What do you use to identify your puppies in a litter for a purchaser I have heard of breeders marking their fur with paint ?? what sort, clipping fur and nail varnish on a claw - what do you suggest.  I could try the obvious and individual collars which I have got but I know they will drag each other round by them !!!!

Nail varnish on the back nails works well and is the one I use when they are all the same colour but I had an over cleaning bitch and the only thing I could do was to clip a small piece of hair off on the rump as the varnish kept disappearing.  I personally dont like the collars as they can get so easily get snagged or pulled on. 

Emma

I bought the coloured paper collars and they were brilliant, only cost about £3 for a packet.  They dont seem to notice they have them on or drag each others about

I tried them too but a couple of mums tried to chew them off, others didnt bother about them.

I use TabBands and have never had them chewed, removed, or otherwise.  Only put them on as they are chosen by their prospective new owners, so when I send photos, they recognise their own pup.  Used in hospitals in the USA, and eventually got popular in vet practices over there.  I cut them off when the new owners collect.

On my last litter I used a piece of embroidery thread round each ones neck with a two inch tail that would show out of the coat.

I have never needed to identify puppies specifically for the new owners as I know which ones they are.

> I have never needed to identify puppies specifically for the new owners as I know which ones they are

they are easy to tell appart by that age i think as they are pretty individual. its when they are first born and aside from sex are pretty much of a much, coat still dark and markings not really showing through yet, that was the hardest for me.

Well except to those who know them well all Elkhounds, especially pups look the same.

This is why as they are born I make note of anything that distinguishes, white toe tip, white hairs on chest etc.  But putting the embroidery thread on them and leaving the 2 inch tags (changing every few days at first and about once a week at weigh in time later) means I can recognise each oen more quickly and easily.

I also call them by their colours, like Blue Red etc.

You can often pick the colours out in photos which new owners love when they can tell which was their pup in the litter pictures.

Never had the need with Boxers and Cavaliers - all individually marked and easy to tell apart.

> Well except to those who know them well all Elkhounds, especially pups look the same.
>
>

sorry barbara i ment all pups in any litter, not just elkhounds. unless there is an obvious colour, size, sex or marking difference for the first couple of days (i think anyway) that pups are all very similar looking.

> This is why as they are born I make note of anything that distinguishes, white toe tip, white hairs on chest etc

the thing is this isn't always there (eg. in my breed you might find one has a white chest flash and another doesn't but if a few don't and they are all say red boys) its often hard to tell without a prompt like your threads

thats easier lol

for our litter all of them were reds with no obvious identifying marks till they developed a bit more. the only 3 who were easy to differentiate were 'Mr Orange' and 'Miss Brown' who were a darker red but obviously different sexes, and 'Mr yellow' who was humungous :) (we colour coded soft collars)

Where do you get the paper collars from??

I tried the Tyvek ones (got them off of ebay) but just couldnt get on with them as I had to trim the width to size and for a small breed I found the once they were at a suitable width, they didnt stay put so well!

So I went back to my usual Ricrac collars. Wavy and not 'slippy' like satin ribbon, they dont undo or slip and once tied they stay until you take them off. Cheap to buy in just about every colour imaginable, I had loads of it for collar changes and colours for each pup.

I too refer to them by the collar colour :-)

> the thing is this isn't always there (eg. in my breed you might find one has a white chest flash and another doesn't but if a few don't and they are all say red boys) its often hard to tell without a prompt like your threads

Yep often in my breed there is nothing to distinguish at all.

Mine are generally identical for about a week to 10 days. After that they're easily distinguishable. :-)

I bought coloured paper colours from ebay for £2, my puppies are all different and i have been able to tell the 6 of them appart from birth but my partner cant, i have only started using them for the last few days now that they are 5 weeks and i am very pleased with them. The puppies dont seem to notice them and it makes it alot easier to identify them at a glance. I was even allowed to chose the 6 colours i got to match the colours i had been using for their weight charts and such. Also because the collars are made of paper i have cut them lengthways so they are not so thick so now have twice as many!

i used tippex on different toes and cat collars with elastic at 4 weeks, never had a problem with anyone being dragged

I used the embroidery tags on my labs all same colour

I bought a whole bunch of the threads in the £1 shop, about 20 colours (some multi but at least 10 one solid colour).

Even after changing them weekly or more I have enough on each skien to do two pups with each, very easy and cost effective.

With the older pups I found they were not trying to get the thread collars off,a s I suppose they were not thick enough or interesting enough.

When I tried more bulky paper or elastic collars the pups chewed them..

often wondered how  you identified a litter of say black standard poodles LOL.  thank goodness  my breed have  distinguishable markings.

Do those paper collars not rip?

I dont know about actual paper ones, but the Tyvek ones are made of plastic, but feel and bend like strong paper. So they are pretty much impossible to rip, you have to cut them.