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# Breeding and reproductive care protocols

A care plan is useful when the same breeding preparation or follow-up should happen in a repeatable order. It turns the plan into dated tasks without exposing your private schedule publicly.

## Start a breeding care plan

1. Open **Care plans**.
2. Under **Animal, group, or place**, choose the animal, group, or place the work belongs to.
3. Choose **Start with one task**.
4. Enter a clear **Plan name**, such as “Pre-breeding checks” or “Calving preparation.”
5. Choose **What care is needed?**, enter the **Task title**, and set **Cadence** and **Timing**.

![Name the care plan and describe its first task](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/7c0/b31/a8c/a3261.png)

Use an animal for individual reproductive care. Use a group when the same work applies to a litter or managed cohort. Group plans stay private to you and your team. A newly saved plan begins on the target's current local date; there is no separate start-date field in this builder.

## Add and preview the work

1. Add one task for each action your team must complete.
2. Use plain task names that make the outcome obvious.
3. Set **Cadence** and **Timing** only as precisely as the real protocol requires.
4. Wait for **Up to date**, then review **Check the first week** before saving.
5. Choose **Save care plan** when the target, tasks, and dates are right.

![Preview the first seven days](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/d42/d9b/03c/0011f.png)

Check the preview for duplicate tasks, the wrong day, or the wrong time. Because the plan begins on the target's local date when you save, confirm that you are ready to start. Have the veterinarian or protocol owner confirm any tightly timed reproductive work.

Use a plan to schedule the work, not to replace the record of what happened. Record useful observations and exceptions when you complete a task.

When a task is due, it appears in **Today's care**. Completing animal care can add the matching record to the animal's history, so use the real completion time and notes rather than marking work done early. Future planned tasks and reminders remain private; you choose separately whether a completed animal record is public.

For one-off breeding observations, use a reproductive record instead. For a pregnancy's expected window and milestones, use the dam's [Breeding tab](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/tracking-pregnancy-and-progress-kbmkix/). For group scheduling details, see [Care plans for animal groups](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/care-plans-for-animal-groups-1ginhfu/) and [Reminders and upcoming care](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/reminders-and-upcoming-care-1fwvc8/).