ABGA Member, Dawn Foster, of No Step Ranch in Sterling City, Texas takes us through the steps on how to tattoo your goat.

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Tips for Successful Tattooing of Your Goats

• Halter or muzzle the animal, if necessary.

• Insert the correct symbols in the pliers.

• Check the correctness of the symbols by making a mark on a piece of paper.

• Smear ink on the skin, choosing an area free from freckles and warts, if possible.

• Place the symbols parallel to and between the veins or cartilage of the ear or the veins of the tail web.

• Green paste is much better for permanent tattoo identification, particularly where the tissue receiving the tattoo is black or very dark.

• Do not disturb the area until the healing process is complete, which may be from five to twenty-one days.

• Keep a list of tattoo numbers with names of animals and enter it in your private breeding record.

• To read the tattoo in a dark-ear animal, hold a lighted flashlight against the outside of the ear.

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Equipment Needed: Baking soda, tattoo digits, numbers and alphabet, tattoo ink (paste or roll-on; green is the most versatile), tattoo pliers, wet wipes, toothbrush, and towel.

Clean the ear. Scrub the middle of the ear with a wipe.

Dry the ear thoroughly

Apply in to ear.

Tattoo the ear using tattoo pliers. Push down hard. The herd prefix goes in the right ear, and the year letter and goat's number go in the left ear.

Apply more ink.

Apply baking soda.

Work baking soda in tattooed area.

Finished tattoo after one year.