Records, Databases, and spreadsheets! Oh my!

[bleeding_sarcasm]

I am a total geek, and I dont deny it. Forms and graphs totally do it for me! :main_thumbsup:

So, I wanna know what software you use, or excel spreadsheets, or cage/box tags, etc. Even how you decide what kind of ID# to use!

Basically I want to see how everyone keeps their animals/breeders/offspring organized, keeps track of records, etc. From pairing adults, and monitoring weights, to labeling eggs and hatchlings. Do you use harem situations or pairs?

I would especially love to see/hear descriptions of record keeping from "bigger" breeders [10+ breeding adults]

Screen shots would be great [alt + PrtScrn and paste into Paint, and save as a jpg] or you can just email them to me and ill post it [email protected]] or pictures if you do it all on paper, or of your cage tags in action on boxes, all would be greatly appreciated!

Ill post the overly complicated stuff I came up with over the weekend later.

Edit: For those mac uses, to take a screen shot its apple + Shift + 3, then it automatically saves it as a .png on the desktop.

 

[Baysidegeckos]

Here is a what a females record keeping sheet for egg laying, i just made it from scratch on Microsoft word, and then print the sheets out, and keep them in my binder.

Just plain in simple...............
Tell me what you think.........

 

[malt_geckos]

Bret, do you mind if we use your layout for our sheets?

 

[Baysidegeckos]

Yea you can use it, thats cool, go right ahead!

 

[PacHerp]

sneak peek...

here is a layout idea I put together a month or so ago, I just added some pics to it to make it pretty. :main_yes:

let me know what you think of the idea. I made it with Numbers on my Mac.

cheers,
Britt

 

[Okee Reps]

I'm a software guy so I tried a bunch of different programs until I settled on Degei Husbandry Database. It's primarily a snake program but it works for me. It also makes my cage cards and pretty much tracks everything.

 

[PacHerp]

oh I forgot... oops...

I have been weighting my geckos once a week, keeping 'sticky tabs' on the tubs they are in with their weight and the date I weighed them.

I'm also interested in hearing what the 'bigger breeders' do to keep their hatchlings organized... ID #'s and such.

great thread Tamara!

 

[Ccrashca069]

I like that software aproach. Where did you get it and how much is it?

I am a computer tech so anything I can do nice and easy on the computer is cool

 

[Okee Reps]

Here's the link to the site: http://www.eyehit.com/degei/

It's free to try but I think I paid like 20 or 25 bucks for the unlocked version.

 

[malt_geckos]

OMG! You all are so complicated! lol. We have a folder with weight cards. The weight cards have the hatch date, current weight and date weighed. Then we're going to use that breeding record sheet that Bret has posted. On the tubs, we've used a label maker to print out the sex, morph, and what it is het for, and we put the labels on the tubs.

 

[ssscales]

Degei is the best out there. It just covers everything from the day to day, to breeding/litters/clutches to inventory of feeders, you name it.

 

[Leopardbreeder]

I curently am doing every thing on my laptop on a basic spread sheet. I keep a back up on a memory card and a hard copy of everyting.

 

[bleeding_sarcasm]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We downloaded a copy of degei, and it wasnt very aesthetically pleasing [the ugly retic pic, drove me crazy haha], and I just wasnt that impressed with it.
Then we downloaded a copy of Metzcal, and I think its alot better. They actually have a section where you can enter morphs [dominant, co-dominant, and recessive] along with the genetics that go into it, and it will do up charts and punnetts squares for you to show possible offspring from certain pairings. Its easy to link pictures to each animal, Ill see how it works, before... we used nothing hahah.

 

[Ccrashca069]

wow!!!!!!!!! thats cool Tamara. So the Metzcal works really well for you then?

 

[Baysidegeckos]

Yea , I think i am gonna stick with my paper records, LOL

 

[Leopardbreeder]

Digital has MANY ups and downs. I love it because I can email someone the weights and records of an animal, and because I can program it to warn me when someone is loosing weight or gaining too quickly (Rarely happens if ever). I am just so scared I will loose all my data. I back all my stuff up online and onto a memory card 1-2 times a week.

 

[Ccrashca069]

thanks for reminding me Matt :main_thumbsup: I have too back up my files before I go to bed tonight.

Right now I am just writing in a binder all my leopard geckos names, weights date of birth, when they lay a clutch and who the pairing was. Also when I got them and who I got them from. I just started this Monday and I am also going to put a pic with each leopards section.

 

[ACE Geckos]

http://www.thegeckocam.com/hcs/download/index.php HCS is great for me keeping track of my breeders and such.

 

[Mel&Keith]

My record keeping is incredibly sophisticated. It looks something like this:

breedings-

hatchlings- (ID, date, weight, M or F incubator)

I even made those chart papers by hand. The old pen and ruler method! Then I just made a bunch of copies of it. I hate computers. LOL

I think the hardest thing for me was figuring out an ID system. If I didn't have all of my papers on a clip board in the gecko room, I'd probably get everything confused.

 

[Franks_Geckos]

Every year I come up with a spreadsheet that lasts a few months and then I give up on it. It is so much easier for me to keep index cards and periodically update the website from them. I don't carry the laptop around with me when I check the incubator or weigh my geckos, so if I have to write the info down once anyway, why bother typing it up somewhere else for a second time?
Maybe this year I will come up with something I print out that I can just fill in and attach to the racks as eggs are laid and hatched every year. I still can't see getting rid of my sticky labels and index cards though. I seem to keep better records with them anyway.