Cattery Software

Do you use a computer pedigree program or other cattery-related software? I would like to hear from those who do:

1) What software do you use?

2) How much did it cost?

3) What features about it do you like best?

4) What features about it do you like least?

5) If you could tell a programmer to make a customized program for your cattery, what features would you definately include in the program and why?

Thanks in advance for your responses,

Gaye

P.S. I am also interested in hearing from people who are skilled in database design, specifically Access/VB. Again, many thanks.

When I finally get my husband to set mine up, I will definatly let you know. I am not sure what he is going to do yet. I just know he is going to get it all together for me. I have so many papers on so many cats now that my head spins!! Right now I have a lot of the pedigrees on the family tree maker..LOL

Hi Sandie, and thanks for your reply. *grin* I've been doing some line chasing, and have been collecting peds to enter. I have been trying out Complete Cattery Management, but it is still in beta and has many quirks at the moment. Additionally, it is freely distributed, so no tech support is available, and it can't be relied upon for any management, much less cattery management.

I dabble a bit in MS Access Database design, and was thinking that I wanted to write my own software. I may still do it. The problem is that I don't possess the skills necessary to make it an executable program, I require Visual Basic and I don't know that, so that others can also try it out. *sigh* I feel so limited! *grin*

~g.

For the moment, as Sandie said, I have everything on family tree maker. Not what I really wanted to do, but it does a great job as far as pedigree tracking is concerned, not much else though. The nice thing about it is that it can be customized to included all sorts of info about the cat(s) entered, and prints out a very nice lineage tree complete with pix of the felines.

I dabble a bit in Access, and have written a couple of different student tracking programs for my job. It's a very versatile program, and truthfully you don't really need to know any VB. There are tons of people out there who are more than happy to supply you with the code you need, nice thing is that access 2000 has lots of VB code with it. The thing you MUST remember is you have have to figure out exactly what you want it to do now, and in the future. Reason for that is because if you design a datbase that works today, and decide to add something later, then you just might run into a situation where it would be better just to redesign the whole thing. Also, and i'm not sure how much you know about Access, but being a relational DB, it's pretty picky about where and how info is stored. I know it seems like a daunting task, but, best thing to do is jump in with both feet. The worst that can happen is that you gain some experience which will help on the next go round. If you need any help, let me know, i'd be glad to lend a hand with my limited experience.

One of these days, I'm going to make one. If, that is, I can get the "home cat" to quit filling my days with stuff like spring cleaning........:tounge2:


Ken

Wow! Thanks for the info and the offer. Upon your recommendation, I am off to seriously study the Access 2000 help files, and see what I can come up with. Your encouragement is exactly what the doctor ordered, so now am excited about getting started. Thanks again!

~g.

Okay... 3 days.... how goes it????

Ken



~ya know they don't call it Microshaft for nothing~

>grin<

I am still plotting out my tables...on PAPER!!! ROFL

~g.

For the completely computer illiterate, such as myself, sitstay.com has a pedigree generator at the bottom of it's home page.

Here's another link that I found....
Pedigree

If you do a search on Google for pedigree freeware... there's lots to go look at.

Ken

I use The Cattery Standard - I have not updated it for ages - I do not use it to its full potential - but like it - very easy to use - easier to keep health records in paper files so that part I do not even use - I like to be able to do the " What if Breeding" pedigree - what if I bred cat A to Cat B - it is easier to see it on paper than try to figure it out on your mind - oh yeah you can include pics of the cats on it - the pet buyers loved that. Linda