When did your tortoise last pass a stool? How often does your boa vomit his meals? That lesion on your salamander's foot is getting bigger, how long have you noticed it? What time of year does your iguana typically go into breeding season behaviour?

Keeping accurate records of your companion animals' activities is essential when maintaining a large number of animals, and is still a very helpful practice when you have just a few herps. Because most herps are not fed daily, and some do not eliminate daily, we do not always notice changes in feeding or behaviour patterns. This is especially true when herps are compared to other pets like dogs and cats, who's eating and elimination schedules are often integrated into our daily routine much more closely than those of herps. Records will help you notice feeding and elimination patterns, or to remember how long ago odd behaviours began or injuries were noticed.

Not only can this information be helpful for when you are figuring out a feeding and cleaning schedule, but detailed, accurate records can contain critical information if your herp ever needs a vet. Veterinarians can do much more for your companion the more they know about its history. It can be very frustrating for a doctor to only have part of the story!

What should you take note of? Feeding and eliminating schedules, including noting when your herp refuses its meal or produces an abnormal stool. Shedding (ecdysis) schedules can be useful at times. Of course, always note behavioural changes, accidents, treatments regimens, or anything else abnormal in your herp's day to day life.

The following is an example of a daily record sheet, adapted from the first edition Reptile Medicine and Surgery by Dr. Douglas Mader. Feel free to print it out and use it (I like to print double-sided to save paper), or use it as a basis for your own daily records.

Download the Husbandry Record in Adobe PDF format (337 KB)
Download the Husbandry Record in JPG format: Page one (199 KB) and page two (128 KB)


Here is an example of a filled-out page!