[AccessD] Normalizing food types

FW Salato Center Salato at ky.gov
Fri Dec 11 09:17:38 CST 2015


Let's continue our discussion of the animal db and what I'm tackling today. :)

I told you that we're adding food - what the animals eat, when they eat it, how much, what's removed, and so forth. For many of the animals, they food intake is very important. Some of them, like the groups we discussed yesterday, not so much. I'll track how much they added to the hoppers and on what day, but that's it.

But, we have a few animals that complicate all this - especially those where food is used in daily training or going into tupor - many variables.

So, I have a lookup table of food types and a second lookup table of sizes because - did you know that mice come in about 10 different sizes? :)

An animal might receive many different types at one feeding. For instance, the groundhog on any given day will go through several grams of rabbit pellets, rodent biscuits, and fresh vegetables and fruits, and almonds. Each is measured in and out, twice a day. So, I have five records, right? Well, I'm not sure. Do I have a record for each food type given at each feeding? That's what I'm thinking - so on most days, she would end up with five records in twice - the five types of food. The outtake, would be what's left over, but potentially four types twice a day. We don't need to list each fruit or vegetable by type - I'll add a comment section where they can be specific - note what she seems to like, not like, and that sort of thing.

Yeah... I'm thinking a possibility of 20 or more records a day just for one animal. The form can handle a lot of it by setting defaults, but this will probably be updated about once a month rather than daily - the AC staff use a paper form at each exhibit to track food and someone will be entering after the fact. So, I'm trying to think of data input ease as well as the right way to do things underneath and it needs to be flexible enough to handle treats and other unusual offerings - so it could even be more than 20, especially when they're training - a lot of treats and things are measured out when they're training.

Training and feeding are really two different functions, but structurally, it's all food.

I could let use a multi-select list control and build a string that's dumped into a combined food field and then offer a total in and out amount for each feeding rather than tracking the amount in and out for each food type. As sure as I go this route, someone will want to know how many grams of "almonds" the groundhog ate on a specific day. We actually ran into that with the skunks because apparently... a skunk can eat too many. ;) Poor little guy, he had an upset tummy  and I had to take him to the vet.

I'm inclined to just set it up right from the get-go - I think this is one of those instances where they will want more rather than less... on the other hand, because these records won't be updated daily, they'll be looking at the paper charts for immediate attention, not asking me. It's a small staff and they pay close attention and stop offering foods that they don't like and note those things - share the information.

I think I've talked myself into it just writing it all out for you guys, but I'm interested in your thoughts.

I need to go back to the boss and ask him why we're tracking all this - what's he hoping to learn? If it's just a matter of storing, we have it all on paper logs already. Duplicating the logs isn't helpful or efficient. I need more information. :) I thought I knew what he wants, but apparently, I don't.

Susan H.


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