Is a layperson allowed to insert microchips?

My rescue always take our cats to Petco to be microchipped at $40 each and it adds up so we really like to do it cheaper. So we found out that Home Again is offering Petfinder members microchips for only $5 per chip and $10 for lifetime registration. This would be great for us but I read somewhere that only veterinarians are allowed to insert microchips. I find that a bit hard to believe though since I know that pounds have the animal control officers do it and a shelter I volunteered at had the kennel workers do it. So I'm wondering if anyone knows what the law says on this. Can we buy the microchips and insert them ourselves? I asked my vet but he didn't know so I thought I'd try here.

I'm pretty sure you can. They sell them in the pet supply catalogs, with no warnings about needing a vet to insert them (like the warning with rabies vaccine) I mean, how do they know who put the chip in? As long as you register it properly, there shouldn't be any problem. I think the main issue would be learning how to do it properly.

No way I could do it - I heard that it's painful, and just trying to hold my cat down to clip his claws is already an interesting feat.

I found a youtube video:

here's one with a cat:

Have you tried the SPCA or another sort of organization - maybe they are less expensive?

It might be a state by state thing, but somehow I doubt that anyone has raised an issue with the government about who actually microchips an animal.

A humane society that I used to volunteer for researched microchipping one time - they were going to do it for a fundraiser. The firm recommended that a vet do the procedure, but also stated that a lot of the shelters they work with do it without a vet. They gave us a sample of the chip and needle. Once the volunteers that were actually vet techs saw the needle, they declined doing it themselves. It isn't a simple needle poke. It actually cuts a slice out of the skin sort of like when doing a biopsy.

I personally would never try to do this to an animal. I wouldn't want it done to me, therefore I couldn't bring myself to do it to a fuzzy.

Well... I don't think there is a law on it - I buy mine at Amazon for $14. and have my vet implant it for free.... Since it is sold at Amazon, there is nothing stopping me, as a buyer, from implanting on my own. I just do it at the vet's office as they give a little pain killer shot before - it is not a big deal to implant at all either.

Thanks for the responses. I think you're all correct, we could do it ourselves. I would think that if a state law would not allow anyone but a vet to do it we wouldn't be able to buy it and the government run pounds wouldn't have ACO's do it. I've done a bunch of Googling to see if there is a law about it in my state but the only law I can find regarding microchips is one that requires adopted animals to be chipped.

I wouldn't have any problem doing it myself. It is a big needle but it's very quick and I've seen it done countless times without any animal making a fuss. We do give the FRVCP shot ourselves and the microchip is done the same way, it's just a bigger needle. Home Again sells preloaded "syringes" that you use to insert it and that needle isn't as big as some others I've seen. I just brought a cat to a local vet a few days ago to have him chipped and they used Resq chips and that needle was really big. It's inserted so quickly though that the cat doesn't have much of a chance to react.

I'm pretty sure anyone can do it if you have the equipment, and anyone can buy the chips/needles.

I know it can be done and there is not a law against it but I would not want to do it. I can give a shot, but those microchip needles are pretty big. Most of the time, your vet should be able to implant it for you at no charge, or even the vet tech.