• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Does anyone else use a paper notebook to record info in?

smigon

smigon

Old enough to know better
I know there are good computer programs out there to enter the date, what they weigh, what they ate (or refused), shed, etc. but I love to write and I have been using the old black and white Composition books which are falling apart and almost full.

I would like to find a kind of notebook where the sections are divided so I have a section for each snake, vertical lines for the date, food, weight, etc. and can add pages if needed.

Does anyone have a suggestion on where to find one?
 
My bad. I just use a regular small notebook. Mine is broken into days of the week and I have just put the name of the snake to be fed that day. I also note if they are in shed and their weights.

I would look into a binder with loose leaf and dividers.
 
I use a dry erase board for feeding/shed stuff, and when that gets full I enter the info into iherp. It's really easy to use and great website. I believe they have or are working on a phone app? Before it existed though I did use a notebook for years, I would put down the snakes in rows and then the feeding/shed info in columns by date. You can use the math ones with the squares, and they sell other ones with nice pre-marked columns (the ones I liked were for business records)
 
Yup, I'm sure I've seen something like this at Staples... I use paper too, but just found a nice journal that I liked the look and feel of, and then made columns for myself with a good ol' pen and ruler. :)
 
(For a lot of snakes) - For feeding, shedding, etc I like to keep track on paper. I don't think a computer will ever be faster. I like to create spreadsheets with all the animals down one side and dates / feedings across the other. I don't fill them in on the computer, I print them out. Then I just put a check mark, date, food item or whatever I'm tracking in each cell. So a single sheet of paper will have maybe 10 to 30 snakes, depending how you do it. If I cared to have the data in a more usable format I'd enter it in some computer system of some sort, but I don't think it's that helpful unless you're going to do some cool analysis or automation. For harder numbers, I store them in a spreadsheet or database. But day to day stuff stays on paper for me.
 
I used to keep a book on every snake but now I use iherp. When Aaron first developed it, I was a tester so I put everything on there. Love it! Free, he keeps everything backed up and it's easy to record feeding/sheds everything....breeding...and if someone buys a snake from me and is a member I can transfer the animal to them and they will have all data without having to input it all.....simple!
 
I use a paper journal myself and if you want a journal that might work well for you I'd recommend buying an accountant's ledger. They have lots of columns and I'm sure there must be at least one model out there that has unlabeled columns. Otherwise I'd just make some columns in a journal.
 
I use a notebook that has different sections, Calender (shedding, feeding and weight tracks), to do ( the stuff I'm getting for them) and notes (Idk what for yet though)
 
I was writing everything down on lined paper, in a 3 ring notebook, until I found a spreadsheet on my Ipad numbers program that is super easy-(I hate excel and am not great at making any type of spreadsheets) it is actually a human baby growth chart, on one page I record all feedings and on the other I record sheds, weights and length when I can get one :) It is all already set up, just plug in info you want.
 
See, you can record growth, weight etc on iherp as well. I like that you can do stuff in batches....like feeding. I have a lot of animals and all I have to do is go to batch feed, choose all my animals and go down the column and check whether I fed them or not and what size the prey was. Done....no books to keep track of....having 30 books in the room really sucked. If I had to take an animal to the vet, I just copied and pasted the information into a document and printed it. The vet could keep it in the animals' records.
 
MegF. said:
See, you can record growth, weight etc on iherp as well. I like that you can do stuff in batches....like feeding. I have a lot of animals and all I have to do is go to batch feed, choose all my animals and go down the column and check whether I fed them or not and what size the prey was. Done....no books to keep track of....having 30 books in the room really sucked. If I had to take an animal to the vet, I just copied and pasted the information into a document and printed it. The vet could keep it in the animals' records.
Click to expand...

I have just one book, one of those black and white old-tyme Composition books, and started out with Scarlett, my first corn. I wrote her name and she gets one line on feeding day or when she sheds, etc. and when I get another snake I give the last one 4 pages and write down the newbie. I filled in the last line of Scarlett's section last night, so now I need to give her a section at the back of the line! I see now that one notebook won't do it.

I like the idea of a 3 ring binder though, but I also like the idea of an accountant journal. I will see what they have at the store.

I am good on the computer, but am lazy at entering info which is why I have the notebook. I weigh and write right then and there so I don't forget. And now with about 20 pages worth of info on 11 different kiddos, I will have to see if I have the patience to type it all in! I swore to do it when I got Scarlett 2 years ago, but life got in the way... :sobstory:
 
I've got so many snakes that it was impossible to do that...I started out that way and ended up using up the book without parts in between...finding the different snakes...this is so easy...
That's the nice part....you just go to group and click click click and it records it in a second. Nothing to type in....
 
Agreed w/ Meg! It doesn't even take me that long to do the iherp batch feeding a group when my dry erase board is full and I have a month or two worth. The default is that the snakes ate, so it's just a matter of unchecking the box if any did not, then there is a box to click for shedding.
 
I never got into iherp, though Aaron Florian is one stupidly funny guy. Meg knows what I speak of!

I've used a number of things in the past, from steno pads to classic composition notebooks. What I have found easiest for me, and it doesn't leave me at the whim of a harddrive failure or server database brainfart is a nice excel form. All it lists is the snake name, species, prey item size, quantity, and whether it ate or not. I have it grouped into days I feed (Sat and Wed) with a remarks section below each day. 1 sheet, everyone on it, and rarely do I have enough comments that take up the entire remarks field.

From there, I also use old school 5x8 note cards. This is more time consuming, but is done for newly acquired pets and animals I produce. Once newly acquired pets are stable, they are moved to the excel sheet. Animals I produce stay as 5x8 cards so that if/when sold that information is hardcopy and can be passed on and left to the new owner of how they want to use that info.

Something I have thought about using, but just haven't done it yet is Reptile Scan. Nanci uses it and speaks highly of it. At one point I think it use to be just $25 ($24.99), but now there appears to be a subscription style to it of 1, 3, 6, or 12 months, or doing a one-time payment of $249. Not sure if I like that, which is why I probably still do pen, paper, and a 3-ring binder.
 
Aaron backs up the site daily so at least the only thing you might lose is a day's worth of info. At least iherp is free and now I don't need so many books...
 
I looked up Reptile Scan. It is still 24.99 for the App. The additional fee is if you want to add the Pro version. It says the Pro is not a must have but does have more options to it. Not sure if Nanci has the reg version or pro
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top