is which if you have two that look identical from the same litter and are the same gender. More specifically I had a situation with a recent litter where two standard brothers looked completely identical with the only difference being a slightly different birth weight of 4 grams. I was concerned to start with because what if one baby gained weight and the other lost weight, then I wouldn't know who is who and my record keeping wouldn't be as accurate as I'd like it to be. I kept thinking there has got to be a better way to keep it straight as to who is who, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out a way to be sure until just here recently when their weights are now different enough to be able to tell who is who visually.

 

[Sandi]

I have heard of placing a small mark on one of the ears of a kit with a marker or some blu-kote. I've also heard of just slightly trimming the tip of one of the kits tails. I think marking the ear would be the easiest/safest of the 2 suggestions.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

We trim tails.

 

[DaddyslilDimwit]

I've had 2 girls, born only 10mins apart, looked exactly alike and had the same birth weight. Now that was a pain in the butt. I had trimmed the tail on one.

 

[EMSChins]

I also trim the hair on the tail on one of them, or more if there are identical trips or quads (but do it in a different manner on each one). I then notate who has the trimmed tail on a piece of painters tape and put it on the cage as well as notate it on their weight sheet. As they grow I freshen up the trim to continue to be able to tell them apart if no further differences emerge. I continue to do this until they are weaned to separate cages. I find that the markings in the ear will wear off too quickly or mom grooms them off.

 

[halfstache]

very interesting. I never would have thought of trimming their tails. The only idea I had come up with at all was ear tagging, but I didn't think having a tag on their ear all the time would be a good thing. I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time that happens.

 

[greychins]

I never thought to trim tales... hmmm *notes for next time*.

We marked the ear of one of the babies with a sharpie. So if there were two, one would have the marked ear. The once we had a trio of standard females, they got different markings on two of the chins' ears. Worked out reasonably well, though it does wear off, so you have to reapply.

 

[jags]

I may be the one who started trimming tails and have done so for years. You just trim the end of the fur on the tail square. It most times will last until they are weaned but then grows back out to be normal.