What you have observed
“Clover is offered breakfast at about 7 a.m. in her pen. She usually settles on her mat afterward.” Add the dates this description covers.
Prepare families & go-home · Breeder guide
Write food and routine instructions a family can follow.
Name the food. Explain the portion. Describe an ordinary day. Give the family something they can use at the next meal.
What you’re preparing
A short sheet for everyday care.
A useful food and routine sheet answers the questions a family will have when you’re no longer beside them: which bag to open, how to measure the food, what preparation is needed, and what the puppy is used to doing through the day.
Start with the puppy’s current care. Then label what you’re asking the family to do and keep any veterinary instructions clearly attributed. The result can be your own PDF, added to the family’s go-home packet in pupID alongside the puppy’s generated record PDFs.
This guide helps you write instructions. It doesn’t choose a food, calculate a portion, or set a feeding schedule for an individual puppy.
01
Separate what happens now from what you advise.
“She eats three times a day” describes a pattern. “Give this amount at each meal” is an instruction. They can belong on the same sheet, but a family should be able to tell them apart.
Put the puppy’s name or identifying description, the author’s name, and the revision date at the top. If most of a sheet applies to a litter, add each puppy’s exceptions before sharing it. Avoid “same as the others” on a document that may be read on its own.
What you ask the family to do
“Use the food named on this sheet and the measuring method shown below. Contact me if the bag or instructions don’t match.” Name the author.
What a clinician has directed
Identify the veterinarian or clinic, document date and attached instructions, if any. Preserve their meaning. If none were supplied, say so; that doesn’t mean a veterinary review occurred.
02
Describe the food and each meal precisely.
Write with the actual bag, can or pouch in front of you. Copy the full product name, including its recipe, life-stage wording and form, such as dry kibble or wet food. “Puppy food” or a brand name alone may leave several products to choose from.
The WSAVA diet-history form asks about product names, amounts, frequency and the measuring device. These are useful details to preserve here, too. Include treats, toppers, supplements and food used to give medicine when they are part of the current routine. [1]
Too much left to guess
“A scoop of puppy food, morning and evening. Add some water.”
Write the missing details
- Product: full name, recipe and form.
- Portion: amount and unit, per meal or for the whole day.
- Method: weigh or measure; name the tool.
- Preparation: dry or softened, and exactly how.
- Pattern: actual times, or how food is offered and replenished.
Make the units unmistakable.
Write “grams (g) of dry food, weighed before adding water” when that is the method you actually use. If you measure by volume, state the cup’s size and whether the portion is level. A scoop, mug or handful isn’t a shared unit. For wet food, name the container size as well as the amount used.
Keep “offered” and “eaten” separate. An amount put in a bowl is not proof that the puppy ate it. If you cannot tell what one puppy ate from a shared bowl, write that uncertainty.
Explain preparation in order.
If food is served dry, say that. If you soften it, record your actual food amount, water amount and units, water temperature, waiting time, and how it should look when ready. Don’t substitute “a splash” or “until soft” for details the family needs.
Identify any product-specific storage or handling directions. Write what happens to leftovers; don’t invent a universal holding time for a prepared mixture. Check the manufacturer or veterinarian when the answer is unclear.
Describe the pattern you use, without turning it into a new plan.
For separate meals, list the amount offered at each time. If food stays available, explain how much is put out, when it is checked or replenished, and whether intake is measured. Don’t quietly convert that pattern into meal feeding on the family’s sheet.
AAHA’s veterinary guidance calls for specific feeding recommendations and attention to the feeding environment. That supports being clear; it doesn’t establish the right portion or number of meals for this puppy. Ask the puppy’s veterinarian about changes, growth-related adjustments or a replacement food rather than adding a generic transition schedule. [2]
03
Explain water access and an ordinary day.
Include where the puppy finds water, what kind of bowl or dispenser they know, and how you check and refresh it. Clean drinking water should be continuously available; Northern Ireland’s government dog-welfare guidance supports this. Don’t add water restriction as a house-training shortcut. If there are individual veterinary directions, keep the original instructions and clarify how they apply. [4]
Describe the sequence around meals, waking, toilet opportunities, play and rest. Add the place and cue the puppy knows: “after waking, we take her to the grass area and say ‘outside’” gives a family more to work with than “potty trained.” A description of today’s routine is not a guarantee about behavior in a new home.
Waking
Where the puppy wakes, the first toilet opportunity, and the words you use.
Meals
Current times or feeding pattern, location, portion reference and supervision.
Between meals
Familiar play, quiet space, naps and how you notice the puppy needs to go out.
Evening & overnight
Sleeping setup, recent waking pattern and how you respond when the puppy wakes.
Use approximate times where they are genuinely approximate. “Usually” and “over the last three nights” are more honest than promises about sleeping through the night. Describe the current setup without prescribing exercise duration, sleep totals or a house-training timetable.
Finish with two ways to get help: the breeder’s contact for questions about the sheet, and the family’s veterinary contact for health concerns. Northern Ireland’s government guidance notes that changes in eating or drinking may signal ill health. Give the family their veterinary contact for these concerns. Don’t write “wait a few days” as a blanket response to a puppy not eating or drinking. [4]
04
Read the sheet as if you were the family.
