Labeling or marking

[ekchow]

I have 5 young pups and I want to sex them but I have 1 black and 4 brown. The brown all look very similar. I can't tell them apart. Is there something I can use to mark them as different? Like a safe paint or marker?

[Markpd]

I assume they have fur? If so, perhaps you could shave little patches of fur in different places?
I've heard that been done before, but I've no idea how practical it is to actually do on wriggly pups!

Let us know how you get on.

[betty]

If they are brown (as in agouti-based) then by snipping just a teeny piece of fur off will leave an obvious almost black patch on them - so you could snip on the back of the neck on one, the lower back on another and the tip of the tail on the third. However of course - they will moult out these (and any other topical markings) at some point - possibly several times before they are adults.

Once pups get to homing age though Ekchow - they are VERY easy to sex anyway - so once you have identified the sex of the black one - you only need to know the numbers of each sex with the brown ones to begin looking at homing them in pairs or trios etc. saving the need to mark them at all.

As they age - you will usually be able to tell them apart by size or character - and once in an adult clan - knowing which one is which will become easier (or less needed). Marking through their adult life can be done with snipping (or colours) as before - but I often find knowing who is who isn't such an issue overall.

You could also choose to home the brown ones one each with their parents (if they aren't brown too) to hopefully leave you with at least one different coloured pair to send to a new home.

Finally - if they are all slightly different browns (genes) then some of the brown ones could change colour completely with age (the ee colours usually change most drastically between 8-12 weeks) so this could help?

Do you have any images of them all?

[Markpd]

ekchow