Daily Care · 6 min read

New Pet Checklist: Your Puppy or Kitten's Whole First Year

The first year shapes everything that follows — health, temperament, and the habits you'll both live with for a decade. You don't need to do it perfectly. You just need to not miss the few things that are hard to fix later. Here's the short list that actually matters.

First week: settle in before anything else

A new home is overwhelming for a small animal. Keep the world small at first — one quiet room, a predictable routine, and low expectations.

Give them a calm base camp with food, water, a bed, and (for kittens) a litter tray away from the food.
Book a first vet check within the first few days — it sets a baseline and catches anything the breeder or shelter missed.
Keep introductions to other pets and lots of visitors slow and short. Overwhelm now shows up as fear later.
Start gentle handling every day — paws, ears, mouth — so vet visits and grooming are never a battle.

The vet schedule that actually matters

Your vet will tailor the exact dates, but the shape of year one is predictable. Get these on the calendar early:

Core vaccinations — a series across the first few months, with boosters your vet will time to the day.
Parasite prevention — worming and flea/tick cover on a repeating schedule, not one-and-done.
Microchip — usually done early; the day you get them, confirm your phone number is on the registry and keep it current.
Spay/neuter — discuss the right timing for your pet with your vet.
A mid-year weight and growth check, so you can catch a problem before it becomes one.

What to track from day one

Memory is unreliable and vets always ask. A few seconds of logging now saves guesswork later — especially weight, which is the single best early-warning signal a pet has.

Weight, every few weeks while they grow — a sudden change is often the first sign something is off.
Vaccines and vet visits, with the actual dates and what was done.
Food and any reactions — what they eat, and anything that upsets them.
Milestones and photos — first walk, first vet all-clear, the day they finally slept through the night. You will want these later.

Socialisation: the window that won't wait

There's an early window — strongest in the first few months — where new sights, sounds and gentle experiences wire in as 'normal'. Miss it and the same things can become lifelong fears. This is the one item you can't make up for later.

Introduce new people, surfaces, sounds and calm dogs in small, positive doses — treats and praise, never force.
Get puppies used to car rides, the vet waiting room, and being briefly alone.
For kittens, keep it gentle and let them approach on their own terms — forced 'brave' rarely works with cats.

Do these few things and the rest of year one mostly takes care of itself. Set up your pet's free profile and log the first vaccine while you're thinking of it — future-you, sitting in a vet's office, will be grateful.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I weigh a puppy or kitten?

While they're growing, every one to two weeks is plenty. Growth should be steady; a sudden gain or loss — or a plateau in a young, growing animal — is worth a quick word with your vet. Logging it takes seconds and gives you a trend, which is far more useful than any single number.

When should my pet be microchipped, and does it replace a tag?

Most pets are chipped early, often at the first or second vet visit. It doesn't replace a visible tag — a chip needs a vet or shelter with a scanner, while a tag (or a QR profile) lets any stranger reach you instantly. The two work best together, and either only works if your contact details are current.

What's the most important thing in the first year?

Two things: don't miss the vaccine and parasite schedule, and don't miss the early socialisation window. Health gaps and fear habits formed in the first few months are the hardest to undo. Almost everything else you can adjust as you go.

Do I really need to track all this?

You don't need to track everything — but weight, vaccine dates, and any food reactions pay for themselves the first time a vet asks 'when was the last one?' or 'has the weight changed?'. Keeping it in one place (rather than scattered across texts and paper) is what makes it actually useful.