Twelve fields, 1 row per cat, and a retention rule per field. That is the whole cattery record system, and it fits on 2 sides of A4 per animal. The 12 fields below are the ones a vet, an association auditor or a new owner asks for inside the first 10 minutes, and the retention column is what stops a 6-year-old file from going into a skip during a house move.
Rule of thumb: record what changes weekly, keep what cannot be reconstructed. A weight curve takes 20 seconds a week and cannot be rebuilt later; a photo of the food bag can be retaken any day.
12 fields, in the order they get used
| # | Field | Format or unit | Logs a year | Keep (years) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Individual ID | cattery code + 15-digit ISO chip | 1 | 20 |
| 2 | Date of birth | YYYY-MM-DD, to the day | 1 | 20 |
| 3 | Sex and neuter status | M/F, entire or neutered, with date | 1 | 20 |
| 4 | Weight | grams, same scale, same hour | 52 | 2 |
| 5 | Body condition score | 1-9 scale, half points | 12 | 5 |
| 6 | Food intake | grams per day, as fed | 365 | 1 |
| 7 | Water intake | millilitres per day | 365 | 1 |
| 8 | Litter output | score 1-4 plus count | 365 | 1 |
| 9 | Vaccine and parasite dates | product name + date only | 2 | 5 |
| 10 | Vet visits | date, reason, findings, clinic file no. | 2 | 5 |
| 11 | Room climate | Celsius and % RH, 3 readings a day | 1095 | 1 |
| 12 | Photos and transfer record | file-name rule + date out | 12 | 3 |
The keep column writes 20 where the honest answer is permanent: 20 years is the practical stand-in for the life of the cat plus 5, and no cattery has ever regretted keeping identity data too long.
Retention: 3 tiers, not 1 number
Tier 1, permanent: identity, parentage, date of birth, chip number and the transfer record. Those 5 items are what prove this cat is this cat, and no office will reconstruct them from memory in 5 years. Keep them in 2 places, 1 paper and 1 encrypted digital copy.
Tier 2, 5 years: anything a veterinarian generated, plus body condition scores. Practice guidance in most places asks for medical records to be held somewhere between 3 and 7 years, so 5 satisfies the middle of that range whatever jurisdiction you happen to live in.
Tier 3, 1-3 years: the daily numbers. Weight, intake, output, climate and images are diagnostic over 12-24 months and become noise past 36. Archive rather than delete: 1 compressed file per cat per year, named ID-YYYY, is enough, and it takes 10 minutes each January.
Weight and body condition: 2 fields worth 80% of the value
Weigh weekly on the same scale at the same hour, before the first meal. A 4-6 kg adult moving 100-150 g in 14 days is inside scale noise; 200 g in 30 days is a 4% change and belongs in the notes. Record to 10 g, not to 100 g, because the trend is the point and rounding kills it.
Score body condition 1-9 with half points every 30 days. 1-3 is thin (ribs visible, spine sharp), 4-5 is ideal (ribs felt under a thin layer, waist behind the ribs), 6-7 is heavy (ribs hard to find, no waist), 8-9 is obese. Two consecutive scores moving 1 full point the same way is a reason to book a check; it is not a reason to invent a diet on your own.
Breed sets the expected weight band before any of this means anything. A Maine Coon male at 7-9 kg is unremarkable where 7 kg in a domestic shorthair is not, and a Siamese at 3-4 kg is normal. The breed quiz narrows an unknown cat to 2-3 candidates, which is enough to pick a weight band.
Climate parameters worth 90 seconds a day
Three readings a day: temperature in Celsius, relative humidity in %, and 1 noise note. Working band 18-26 C and 40-60% RH. A room at 28 C and 70% RH changes eating and sleeping 5-7 days before it changes anything you would spot by eye.
At 4 cats or more in 1 room, add a smell score of 1-5 and a litter tray count. The arrangement that keeps output data readable is 1 tray per cat plus 1, scooped daily: 3 cats, 4 trays.
Paper, spreadsheet, or both
Paper wins for the 4 daily fields, because a clipboard by the door gets used and an app on a phone in a pocket does not. A spreadsheet wins for weight and body condition, because the trend line is the diagnostic. Run both for 30 days, then delete whichever one you stopped filling in on day 9.
Three rules decide whether either system survives year 1: 1 animal per row, never per page; 1 unit per column, printed in the header (g, ml, C, %); 1 date format, YYYY-MM-DD, in every file. A system that needs a legend to read is a system that dies in month 4.
What stays in the clinic file, not the cattery file
Diagnosis, prescriptions and imaging belong with the clinic, and the cattery copy carries only date, reason and file number. That split keeps the sheet readable and keeps detail with the person licensed to interpret it. The folder structure and the field list cover the 2 halves of the same system, and both apply unchanged at 1 cat or 20.
Do this week
- Open 1 row per cat with the 12 headers above.
- Print the unit in every column header: g, ml, C, %.
- Start the weight column today, same scale, same hour, 10 g resolution.
- Score body condition once, then set a 30-day reminder.
- Copy the 5 permanent fields to a second location and label it with the date.
A 12-field sheet answers the 3 questions that actually arrive: is this cat losing weight, when was it last seen, and where did it go. Everything else is optional detail, and optional detail on a sheet nobody fills in is worth 0.
Terms mentioned in this article
Frequently asked
How long should cattery records be kept?
Split by tier rather than picking one number. Identity, parentage, date of birth, chip number and transfer record stay permanently, in 2 locations. Vet-generated records and body condition scores should be held 5 years, which sits inside the 3-7 year range most practice guidance uses. Daily numbers and images are useful for 12-24 months and can be archived as 1 compressed file per cat per year.
What are the most important fields to record?
Weight and body condition score carry about 80% of the diagnostic value. Weigh weekly on the same scale at the same hour before the first meal, to 10 g, since 200 g in 30 days is a 4% change worth noting while 100-150 g in 14 days is scale noise. Score body condition 1-9 every 30 days and treat 2 consecutive moves of a full point as a reason to book a check.
Should a cattery use paper or a spreadsheet?
Both, for the first 30 days. Paper wins for the 4 daily fields because a clipboard by the door gets used; a spreadsheet wins for weight and body condition because the trend line is the diagnostic. Then delete whichever one you stopped filling in. Keep 1 animal per row, 1 unit per column in the header, and 1 date format across every file.