Serious Question: Reptile Software

So I keep seeing the occasional thread pop up about reptile software. And I want to get some feed back on this. What features do you seek in these programs, and what are some popular choices? I'm a programmer, and the thought that people pay money for these things when they can be provided for free intrigues me. So I'm asking for serious feedback, what key features do you use these programs for, and what would you like to see in them? I'd like to take a shot at developing something people can use easily as part of their lives for tracking stats about their reptiles.

Submit as much info as you'd like, even including examples, screenshots, or even mock ups of how you'd like to see a program laid out for you. All feedback is appreciated!

wouldnt it be similar to software used by dog breeders, cat breeders, horse breeders?

i dont get the difference.

i heared that one of the largest breeders has a software that gives him a value for how well a certain snake is genetically represented in the collection, and preferentially holds back individuals that are less represented in order to keep inbreeding low. thats a nice functionality.

its somewhere in here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIgSD8iwg1s maybe you can ask them

Be nice if one of them would stick around for more than a couple years after taking our money. Updates and fixes are always nice. I've paid for three so far, and no more. Went back to index cards. No worries they'll leave me hanging. :gj:

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

wouldnt it be similar to software used by dog breeders, cat breeders, horse breeders?

i dont get the difference.

i heared that one of the largest breeders has a software that gives him a value for how well a certain snake is genetically represented in the collection, and preferentially holds back individuals that are less represented in order to keep inbreeding low. thats a nice functionality.

its somewhere in here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIgSD8iwg1s maybe you can ask them

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This is why I am asking haha, I don't breed any animals so I don't really know what people are trying to keep track of when it comes to using these types of programs. If features and links to programs people currently use are provided, they will greatly help in establishing the common features in most of these types of software.

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

wouldnt it be similar to software used by dog breeders, cat breeders, horse breeders?

i dont get the difference.

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They don't track when their animals shed our goes to the bathroom.


Op,
I would love something that would help keep my notes together. Currently I use OneNote and have a separate note for each animal that I record the dates of sheds, feedings, movements, and other notables. It would be great to have a selectable list that I could fill out all at once. As in, my 3 young bloods, brb, ball, and gtp all have been eating the same size rats. It would be awesome to select those and then just fill in the blanks of date and what was eaten so all the profiles would update at one time. Currently I copy/paste.

It would also be nice to be able to pull out certain information when desired. Such as weight. Say I want to see the progression of my snakes weight. It would be nice to select that and have all the entered dates and corresponding weights pull up. Again, what I currently use I have to scroll through the list and pick out the info.

Then when a snake has a movement it would be convenient to pick the said snake select the date and movement option and hit record where it could again be pulled up at a later date if needed.

I also think tracking birthdays or purchase dates to follow snakes age or time owned would be cool.

Maybe a photo option to have the ability to use each snakes picture as there profile icon.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Op,
I would love something that would help keep my notes together. Currently I use OneNote and have a separate note for each animal that I record the dates of sheds, feedings, movements, and other notables. It would be great to have a selectable list that I could fill out all at once. As in, my 3 young bloods, brb, ball, and gtp all have been eating the same size rats. It would be awesome to select those and then just fill in the blanks of date and what was eaten so all the profiles would update at one time. Currently I copy/paste.

It would also be nice to be able to pull out certain information when desired. Such as weight. Say I want to see the progression of my snakes weight. It would be nice to select that and have all the entered dates and corresponding weights pull up. Again, what I currently use I have to scroll through the list and pick out the info.

Then when a snake has a movement it would be convenient to pick the said snake select the date and movement option and hit record where it could again be pulled up at a later date if needed.

I also think tracking birthdays or purchase dates to follow snakes age or time owned would be cool.

Maybe a photo option to have the ability to use each snakes picture as there profile icon.

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See, this is the sort of stuff I wanted to hear. All of what you just stated is not very hard to implement at all. I'd love to hear further ideas of the sort.

I would like a web API, someone can come to my available page, and click and see feeding records for every baby without me having to touch it.

Some way to setup defaults, snakes 1-10 might eat frozen small rats, snakes 11-15 might eat live small rats and then I got a clutch of babies eating mice. If that could be preset and all I have to click is "it ate", my problem with software I have tired is inputting the information takes too long. Snakes are never perfect, sometimes in a clutch 2 babies won't eat out of 20, can I feed the other 18 with a few clicks?

mobile app would be nice for updates since our phones are generally always on us, could also use the phones camera to read QR codes to bring up snake information.

Okay, web APIs and mobile apps are a bit more complex, but I'm sure with time those can also be created. Right now I'm focusing more on data collection on your computer. Adding in ways to access it once it's a functioning program can always be added in later.

I'm still using homemade charts (good ole' microsoft word) for weights, dates fed and what they ate, and shed records, as well as purchase dates.

Myself and my husband were talking about this the other day... Something as simple as a MS excel type spreadsheet program would be great.. A spreadsheet format to input data, then the ability to select needed fields and graph (say, if I wanted to graph a single snakes weight gain then loss over a period of time, etc.). Of course, this is something we could do in excel.

If you were designing a snake-specific software, the features above would be nice (faster to input info in a spread sheet format), but also have the ability to select specific snakes and pull up the info listed above but on an individual basis. Also, being able to select a group of snakes like ohhwataloser said and hit "it ate" would be good too.

I teach and we use a software program called renweb. When you enter attendance into the program you have many "codes" you can put in (like AU for absent unexcused, etc.). It has a nice feature by which you can select a code (i.e.... I click the "AU" button), then click a name and it marks them, then there's a "fill present" button.. You can hit that and everyone else will be marked present except the AU student. If a feature like this could be built in, whereby I could select a group of snakes that eat on the same day, etc. Only mark the miscreant that didn't eat, then hit "fill ate", that would cut down on time.

Hope this helps!

If I'm using a program, I'd want options to track every time something happens. Poop, shed, feed, weighed, paired, layed, any time an event happens I want an easy way to track it. And I want to be able to pull reports easily for those things, because if Junior poops after every 4th feeding and then suddenly poops after every feeding, I want to know about it so I can start figuring out why (is there a problem with his digestive tract, did my feeder supplier change something on their end?). I also want to compare reports easily among groups, is Junior growing slower or faster than his siblings? Is that clutch growing at the same rate as this one? I want customization for my feeder tracking so I can define parameters, my medium rat might not be the same as everyone else's but a 70g rat is 70g everywhere, and I want to track rats, mice, and ASFs by clicking one thing (like maybe just "add food" then select "rat - 70-90g"). And because I'm a visual person I want my animals organized graphically, like I could click or tap (because it would have to work on a phone/tablet also) a little button with the animal's name and then add whatever routine data I needed quickly, almost like having a virtual rack.

If it could also handle things like tracking payments (in an ideal world payments might even come to me for things instead of constantly going out) so I can easily see what I spend per week/month/year on feeders/bedding/housing/vets and figure out the real costs per animal etc. (although seeing that in real numbers might cause me to have a mild stroke).

And because I do not have a program like this, I'm stuck with my current jumble of excel, index cards, and color-coded markers (and I am rapidly running out of markers).