Litter record template: each puppy from birth to new home

What’s inside

• Page 1: the litter (dam, sire, breed, date of birth, males and females, your vet) and a grid of daily weights from day 1 to day 14 for up to 12 puppies, with room for notes.
• Page 2: weekly weights from week 3 to week 12, then each puppy’s vet checks, deworming and vaccinations, with the dates and products your vet gives.
• Page 3: each puppy’s sex, microchip number, new owner, phone or email, the day it went home and whether the papers were handed over, then what every new owner should get.
• Each row starts with the puppy’s number and its ID collar color. On screen, the collar you type on page 1 fills in on every page.
• Ounces on US Letter, grams on A4. For a litter of more than 12, print the pages twice.

Not an AKC form

This record is for your own notes and for the new owners. It is not the American Kennel Club’s litter registration and it doesn’t register anything. If both parents are AKC-registered, the dam’s owner registers the litter with AKC, and the litter has to be registered before any puppy in it can be. Other kennel clubs have their own forms.

• Register your litter on AKC’s site (the official route) (opens in a new tab)

Weights without targets

VCA’s veterinarians advise weighing newborn puppies once a day on a kitchen or postal scale and keeping careful records of each one, so that a change shows early. The record gives every day of the first two weeks a column, then one a week until week 12. It prints no target weights: how a puppy should grow depends on the breed and the litter, and your vet judges it from the numbers you bring.

The vet’s dates

Deworming and vaccinations are not on a printed schedule here. VCA notes that your veterinarian prescribes the dewormer and tells you when the puppies should be vaccinated, so the form leaves room for the dates and products as your vet sets them, and for their notes.

When a puppy goes home

AKC’s guide to breeding lists what a new owner should get: the vaccination and health records, feeding instructions, the registration application and a copy of your agreement. Add the microchip number and the registry. The AVMA points out that a chip helps only when it is registered with the owner’s current contact details, so the new owner registers it in their own name.

• Printable whelping chart (the birth day)
• Pet vaccination record to hand over
• Puppy weight chart for the new owner