Microchips are permanent identification devices that increase the chance of lost pets being reunited with their families.  These rice-sized objects are implanted with a syringe into the loose skin by the shoulder blades.  When a scanner is passed over the area, it reads the chip via ultrasound and displays a unique identification number.  This number is registered by the pet's owner with the owner's contact information.  Microchips are used to identify pets worldwide.  Veterinary hospitals, animal shelters and rescue groups routinely scan all lost animals to attempt reunification with their families. 

There are at least 6 types of microchips offered in the United States.  These vary in many ways including:  frequency, costs (device, implantation, registration fees, and annual fees), inclusion in databases and ancillary services (insurance, etc.).  Microchipping with any microchip has been shown to increase the chance of pet recovery.

Our microchip of choice is Datamars for the following reasons:  

• Datamars is the first US microchip to conform to the ISO internationally accepted frequency, 134.2kHz.  The US has delayed in accepting this frequency as the uniform standard due to copyright and other legal issues, but it is accepted and used by most other countries.  An ISO standard microchip is required for travel with an International Health Certificate.
• Universal scanners are now used at most hospitals and shelters in order to detect and read microchips of all frequencies, including Datamars.
• When purchased through us, Datamars ONLY cost is the implant of the microchip.  There is no device fee, registration fee, annual fee, or fee for updating contact information.  Registration is completed at petlink.net.
• Datamars is one of 4 voluntary participants in AAHA?s petmicrochiplookup.org, an effort to compile all current US microchip registries into one searchable database.