A working cattery runs on five sheets, keeps them for five years, and can trace any kitten from a 15-digit microchip number back to the mating date of its parents. That is the whole standard: five record types, a five-year retention window, and a chip number plus date on every entry that leaves the house. Everything else is layout.
Why five years, not five months
Buyers come back with questions 2 to 3 years after pickup: a heart murmur at 18 months, a sudden death at 3 years, a breeder checking a line before a repeat mating. Registries and veterinary labs usually look back 3 years for inherited disease questions, so a 5-year file covers the window in which a genetic result, a vaccine history or a birth weight still changes a decision. Keep the digital copy in 2 places, one of them off-site, and keep 1 printed copy of the 5 sheets per litter in a folder. Paper outlives a single laptop, and a laptop outlives a phone.
The five sheets that carry the cattery
Use 5 tabs in one workbook, or 5 clipboards, but keep the categories identical: mating, pregnancy check, litter and birth, weight, health. Every sheet needs an ID column, because a queen called Luna in 2024 is a different record from Luna in 2027. A litter ID such as L26-04-Q03 is enough: year, month, queen number.
| Sheet | Minimum fields | Rows per litter | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mating | Queen chip, tom chip, first and last mating date, 1 method note | 4 to 8 | 5 years |
| 2 Pregnancy check | Check date, 1 palpation or ultrasound result, 1 count estimate, 1 due-date window | 2 to 3 | 5 years |
| 3 Litter and birth | Birth date, time per kitten, sex, 90 to 110 g birth weight, 1 placenta count | 6 to 20 | 5 years |
| 4 Weight | Daily grams for 14 days, then 2 readings per week to 8 weeks | 14 to 40 | 5 years |
| 5 Health | Vaccine name and date, 37.5 to 39.2 C temperature, vet visit, 1 outcome line | 3 to 10 | 5 years |
Microchip numbers and dates
An ISO 11784/11785 chip carries 15 digits, and that string is the only identifier that survives a rehome, a name change and a move to another country. Write it exactly as the reader shows it, no spaces, no dashes, followed by the scan date in YYYY-MM-DD form. Log 3 scan events: at implant, usually between 8 and 12 weeks, at the pre-sale veterinary check, and at handover. If the reader returns nothing, record the reader model and the time of the second attempt rather than leaving the cell blank; a blank cell reads as a missing chip 2 years later. Put the dam's chip on the same line so a swapped kitten is visible at a glance.
Weights: the numbers that flag trouble
Birth weight sits at 90 to 110 g for most domestic kittens. A loss of up to 10 percent in the first 24 hours is normal, and from day 2 the expected gain is 10 to 14 g per day. A kitten still under its birth weight at 48 hours, or gaining under 7 g per day across 2 consecutive days, needs a veterinary assessment the same day. Weigh at the same hour, before a feed, on a 1 g kitchen scale, and write the number, not a tick. Twice-daily weights for the first 14 days catch a fading kitten 12 to 24 hours before the kitten looks wrong, which is the point of the sheet.
Health entries without guesswork
The health sheet records what was given, when, by whom and why. Product name, batch number, the written instruction from the veterinarian, and the 24-hour follow-up observation. It does not hold a homemade schedule: the product and the amount are the veterinarian's call, and the sheet only proves what happened. Core vaccine dates usually land at 8, 12 and 16 weeks, with a FeLV and FIV test result stored next to them. A temperature outside 37.5 to 39.2 C, or 1 reading above 39.5 C in a kitten under 8 weeks, is worth a call rather than a note.
Four columns that make a file searchable
Whatever the format, 4 columns do the work: date, subject ID, value with unit, and observer initials. Value with unit means 104 g, not big, and 39.4 C, not warm. Observer initials matter when 2 people weigh the same litter on alternate days. Add a fifth column for the action taken and the file stops being a diary and becomes a decision log.
Paper, spreadsheet or app
A spreadsheet holds the 5 sheets; phone photos cover anything handwritten; 1 backup per week is enough. Filenames should follow the litter ID, never a date alone, because 3 litters can share a month. Budget 10 minutes per week for a 2-litter cattery and 30 minutes for 6 litters, and keep the money side in the cost calculator so the file and the invoices agree. An app that locks export behind a subscription is a risk: if the export is a PDF only, the numbers cannot be sorted when a buyer asks for the heaviest kitten of the litter.
What leaves the house with a kitten
One page: chip number and implant date, 3 vaccine dates, the last 4 weight readings, deworming dates, dam and sire chip numbers, and 1 line on the food used. The buyer keeps the page, you keep the copy, and both sides can answer a question in 2 minutes instead of 2 weeks. Pair the handover with the screening papers from pre-breeding genetic tests, and read genetic testing before breeding before the next mating, so the file opens with results rather than with questions.
The weekly 15-minute routine
- Type every paper weight into the sheet the same day; a 3-day gap is where errors start.
- Check 1 chip scan per kitten against the printed number, digit by digit.
- Photograph any page with a temperature or a vet note, and store it under the litter ID.
- Copy the workbook to the second location every 7 days.
- Once per litter, print the 5 sheets and file them; a digital-only file is 1 failed drive from gone.
Start with the 5 sheets before the next litter, not after it. Fill the mating row on the day of mating, the birth rows within 24 hours, and the weight rows daily for 14 days. Set the retention alarm at 5 years, hand the 1-page summary to every buyer, and let a veterinarian decide anything that involves a product or a symptom. The cost of the habit is a few minutes a week; the cost of a missing chip number or a missing birth weight is a question nobody can answer later. A cattery that can print a 5-year trail on request sells kittens faster than one that promises to remember.
Terms mentioned in this article
Frequently asked
How long should a cattery keep breeding records?
Five years is the working minimum, counted from the last entry of each litter rather than from the mating date. That window covers the 2 to 3 years in which buyers ask about hearts, hips and sudden deaths, plus the 3-year lookback that registries and labs often use for inherited disease questions. Keep 2 digital copies, one off-site, and 1 printed set of the 5 sheets per litter.
What must be on the microchip line?
The full 15-digit ISO number exactly as the reader displays it, the implant date in YYYY-MM-DD form, and the dam and sire chip numbers. Add 3 scan dates: implant at 8 to 12 weeks, the pre-sale veterinary check, and handover. If a scan fails, write the reader model and the time of the second attempt instead of leaving the cell blank.
Which weight numbers mean a kitten needs a vet?
Birth weight normally runs 90 to 110 g, with a loss of up to 10 percent allowed in the first 24 hours. From day 2 the expected gain is 10 to 14 g per day. A kitten below its birth weight at 48 hours, or gaining under 7 g per day for 2 days, needs a same-day veterinary assessment, and the sheet should show the exact grams either way.