If you keep one reptile as a pet, or maintain a larger collection, record keeping in the hobby is as important as the animal’s husbandry itself.
Keeping records of the animal’s history is beneficial because it tracks the progress of a particular animal from past to present. At BPA, we track numerous events of each individual ball python. We keep notes on these events on a simple 8 ½ X 11 record sheet. Once the record sheet becomes filled we archive them in a binder for future reference.
We maintain a clip board with the record sheets for each snake for each individual rack. On each tub, we Velcro an animal ID number that correlates to the same ID number on the record sheet. Our record sheet is simple as it incorporates a date and action column.
In the action column we record many events such as:
- Sheds: complete or incomplete
- Temperature checks: ambient and hot spots
- Feeding: what it ate, what size, refusal
- Weight of animal
- Breeding Info, i.e. breeder male ID# 34 placed in tub
- Witnessed breeding locks
- Follicle Growth
- Ovulations
- Egg laying
Once we track the history of events per animal, we can always go back and see how an animal behaves, season to season. For example, this snake went off feed last year at this time or this female ovulated at this time last year.
Keep your records up to date folks and know what’s going on in your collection.
Sample Record Keeping Form
Instructions: Click on the image below to view the sample of our record keeping form. (The form is in Adobe Acrobat Format).
