Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a corn for 13 years without ever naming him. I've had a pair of brb's for 2 years without naming them. It seems like alot of people have names they identify their's with. My charts have id's like WW1F?, LM1M03, BH1F03, and so on. Stands for first and last intitial of breeder, #of that sex, sex, year born.
I am planning on breeding and figured the holdback offspring will be like LMBH1F05 and so on. Meaning female bred to male, sex, then year born.
I'm thinking this will be absolutely meaningless to anyone but me. I don't think it needs to be meanningful to everyone because they are brb's rather than lines of morphs as in BCI.
How do you guys/gals do this? Is there a standard in the industry?

Thanks,
Linda
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer

I believe most of us, atleast me, name our snakes with whatever we feel jumps out at us. We name them because they are parts of our families. They arnt just a breeding device for most of us. My snakes take on a personality that is just like having a dog or cat. But whatever you feel works for you is good.

Upon reading your reply I realized how cold my questions appearred to be. I didn't mean to sound like the only purpose for my snakes is for breeding. I have had pets for 24 years. I have never given one away or "gotten rid of" or sold any one of them with the exception of 2 litters of boas. When I take on a pet it is for their entire life in good or bad, sickness or health. I try to do what is best for them regardless of my needs.

You have brought to my attention something very important to me. The people who know me deeply would not have mentioned what you said, they would not have questioned it. I am respectful that you posted, I had better take a long hard look at what I am doing.

Thank you,
Linda Misch

Everyone just seems to use what's best for them as there's no industry standard when it comes to an ID system.

With regards to having names... most of the boas in my collection are named. The names more often then not are a description of the animal (Snow White, Peaches II, Big Bertha, Big Red, etc...)

The ID system that I use is really simple and it makes things MUCH easier around here. I don't maintain an enormous collection by any means, but at 100+ Boas every snake MUST have an ID in my collection in order to track it in the database I have set up.

For a 99' DH Snow Female her id is: 99_0.1dhSN_1

99 = Year Born

0.1 = Sex of the animal

dh = Double Het... hets, poss hets, and double hets are all id'd
in lower case lettering.

SN = Snow.... MOT = Motley, ALB = Albino, HYP = Hypo, AN = Anery, STP = Stripe... etc etc....

The last number stands for which animal in that particular litter/group she/he is..... for instance the Motleys Het. Albino are id'd as follows:

04_0.1MOThALB_1
04_0.1MOThALB_2
04_0.1MOThALB_3

Every cage has an ID sticker on it so that I can glance at any cage and know exactly what animal is inside without having to look back in the database or open the cage.

Below is a pic of one of the baby racks.

This is a close-up of an individual cage... every baby has their own cage that doesn't change until they are moved into the sweater-racks....

Not exactly rocket science by any means, but it really makes things MUCH easier for me....

If you decide to go with this way of ID'ing your animals let me know how it works out for you.

Again, I think it's a great questions Linda, I'd love to hear how other people organize their collections.

Thanks,

Guy Scavone II
Living Art Herpetology