RECORD keeping is a MUST!

[Anntann]

I am the very FIRST to admit that I SUCK at keeping track of stuff. But I swear to become absolutely obsessive about it. It can be as simple as keeping a piece of paper tacked to the cage/pen (or using a magnet strip) to write down the date of a breeding.

I'm putting cage/pen signs on EVERY colony/cage I have..and I'm doing it TODAY! Name of rabbit, breed, tattoo number if appropriate, DOB, and a place for "info".

How many times do we say "I can't remember if this is day 28 or 35"? Or...was it Sunday before church lunch? or did she get bred on that Tuesday after dinner? :lol:

Why is Ann getting obsessed about this, you ask? Well, I'm getting OLD! Hard to remember where my glasses are somedays, let alone which doe is due to kindle. :razz2: And, well, if I died tomorrow, I'd rather make it as easy as possible for people to figure out the rabbitry.

Also, there are so many posts here and on other forums I visit (not just about rabbits) that start with "I can't remember when we bred her" or "I THINK it's day 30..but I might be wrong". Those posts got me thinking about my own record keeping, and combined with some things currently going on in life...I'm making a decision to actually GET ORGANIZED! <omg..where's the fainting smiley?>

 

[ladysown]

having the brain of a sieve...I've been doing records forever.

I use my website, my blog and Kintraks. why three places? because I don't open kintraks everyday, my blog gets kits born which serves as a holding place until I get it into kintraks and then my website gets breeding dates, which serves as a holding place until I get the info into kintraks as well. I also have a binder with ALL pedigrees in them. I like that kintraks lets me back up my information onto their server which is helpful in case of a computer breakdown.

 

[Oakville Shooter]

Well I am still pretty new to rabbits, just getting my first pair back in March. And I am not that great with records either.

But I do have hutch cards on the does cages with breeding dates and kindling dates, as well as how many in the litter. The rabbitry is built onto the end of the chicken coop. I have a calender in the coop that I use to track egg production, feed usage, incubation schedules, etc. So I also write down the rabbit info there as well. That way I can keep track of when to put the nest box in the cage. The dual records has already helped me out.

I had bred two does back in the summer and wrote the date on the hutch card as well as on the calender. I counted out 28 days and marked that day to put the nest boxes in the cages. So when the day arrives, I do. Day 31, no kits. Day 35, still no kits. I pulled the boxes and cleaned them up. A few days later, I came home and one of the cages was full of fur. I looked at the hutch card, and it was less that 30 days since she was bred. I went back to the calender and it was marked as 5 weeks. What happened was I miscounted by a week when I flipped the calender to the next month.

I put boxes back in the two cages and had nice litters the next morning. 10 in one, 12 in the other. So the multiple records helped me figure out where I messed up.

 

[Anntann]

Wow! You two are awesome! When I got this last batch of chicks (back in April) I was pretty proud of myself...I wrote them down on the door :razz: Date they arrived, how much feed I bought and used per day...

And I have to admit that the way I know when my kits have been born is, well...I go back over the HT or here and look for the birth announcements! How sad is THAT?

 

[Shara]

lol! I actually do that, too Ann! I can never remember how old my kits are! The mutiple record thing really works, too. I keep records in my phone, butWhen I was entering stuff into Kintracks, using my phone, I realized I had miscounted and thought my doe was due a week earlier than she was. Glad I caught that one!