Marking hatchlings? Other breeders question.

[Jodie]

I am going to start selling my leopard hatchlings. I have enough this year that it is pretty tough to keep track of who is who. I want to be able to let people pick their baby, but need to be able to keep track of them. Is there anything that will be easy to remove, and not harmful?

 

[Yvonne G]

I put a small dot with fingernail polish in the center of a scute. One dot on this guy, two dots on that guy, etc. When you get too many dots to fit the center of the scute, you move to a different scute - one dot on the right front scute, etc.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I use a paint marker pen for the ages and write it down in a notebook for eggs and now for babies, too. One dot. two dot. X. Two Xs etc.
The paint marker is only semi permanent and fades away in a few months.

 

[Markw84]

With lots of babies the best way I have come to like is use the marginal. Starting from the front, and using the left side as 10's, and the right side as 1's, I will mark a baby with a small dot of fingernail polish on the first marginal on the right = #1. The #2 would be the second marginal on the right, etc. #10 would be the first marginal on the left, with no others marked. #15 would be the first marginal on the left and the 5th marginal on the right. #53 would be the 5th marginal on the left and the 3rd on the right. etc., etc., etc.

The small dots are visible from above and come off relatively easy, yet not too "disfiguring".

 

[Jodie]

Thanks for the responses and ideas!

 

[Anyfoot]

Has anyone tried a perminant UV pen?

 

[Markw84]

Has anyone tried a perminant UV pen?

You could do that for just your own tracking, but if the idea is to be able to post pictures to have prospective buyers pick the one they want, you need a way fairly visible in a photo group shot, yet (I prefer) not too distracting from the beauty of the tortoise.