diff --git a/app/models/contact.rb b/app/models/contact.rb
index abae9e8be..06a819616 100644
--- a/app/models/contact.rb
+++ b/app/models/contact.rb
@@ -18,12 +18,13 @@ class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   accepts_nested_attributes_for :address, :disclosure
 
-  validates :name, :phone, :email, :ident, :address, :registrar, presence: true
-
-  validate :ident_must_be_valid
+  validates :name, :phone, :email, :ident, :address, :registrar, :ident_type, presence: true
 
   validates :phone, format: /\+[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,14}?/ # /\+\d{3}\.\d+/
   validates :email, format: /@/
+  validates :ident, format: /\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}/, if: proc { |c| c.ident_type == 'birthday' }
+
+  validate :ident_must_be_valid
 
   validates :code, uniqueness: { message: :epp_id_taken }
 
@@ -135,7 +136,8 @@ class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
       ],
       '2005' => [ # Value syntax error
         [:phone, :invalid],
-        [:email, :invalid]
+        [:email, :invalid],
+        [:ident, :invalid]
       ]
     }
   end
diff --git a/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb b/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
index e74264e33..8b247aab5 100644
--- a/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ describe 'EPP Contact', epp: true do
       end
 
       it 'successfully saves ident type' do
-        xml = { ident: { value: '37605030299', attrs: { type: 'birthday' } } }
+        xml = { ident: { value: '1990-22-12', attrs: { type: 'birthday' } } }
         epp_request(create_contact_xml(xml), :xml)
         expect(Contact.last.ident_type).to eq('birthday')
       end
diff --git a/spec/models/contact_spec.rb b/spec/models/contact_spec.rb
index 70b11b2b9..7845e54f0 100644
--- a/spec/models/contact_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/contact_spec.rb
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ describe Contact do
          email: ['Required parameter missing - email', 'Email is invalid'],
          ident: ['Required parameter missing - ident'],
          address: ['is missing'],
-         registrar: ['is missing']
+         registrar: ['is missing'],
+         ident_type: ['is missing']
       })
     end
   end