> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Adding an animal
> The intake form: every field on it, what is required, how an animal's ID is given, and adding a litter.
Every animal your rescue takes in starts with an intake. Press **New intake** at the top of the [Animals list](/animals/list) to open the intake form in a panel beside the list. You need **Change** on Animals to see the button.
Only **Species** is required. Everything else can be filled in now or later from the [animal record](/animals/record), and the form asks for the facts you usually know on the day the animal arrives.
## The fields
The fields below are listed in the order a new organization sees them. Your rescue may have rearranged them, hidden some, or made more of them required (see [Changing the form](#changing-the-form)). A field your rescue has made required shows a red asterisk.
| Field | What it means |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Internal name** | The name your team uses inside RescueConsole. It can carry detail only your team needs, such as "Twix (9.11.2026 pre-spay)". |
| **External name** | The name printed, and shown on your public site, the API and integrations. Leave it blank to use the internal name everywhere. |
| **Species** | Required. The list holds the species your organization works with. Species cannot be changed after the animal is saved. |
| **Breed**, or **Kind** | Chosen from your list for that species. See [Breed and Kind](#breed-and-kind). |
| **Breed or variety** | Only for species where the field above reads **Kind**. Up to 60 characters. |
| **Sex** | Male, Female or Unknown. Starts at Unknown. |
| **Intake date** | The day the animal arrived. Starts at today, in your own time zone. The record's days in care count from it. It cannot be changed after the animal is saved. |
| **Weight** | The weight on arrival, with its unit: lb, kg, oz or g. The unit starts at your organization's usual one. |
| **Date of birth (est.)** | An exact or estimated date of birth. The animal's age everywhere is worked out from it. |
| **Microchip vendor** | The company the chip is registered with. Suggestions appear as you type, and anything you type is kept. |
| **Microchip number** | The chip number. |
| **Also known as** | Other names the animal has had, separated by commas. |
| **Size** | Small, Medium, Large or Extra large. For a dog, when grown: small up to 25 lb, medium to 60, large to 100, extra large above. |
| **Primary color**, **Secondary color** | Chosen from a list. |
| **Pattern** | The list follows the species. |
| **Coat length** | The list follows the species. For a species with no coat it reads **Not applicable**. |
| **Intake source** | Where the animal came from: Stray, Transfer from another organization, Owner surrender, Field / wildlife, Born in care, Adoption return, Seized / cruelty case, or Other. |
| **Status** | The animal's status. Left at **The usual one for a new record**, a new animal starts as **Intake Processing** (or whatever your rescue has renamed it). |
| **Location** | Where the animal is housed. **Unassigned** leaves it unhoused. See [Housing](/animals/housing). |
| **Behavioral traits** | Words that describe the animal, separated by commas. The traits your rescue keeps under **Settings → Animal management → Behaviour** appear as buttons above the box: press one to add or remove it. |
| **Medical conditions** | Known conditions, chosen from the list your rescue keeps under **Settings → Animal management → Medical**. Press a condition to add or remove it. |
| **Health** | Healthy, Minor issue, Under treatment, Recovering, Chronic condition, Special needs, Critical or Hospice. |
| **Spayed/neutered** | Yes, No or Unknown. Starts at Unknown. |
| **Adoption fee** | The fee, in dollars. Leave it empty if no fee has been set yet: empty is not the same as a fee of zero. |
| **Description** | The adoption listing blurb: who this animal is, and what they need. |
Your rescue's own [custom fields](/settings/custom-fields) for animals follow these, unless your rescue has placed them elsewhere.
When the form is done, press **Log intake**.
### Breed and Kind
For a dog, a cat, a rabbit or an equine, the field reads **Breed**. For a small mammal, a large mammal, a bird, a barnyard animal, a fish, a reptile or an exotic, it reads **Kind**, because the list says what the animal is: a ferret, a cockatiel, a gecko. A second box, **Breed or variety**, then appears beside it for the detail, such as Abyssinian for a guinea pig or Pekin for a duck.
The list comes from **Settings → Animal management → Breeds** and follows the species you chose. If what you need is not on it, choose **Other…** and type it. When your rescue has no list for a species, the field is a plain box.
### The adoption fee suggestion
When your rescue has an adoption fee schedule, a line under **Adoption fee** says what the schedule would charge for this species and age, and what any discounts would take off. Press **Use it** to put that amount in the box. The schedule only suggests: the fee is whatever is in the box when you save. The schedule is set under **Settings → Finance & adoption → Adoption fees**.
## The animal ID
You do not type an ID. Every animal is given one automatically when you press **Log intake**, in the format your rescue chose under **Settings → Operations & forms → ID format**. It shows on the record, on the list's **ID** column and on printed cards.
## What happens when you save
* The panel closes and the animal appears in the list.
* The weight, if you gave one, becomes the first reading in the animal's weight history, noted "At intake".
* The animal is not public yet. Publish it from the record when it is ready to be shown.
* A [workflow](/settings/workflows) your rescue has set to start "when a new animal is added" starts on the new record.
The intake form records the animal. How it arrived (a stray, an owner surrender, a transfer in) is recorded separately, on the record's **Profile** tab under **How they arrived**, and that is what the [Intakes](/animals/intakes) page reports on. See [Recording how an animal arrived](/animals/intakes#recording-how-an-animal-arrived).
## Adding a litter
Animals that arrive together are entered one at a time, without typing the shared details again.
Complete the form for the first of the litter.
The animal is saved and the form stays open. A green line confirms it: "Saved" and the name.
The internal name, external name, microchip number and vendor, other names, sex and weight are cleared. Everything the litter shares stays: species, breed, colours, date of birth, intake date and source, status, location, fee, traits and description. Fill in the next animal and repeat.
Press **Log intake** for the last one to save it and close the panel.
Sex is cleared on purpose: copying it is how a whole litter ends up recorded as male.
## Duplicating an animal
To add an animal much like one already on file, open that animal's record, press the **Actions** menu at the top, and choose **Duplicate**. The intake form opens filled in from that animal, with the same fields left blank as for a littermate. The new animal gets its own ID and is not public until you publish it. Saving takes you to the new record.
## Changing the form
An administrator with **Configure** on Animals can change this form under **Settings → Data & customization → Record layouts**: the order of the fields, which ones are shown, and which ones are required. **Species** and **Intake date** cannot be hidden. See [Record layouts](/settings/record-layouts).
A field made required there is required on this staff form only. Animals added by an import or a public form are not held to it.