Co-owners and team members: sharing access to an animal

An animal rarely belongs to just one set of hands. A partner co-owns it, a vet tech keeps its records, a handler helps day to day. Creatures lets you share access at two levels, co-owner and team member, and the difference between them is a real permission boundary worth understanding before you add anyone.

The roles, and exactly what each one can do

Access is set by a role on the animal. There are three you work with, plus two the system manages for you:

• Owner: full control. An owner can edit the profile, manage the media, manage the records, manage ownership, start a transfer, and do the one strictest thing no one else can: add or remove members. There is always at least one owner on an animal. The implication: the owner is the final authority on who else has access.
• Co-owner: nearly identical to an owner. A co-owner can edit the profile, manage media and records, manage ownership, and start a transfer. The single thing reserved to a full owner is adding or removing members. The implication: make someone a co-owner when they are a true partner on the animal, not just a helper, because they can do almost everything you can.
• Team member: can edit the profile, manage media, and add and manage records, but cannot manage ownership (no adding or removing members, and no transfer). The implication: this is the right role for a vet tech, a handler, or a staffer who should maintain the animal's records but should not be able to move the animal.

Two more roles appear automatically and are not ones you assign:

• Seller custodian: granted to a previous owner partway through a sale so they can keep posting and caring for the animal until delivery is confirmed. Only the most-recent previous owner can be granted this access. The implication: you may see it during a sale; it is managed for you and clears when the sale completes.
• Boarding: granted by an active boarding arrangement so a boarder can help while the animal is in their care. The implication: it too is managed automatically by the boarding subscription, not something you add by hand.

Adding and managing members

You manage access from the animal's team sheet at /animal/{handle}/edit_owners, and you must be a full owner to open it.

• Add a member who is on Creatures: search for the person by name and add them. They get access right away at the role you set.
• Invite someone who is not on Creatures yet: invite by email or by text message. Creatures creates an invite and sends the notification, email, or SMS, and the person joins at the chosen role once they accept. For SMS invites it helps to have verified your phone number.
• Set or change a role: each added member has a per-row role select offering exactly Co-Owner or Team (there is no "Owner" option to hand out, by design). Change it any time. The implication: you can promote a team member to co-owner, or step a co-owner back to team, in one click.
• Remove a member: removing is immediate. You cannot change or remove the system-managed seller custodian role, because it is tied to an active sale.

Choosing the right role

A simple rule: if the person is a genuine partner in the animal, who should be able to manage ownership and even transfer it, make them a co-owner. If the person helps with content and records but should never move the animal, make them a team member. Only a full owner can hand out either role or take it back, so you stay in control of who has access. For who can see the animal at all, see Public, private, and reference animals. To add an animal in the first place, see Adding an animal to Creatures, and for what the shared access actually unlocks, see Your animal's profile page: the tabs and what each one does.

Related information

• Public, private, and reference animals
• Adding an animal to Creatures
• Your animal's profile page: the tabs and what each one does

Updated on: 23/06/2026