Reptile ID tags are one of the best things you can give to your pet. In times when your pet becomes an escape artist, reptile ID tags can help you locate him faster. During an emergency or disaster, even simple reptile ID tags with information printed in indelible ink attached in a cage can make a difference between losing or keeping your pet amidst the chaos.

Some turtle and tortoise owners employ shell notching on their pets as a method of identification. However, many vets advise against this due to risk of infection. For these pets, vets usually recommend a non-invasive method of employing non-toxic paint onto the shell for identification purposes. The downside of this method is that owners would have to be diligent enough to re-apply the paint from time to time because it usually fades or flake off.

One of the safest, permanent, and successful ways to employ reptile ID tags is microchipping. In this method, a microchip with a unique ID number is injected under the skin. The chip is wrapped in a sturdy biocompatible glass and can easily fit into a hypodermic needle. Chips can last up to 25 years, therefore is ensured to last throughout your pet's lifetime. There is no maintenance task whatsoever involved in having your pet microchipped. A thin tissue layer surrounds a microchip and keeps it in place once injected, thus it will remain steady and cannot be passed through or out of the body. Once pets a microchipped, they will have permanent reptile ID tags that cannot be lost, altered or removed intentionally.

If a pet gets lost and ends up in a shelter, the chip can be easily scanned and recognized with a microchip scanner. What the scanner does is that it sends a radio signal through the reptile's skin to read the chip. The chip, in turn, sends back its number to the scanner. The reptile feels nothing as the scanner is passed over him. A vet can easily perform microchipping on your pet, and when the chip is registered, information will go into a private database for easy retrieval when needed. There are a number of reptile ID tags in the form of microchips in the market. Among these, AVID is one of the most common and cross compatible chips in the United States.

If you have a number of pets and prefer to purchase a scanner of your own, there are also a number of scanner types in the market. AVID, for one, offers scanners that can only read AVID chips; or if you need to read different brands of chips, they also have a MiniTracker Multi.

Maintaining reptile pets can be quite challenging, especially because of their need to live in an environment that mimics their natural habitat. No reptile owner, after all the caring he has given his pets, would risk losing them so easily. Reptile ID tags give owners a sense of security, and one less reason not to permanently lose their stray pets.