Free Breeder Tool
Puppy go-home date calculator
Turn a whelp date into a go-home date and a week-by-week litter timeline, or start from the pickup date you want and work backwards to a breeding plan.
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The day the puppies were born, or your vet's estimated due date.
Eight weeks is the most common minimum and the legal floor in many states. Toy breeds often stay 10 to 12 weeks.
Pick a birth date above to see your timeline.
The Full Version Lives in BreederBuddy
Your litter's whole timeline, without the math
This calculator hands you dates. BreederBuddy runs the litter behind them, from whelp day to go-home weekend, built on the records you already keep.
Care tasks, auto-dated
Build a care schedule template once (Day 3 deworming, Day 42 first vaccine) and apply it to any litter in one click. Every task is dated from the whelp date and lands on your calendar.
Buyers kept in the loop
Automated email sequences send confirmations, litter updates, and pickup instructions at the right moments, with merge fields filled from each buyer's record.
One calendar for everything
Medical, breeding, litter, and pickup events on one color-coded calendar that syncs to Google Calendar and Apple Calendar.
Litter timelines are part of BreederBuddy's daily workflow tools. See daily workflows →
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Open tool →Litter Profitability Calculator
See what a litter actually earns after stud fees, vet work, supplies, per-puppy costs, and your own hours.
Open tool →Puppy Pricing Calculator
Work out a puppy price that covers your real costs with room to spare, and stress-test it against a small litter.
Open tool →Breeding Contract Generator
Answer a few questions and get a draft puppy or kitten sales contract covering deposits, vet checks, health guarantees, and more.
Open tool →Puppy Vaccination Schedule
A week-by-week vaccine and deworming schedule for the whole litter, dated from your whelp date and ready to confirm with your vet.
Open tool →Puppy Buyer Questionnaire
Build a buyer screening questionnaire from proven questions about home, experience, lifestyle, and expectations.
Open tool →Puppy Waitlist Template
A free spreadsheet template for tracking waitlist families, deposits, preferences, and litter assignments.
Open tool →FAQs
Common questions about go-home timing
When can puppies go to their new homes?
Eight weeks is the widely accepted minimum, and many U.S. states set it as the legal floor for selling a puppy. Between weeks 6 and 8, puppies learn bite inhibition and dog-to-dog social skills from their mother and littermates that they cannot learn later. Toy and small breeds often stay 10 to 12 weeks because of their size and hypoglycemia risk. Later is fine; earlier costs the puppy something real.
Is it legal to sell a puppy before 8 weeks old?
In many U.S. states, no: over half have a minimum sale age on the books, most commonly 8 weeks. Even where it is technically legal, most breed clubs and contracts treat 8 weeks as the ethical minimum. Check your own state's law before promising an early pickup.
When can kittens leave their mother?
Reputable catteries typically place kittens at 12 to 14 weeks, noticeably later than puppies. Kittens need the extra weeks for full weaning, a complete FVRCP vaccine series, and social development. A cattery placing kittens at 8 weeks is generally a red flag to registries and experienced buyers.
How should I schedule pickups for a whole litter?
Most breeders set one go-home weekend starting the first Saturday on or after the litter turns 8 weeks, then book families into time slots in pick order. Batching pickups keeps the routine stable for the remaining puppies and turns the hardest week into a single well-planned weekend.
Can BreederBuddy track go-home dates for my litters?
Yes. When you log a litter, BreederBuddy builds the timeline around it: care tasks auto-dated from the birth date, pickup events on your color-coded calendar, and automated email sequences that send buyers confirmations, litter updates, and pickup instructions at the right moments. See daily workflows →
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