What is the youngest age that is safe to microchip a puppy? I have heard that the earlier you implant a microchip the higher risk of chip migration? We are thinking of microchipping a litter at 7 weeks and our vet recommended that may be a little early as the large bore needle may traumatize the puppies. Any thoughts, suggestions???

I have always microchipped my puppies from the age 7-8 weeks with no complications so far.

I have chipped mine at 6 weeks when they start pulling their collars off!

6-7 weeks. Most puppies don't even cry.

we chip at 7-8 weeks and the needles may look big but they are very sharp and insertion is quick with very little reaction. I get more of a squeal out of vaccines.

Migration all depends on the person doing the insertion, you must put it just under the first layer of muscle tissue for it to stay put, putting it under the skin gives it plenty of room to migrate downward

What about chip migration? My vet won't do chips until a puppy has done a good amount of growth for fear of migration or loss of the chip.

I know many of you do your chips at 8 weeks. Any of you loose a chip or find it migrated when being scanned?

Anyone have a dog that needed the chip removed from an elbow for example?

All of my first dogs were microchipped by a vet and they all migrated, one bitch's was down by her elbow, the other by her shoulder.None had to be removed, but I ran into a situation one time that our town ACO insisted my bitch wasn't chipped after she walked over to the non doggy friendly neighbours(and my DH called the police to report she was missing after a few minutes and they had picked her up but forgot to tell him and he spent the whole day looking for her)I knew her chip was just off of her right shoulder.
She was waving the wand just in the middle of her shoulders, I grabbed it and scanned her whole front to show her how it's done!!

I now microchip all puppies before leaving and do it the night before they leave. I had one puppy in my last litter last fall that the chip fell out, but so far none have migrated. They seem to have made improvements on the coatings that they are able to stay in place more so than say 20 years ago. That said, I wait on the puppies I keep until they are a little older because it's easier on them and me, just pop a cookie and while they are chewing I jab them with the needle, and the hole doesn't seem so big. There isn't much you can put on it, but I did use some New Skin on few puppies last time as I thought the insertion site was a bit more open than I'd like. I'm a nurse and really good at giving injections(my patients always say they never felt it) and let me tell you that needle makes me squeemish!

I chip at 5-6 weeks. No issues, no migrations. The new chips are supposed to have a little barb that creates some scar tissue and helps keep the chip in place.

MWK