[quote=ImANargleHunter]
It's not so much a lot as much as it wasn't what I was expecting. Y is my first pokemon game, other than playing a little bit on friend's games. No video games growing up!
[/quote]

Well, that said, if you want to try shiny breeding, just make sure the Pokemon themselves are of two different nationalities. The Ditto can't just be foreign to your own copy of the game, but to the Pokemon you're breeding it with, as well, in order for the heightened odds of a shiny to take effect. (I mean, I would assume the Abra (or whatever other Pokemon you wanna try this on) would be the same nationality as your system, provided you caught it yourself, but I figured I should clarify just in case - what with how easy it is to get foreign Pokemon in X and Y, after all.)