A rescue can only act on what foster carers write down, and with young kittens the daily numbers often reveal trouble a full day before the kitten looks ill. Good records are brief, consistent, and per kitten — a litter average hides the one small kitten who is quietly losing ground.
Weight: the single most useful number
Weigh every kitten daily on digital kitchen scales, ideally at the same time and before a feed, and record the figure rather than a judgement like 'fine.' Young kittens should gain steadily day over day; a flat day warrants closer watching and a second weigh-in, while a loss, or gains that stall across two days, should be reported to the rescue promptly. Note which kitten is which unambiguously — collar colour, markings, or name — because swapped identities make an otherwise careful chart useless when a vet later reads it.
Food: offered, eaten, and how
Write down what was served at each meal — milk, gruel, or solid food, and the amount — alongside what was actually consumed and how willingly. 'Ate half the gruel slowly, needed coaxing' tells the rescue far more than 'fed.' For bottle kittens, log each feed's volume and whether suckling was strong or weak, plus any milk bubbling from the nose or coughing during feeds, which should be reported the same day. Record weaning steps too, such as the first voluntary lapping from a dish, since the rescue uses those to plan adoptions.
Litter and behaviour: the early-warning notes
Count and describe output: urinations, stools, and their consistency, colour changes, straining, or blood, all of which matter enormously in kittens. Stimulated babies need their output noted per feed until they toilet independently. Pair those facts with a two-line behaviour snapshot — bright and climbing the pen sides, or quieter than yesterday; playing, nursing eagerly, crying persistently, feeling cold to the touch. Behaviour shifts combined with a flat weight are the pattern rescues most want phoned in early, not saved for a weekly summary.
Hand the record over so it can be used
For a litter, keep one page or entry per kitten rather than a combined sheet, and record at the same two or three anchor moments each day so gaps are obvious. Note the mother's condition too where she is present — her appetite, nursing behaviour, and any teat soreness affect the kittens' intake directly. If a carer hands over to another person mid-litter, the written log is the handover: what changed, what the rescue has already been told, and what needs watching tonight should be legible in under a minute. Neatness matters less than completeness, but figures scribbled without times or kitten names cannot guide a vet later.
Send the log to the rescue on the schedule they set, flag urgent findings immediately by phone rather than in the written update, and keep the originals complete even after the kittens are adopted. Consistent daily entries let a veterinarian reconstruct exactly when appetite, stools, or weight changed, which sharpens any examination. Storing each kitten's weights, meals, litter notes, and behaviour together in KinsLe Pet Passport means the full foster record travels as one packet to the rescue, its vet, and eventually the adopter.