ive never encounterd one do you have to encounter a ceertain number of pokemon before you get to encounter a shiny pokemon or what?

It's chance. and lots of pure luck. I don't remember the statistics right now, but encountering a shiny has a one-in-some-insanely-high-number chance of occurring.

The odds are 1/8192. Pretty slim odds but it's possible.

Wow. Pretty slim is a bit of an understatement.
What exactly are shiny Pokemon anyway? How/when did they come to be?

There are quite a few ways to get one.

Encounter them with the 1/8192 chance.
Breed a forgein pokemon to increase the chance of getting one from the egg by 75%.
Hack.
Get one from an event. E.G. Pikachu Colored Pichu
Soft-reset at a pokemon. E.G. Legendary, Snorlax, Sudowoodo.
Catch the Red Gyrados is HG/SS or G/S/C.

Those are the ways I can remember at the moment.

@Hypermonkey
They are discolored Pokemon. Some are radically different then others (E.G. Shiny Charzard), some aren't (E.G. Shiny Bidoof).

They came to be in Gen II, where they had the same chance as always to get one. (But breeding a shiny would have an insane chance of getting one, something like 1/8, I recall. But I might be wrong on this, so don't take this to be true. And if it is, it's only in G/S/C.)

If only it had stayed somewhere around there. I mean, seriously, if the coloring is a genetic trait, then a shiny pokemon should have a higher chance of passing it's alternate coloration on to it's offspring, and when breeding two shinies, the chances of the baby being shiny should be very high. Nice to know Nintendo gave up on following basic genetic science .

I agree that breeding two shinys should increase the chance of being shiny by a lot, but one shiny shouldn't, or it's be too easy to get shinys.

Encountering a shiny pokemon is based on multiple factors, exactly which factors being dependant on the generation, but once a pokemon is shiny, nothing can change it.

In generation 2 it's based on the pokemon's stat IVs so it was compatable with pokemon traded from generation 1. This system had a hole in which female pokemon traded from generation 1 games could never be shiny. Through proper breeding of a shiny pokemon, you can have as high as a 1/64 chance of the offspring to be shiny, depending on the species. Generation 2 had the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage which was the only guarenteed shiny encounter, and the Japanese version of Crystal where the Odd Egg from the daycare couple had a 50% chance to be shiny.

In generations 3 and 4, the chance to encounter a shiny pokemon is based on your trainer ID and the PVs of the pokemon. Through use of the PokeRadar, you can also increase the chance of finding a shiny pokemon. Another technique that was discovered was that if you bred 2 pokemon from games with different languages (i.e. Japanese and English versions), the egg had a 4X chance for the pokemon that hatches to be shiny. Additionally, Fire Red and Leaf Green had some of the trainers in the Battle Tower which always have a shiny pokemon.

With enough information, you can tip the odds in your favor.

What resetting the game does, when trying to get a shiny legendary, it re-roll it's IVs and PVs. Note that roaming pokemon, such as Entei, are already set once you let them loose in the first place. Good luck with those

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Shiny_pokemon

Originally posted by Lagslayer

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Another technique that was discovered was that if you bred 2 pokemon from games with different languages (i.e. Japanese and English versions), the egg had a 4X chance for the pokemon that hatches to be shiny.

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Also, if the two Pokemon are from different countries and neither country is the one from which your game originated, then, rather than 4X the chance, you get 8X, or so I've heard.

it takes a lot of luck it took me for ever but i ran into a SHINY GARODOSE but the time and effort was worth it

The only way to get a shiny with out cheating is through luck, not counting the red Gyarados. Even if you tried breading Pokemon to get one, the odds are so small to start with, a 4X or 8X better chance still isn't all that much. I've played Pokemon games since Red and Blue came out and I can only think of 3 times I've seen a shiny in the wild, again not counting the red Gyarados. The first was in Sapphire, I found a shiny Meditite on island where you get the red/blue orbs. I caught it only because I noticed it was a different color but I didn't know there was such a thing called shiny Pokemon. Then in Leaf Green I found a shiny Gastly in Lavender Town, by then I did know it was a shiny and made darn sure I caught it. That was not long after that game came out, so it's been years since I've found another. But just last week I found a shiny Zubat in Emerald in the cave on Dewford Island (or town or which ever it is.) I don't recommend going around trying to find one because the odds are so small it's not really worth it. And just because it's shiny it doesn't mean it will look cooler than the normal version. Shiny Charizard (black rather than the normal orange)are awesome but then you can get some that don't look quite as good. For example that shiny Zubat I caught was green instead of blue which is kinda cool. Same for Golbat. But when it evolves into Crobat, it becomes a bright pink. Yes, pink. But if you do happen to find one, catch it no matter what it is or even if you wont use it because you may never EVER find one again.

Originally posted by jake11

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The only way to get a shiny with out cheating is through luck, not counting the red Gyarados. Even if you tried breading Pokemon to get one, the odds are so small to start with, a 4X or 8X better chance still isn't all that much. I've played Pokemon games since Red and Blue came out and I can only think of 3 times I've seen a shiny in the wild, again not counting the red Gyarados. The first was in Sapphire, I found a shiny Meditite on island where you get the red/blue orbs. I caught it only because I noticed it was a different color but I didn't know there was such a thing called shiny Pokemon. Then in Leaf Green I found a shiny Gastly in Lavender Town, by then I did know it was a shiny and made darn sure I caught it. That was not long after that game came out, so it's been years since I've found another. But just last week I found a shiny Zubat in Emerald in the cave on Dewford Island (or town or which ever it is.) I don't recommend going around trying to find one because the odds are so small it's not really worth it. And just because it's shiny it doesn't mean it will look cooler than the normal version. Shiny Charizard (black rather than the normal orange)are awesome but then you can get some that don't look quite as good. For example that shiny Zubat I caught was green instead of blue which is kinda cool. Same for Golbat. But when it evolves into Crobat, it becomes a bright pink. Yes, pink. But if you do happen to find one, catch it no matter what it is or even if you wont use it because you may never EVER find one again.

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That, and they go for very good Pokemon on the GTS. Most of the time. I've gotten a shiny Deoxys before, don't remember what I gave but it wasn't too bad. And once I saw a shiny Latias going for (get this) a caterpie. That's right. Of course, someone beat me to it .

I've heard that shiny Pokemon are actually weaker than normal ones because of the EV's that are required for it to be shiny make it weaker. Is that true because my shiny Crobat is actually pretty strong and has rather high attack, speed, and defense stats.

In generation 2, one of the factors is IV, which helps determine stat distribution. In generations 3 and 4, it's based on PV, which also affects stat distribution. So maybe sometimes you are more likely to find weaker shinies of a particular species... or perhaps stronger ones.