The fictional example below shows how the details fit together. The food name, puppy, author, quantities and times are invented to demonstrate writing. They are not suitable amounts or instructions for a real puppy. There is no veterinary document in this example.
pupID·Fictional example
Not a feeding recommendation
Not a feeding recommendation
Clover’s food & daily routine
- Current food
- Example Brand Puppy Recipe — Chicken & Rice, dry kibble. This product is fictional. No toppers or supplements are used in this example.
- Current amount & pattern
- Offered 40 g of dry food at each meal, at about 7 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. Weighed before serving, using a kitchen scale. These are fictional observations, not a recommended plan.
- Preparation & feeding place
- Served dry, with nothing mixed in. Clover eats in her pen with a person nearby. The amount offered is recorded; no precise amount eaten is claimed.
- Breeder instructions in this example
- Check that your food bag matches the named product. Use a scale set to grams; zero it with the empty bowl on it before weighing the food. Contact Alex if the label or sheet is unclear. Ask your veterinarian about any change to food or amount.
- Water & cleaning
- Clean water remains available in a low stainless bowl in the pen, including overnight. We check it when we enter the pen and replace dirty water. Wash the water bowl daily; wash food bowls and measuring tools after each use.
- Current daily routine
- After waking, we take Clover to the grass area and say “outside.” Breakfast is followed by another toilet opportunity and quiet time on her mat. Between meals she has supervised play and naps in her pen. At night her pen is beside our bedroom. Over the last three nights she has woken once; we take her out when she wakes. This may change in a new home.
- Existing veterinary instructions
- No puppy-specific written veterinary feeding instructions are included in this fictional example. No clinical review is claimed.
- Questions
- Sheet or product questions: Alex Morgan · alex@example.com. Health concerns or changes in eating/drinking: contact your veterinarian. Family to add their clinic and emergency contact before go-home.
Guide-created demonstration · not generated by pupID · all entries fictional
05
Add your instructions to the family’s pupID packet.
Create your food and routine document outside pupID. The inspected go-home flow accepts your PDF or photo; it does not provide a dedicated food-and-routine editor. Use the starter below, or a document you already maintain. Export a PDF and read every page before uploading.
Choose the puppy and family.
Open Families → Prepare go-home, choose the puppy, and check the assigned family. Packet preparation needs a family email and the puppy’s passport code. From the review, open Go-home packet or the Packet view.
Upload the sheet you wrote.
Expand PDFs & photos. Give it a clear File title, such as “Clover — food & daily routine — Oct 10.” Under Choose a PDF or photo, select your file, then choose Upload & select file. The current limit is 10 MB per file; supported types are PDF, JPEG, PNG and WebP. HTML starter files must be printed or exported to PDF first.
Check the exact family copy.
Use Open to read the uploaded file. Check the puppy, date, quantities and contact details. Inspect the whole file for other families’ details, private notes or old instructions. PDFs keep their original contents; passport visibility settings do not remove private text from your upload. Uploaded photos lose embedded metadata.
Keep the different materials clear.
Add Puppy take-home record or Public Passport PDF with Add PDF if you want those generated copies. Each uses shared record information and follows the public passport’s visibility settings. They do not turn your uploaded sheet into a feeding plan. The live public passport is also included; it is a live shared record rather than a fixed PDF.
Save, review and then handle delivery separately.
Use the Welcome note to tell the family which sheet contains the routine. Choose Save & review packet and open the full packet preview. Recording go-home and sending the family email are separate actions. Saving or previewing alone does not confirm the family received anything.
Your document → selected family material
Open Families in pupID
Breeder sign-in and puppy/family selection are required.
App instructions reviewed October 10, 2026. Screen wording can vary by device and release. Open the packet preview and check the selected files before sending.
Optional local tool
Draft a food and routine sheet.
Start blank and enter your own checked information. The preview updates on this page only; nothing is saved to pupID or sent. Entries disappear when you reload. Download your sheet to keep it, then open it and choose Print to save a PDF for the packet. Empty fields remain visibly unfinished.
Local preview · breeder-authored draft
The download is a standalone HTML document. Print it to PDF before uploading to pupID. No clinical recommendations are supplied.
Sources & review
What this guide relies on.
Writing examples and the handoff rehearsal are Good Harbor editorial suggestions. External sources support the specific details below, not the fictional feeding amounts or a universal puppy schedule.
1 · WSAVA — Short Diet History Form
© 2013. Global veterinary nutrition-history tool. Supports recording full product names, form, amounts, frequency, measuring-device size and other foods. It is not a puppy feeding prescription.
2 · AAHA — Feeding Plans for Healthy, Appropriate Weight Cats and Dogs
June 21, 2021. Veterinary guidance for the stated healthy-patient context. Supports specificity and feeding-environment details; individualized recommendations need veterinary assessment. No calorie calculations or transition timetable are reproduced here.
3 · FDA — Proper Storage of Pet Food & Treats
U.S. consumer guidance; content current as of May 23, 2024. Supports retaining packaging and identifying details, and cleaning bowls and utensils. It does not supply holding times for every prepared mixture.
4 · nidirect — Welfare of dogs: the need for a suitable diet
Northern Ireland government dog-welfare education; publication/version date not displayed. Supports continuous fresh water, veterinary authority for any restriction, and awareness that changed intake may signal ill health. No adult feeding frequency or legal duty is generalized to puppies or other jurisdictions.
By Good Harbor Pet. Editorial and source review: October 10, 2026. No veterinary review has been performed. Recheck if cited guidance or pupID’s packet workflow changes.
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