A litter sheet earns its keep with 8 fields, 2 fills a day 12 hours apart, 3 alert lines, and a close-out at day 28. Anything longer gets abandoned in week 2, which is exactly the week when the numbers start to matter. This page covers the sheet and nothing else: it is a record for a litter already on the ground, not a guide to mating, pregnancy or birth.
Scale of the job: a litter of 4 kittens over 28 days is 4 x 28 x 2 = 224 rows. At 40 seconds a row that is 2.5 hours spread across a month, or about 5 minutes per check for the whole litter.
Why 2 Checks a Day, 12 Hours Apart
Newborn weight gain is the earliest signal a keeper has, and it moves in steps of grams per day, not per week. A single daily weigh at 09:00 catches a kitten that lost 8 g overnight but misses the one that gained 6 g by morning and lost 14 g by evening. Two points 12 hours apart turn a daily average into a trend with a direction.
Same hour, plus or minus 30 minutes, on the same 1 g scale. A kitchen scale at 5 g resolution cannot resolve the difference between 98 g and 103 g, and that difference is the whole signal in week 1. Zero the scale with the same towel each time; a 12 g towel swap reads as a 12 g gain.
The 8 Fields, in the Order They Get Filled
One: litter code plus kitten ID, meaning collar color and a single letter, because 4 kittens look identical at 200 g. Two: date and check number (1 for morning, 2 for evening), not a free-text time — the check number is what makes 224 rows sortable later.
Three: weight in grams, 1 decimal place, with the previous value visible in the next column so the change is read at a glance. Four: feeding mode and duration — latched to the queen, bottle, or tube, in minutes; this field explains a weight drop that would otherwise look like illness.
Five: output — urine yes or no, stool count and consistency scored 1 to 3 (1 formed, 2 paste, 3 liquid). Six: temperature in Celsius, rectal, 1 decimal place, taken only when a kitten is flagged or under 100 g, because repeated probing costs more than it gives in a healthy litter.
Seven: a 3-part status code for umbilicus, eyes and nose, each scored 0 (clean and dry), 1 (mild discharge or redness), 2 (swollen, purulent or stuck shut). Eight: action taken plus initials of the person who took it, with the hour. Field 8 is the one auditors read first, because a sheet with no initials has no owner.
| Field | Unit / format | Per check | Normal range | Alert line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ID | litter code + colour | 1 value | matches dam | unreadable collar |
| 2 Date + check | date + 1 or 2 | 1 value | 2 rows per day | gap over 14 hours |
| 3 Weight | grams, 1 decimal | 2 values | +10 to 15 g/day | under 7 g/day twice |
| 4 Feeding | mode + minutes | 1 value | 6 to 8 feeds/day | under 4 feeds in 24 h |
| 5 Output | urine + stool 1-3 | 2 values | stool 2 to 4/day | 0 stool for 24 h |
| 6 Temp | deg C, rectal | 0 or 1 value | 36.1 to 37.8 | under 35.5 or over 39.5 |
| 7 Status | 3 codes, 0 to 2 | 3 values | all 0 by day 10 | any code 2 |
| 8 Action | text + initials | 1 value | blank is normal | flag with no action |
The 3 Alert Lines That Force a Call
Line 1 is weight: 2 consecutive days under 7 g of gain, or any weight more than 10 percent below birth weight. A 105 g kitten that reads 94 g on day 3 has crossed it. Line 2 is temperature: under 35.5 C or over 39.5 C, taken rectally and repeated once in 15 minutes before the call, because a 0.5 degree error from a cold thermometer is common.
Line 3 is behaviour and output together: no stool in 24 hours, no urine in 24 hours, or a kitten that keeps calling more than 10 minutes after a feed and does not settle when warmed. Any one of the 3 lines ends the sheet's job and starts a phone call; the sheet documents what was seen, it does not decide treatment.
Write the call in field 8 with the hour, even when the answer is watch for 6 more hours. That single habit is what separates a log from a diary: 2 flagged rows with times show a pattern, 6 lines saying worried show nothing.
Day 28: How the Sheet Closes
Day 28 is the close-out because the litter's weight spread should have narrowed by then and the sheet's job shifts from daily rescue to growth tracking. At close-out, do 3 things: total the rows (should be 56 per kitten for 28 days at 2 checks), mark the last weight and the 4-week average, and write a 3-line summary of anything flagged twice or more.
Scan the sheet within 7 days and store it with the cattery file for 5 years. Paper that sits in a drawer for 2 months is paper that gets rained on, and the 4-week weights are exactly what a buyer asks about at 12 months. Compare the 4-week numbers with the week-1 targets in litter weights in week 1 before closing; a litter that hit day 7 at plus 15 percent but sits flat at day 28 has a different problem than one that never started.
Reading the Sheet Against Litter Size
Litter size changes the thresholds, not the fields. A litter of 6 or more runs lower birth weights on average, so the 10 percent rule fires more often and the 7 g daily line needs to be read against the litter's own day-1 median rather than against a fixed number. A litter of 2 has the opposite problem: both kittens look fine and the sheet gets filled once a day instead of twice.
Averages by litter size sit in litter size averages and work as the comparison line, not as a target.
What 4 Weeks of Sheets Cost
Consumables are trivial: 1 printed sheet per litter, 1 pen, 1 g scale already in the room. Time is the real line item at 2.5 hours per litter, and the archive cost is 1 scan. If a vet visit follows an alert line, expect the exam itself to run 60 to 120 USD and a emergency hour to run 150 to 400 USD; regional ranges are in the cost tool.
The return is not sentimental. A sheet with 224 rows answers 3 questions no memory can: which kitten drifted first, how many hours passed before anyone acted, and whether the same field failed twice in the same litter.
Do This Next
- Print 1 sheet per expected litter with 8 columns and 56 rows per kitten; do not add a 9th column.
- Fix the 2 check times at 08:00 and 20:00 and write them on the header, not in a phone reminder.
- Tape the 3 alert lines to the wall above the scale so nobody has to remember the numbers.
- Require initials in field 8 for any non-blank row; a flag without a name is not a record.
- Close and scan at day 28, and file the summary line with the 5-year cattery records.
Frequently asked
Why weigh twice a day instead of once?
Because a single morning weigh hides a kitten that gained 6 g overnight and lost 14 g by evening, while the 12-hour pair turns a daily average into a direction. Two checks also match the feeding rounds at 08:00 and 20:00, so the sheet costs about 5 minutes per litter per check instead of an extra night shift.
What are the three alert lines, in order of urgency?
Temperature under 35.5 C or over 39.5 C, then weight losing more than 10 percent of birth weight or gaining under 7 g on 2 consecutive days, then no stool or no urine for 24 hours. Any single line ends the sheet's job and starts a call; the sheet records what was seen and does not decide treatment.
Why close the sheet at day 28 rather than at weaning?
Day 28 is when the within-litter weight spread usually narrows and the daily rescue phase ends, so the last 3 to 4 weeks would only repeat a settled pattern. Closing at 28 days also gives 56 rows per kitten, a number that is easy to audit, and gets the scan into the 5-year file before the paper leaves the room.