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# Track animals without individual profiles

Track animals by number when they move and receive care together but do not need separate profiles yet. You can keep one shared history now and create individual profiles later without losing the connection to the original group. This works especially well while names, microchips, or individual matches are not known.

## Create the group

Open **Dashboard > Animals & Groups > Groups**, select **Create group**, and choose **Count group** under **What are you tracking?** This is the setting name Creatures uses for a litter, flock, clutch, batch, colony, pond, or pen tracked by number.

Enter the **Current count**, choose the **Owner**, and add a **Name**, an optional **Location note**, and any **Notes** for your team. Select **Create group**. The group page will show the number you are managing.

![Create group options for individual profiles or tracking animals by number](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/fd3/8fa/ad4/09315.png?width=1760)

To update shared details, select **Edit** above the tabs. In **Edit group**, change the **Name**, **Location note**, or **Notes**, then select **Save group**. Group records and financial entries stay on the group, preserving your team's dated history.

You can also open **Display labels** in **Edit group** to set a known **Species** or **Breed** instead of **Mixed**. These optional labels do not add or remove animals.

## Create individual profiles later

Open the group's **Animals** tab and find **Promote to individual profiles**. Creatures carries over the species, breed, owner, birth or hatch date, and parentage certainty that the group already knows.

For each animal:

1. Enter a **Call name** and choose **Sex**.
2. Add optional color or markings, microchip, and temperament notes.
3. If this group is being offered to buyers, use **Buyer match** only when you are ready to assign that animal to one of the listed buyers. Otherwise, leave **No buyer yet** selected.
4. Select **Create profile**, or use **Add another profile** to prepare several animals before saving the batch together.

![Promote to individual profiles with inherited details and buyer match](https://cdn-test.creatures.com/6fe/f4a/3db/ca04d.png?width=1760)

The **profiles remaining** count tells you how many can still be created from the group. Each new animal keeps a link to the group, which preserves sibling or batch continuity. The group and its shared history remain available after profiles are created.

## When to use Animal profiles instead

Choose an **Animal profiles** group at the start when every animal needs its own health, ownership, location, or show history immediately. You can [add missing animal profiles](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/adding-an-animal-to-creatures-jbkkre/) first, then place those animals in a manual or rule-managed group.

### Related information

- [Create and manage animal groups](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/create-and-manage-animal-groups-xbv2ht/)
- [Apply records and track activity for a group](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/apply-records-and-track-activity-for-a-group-xhe5f5/)
- [Offer a litter or group to buyers: applications and reservations](https://help.creatures.com/en/article/offer-a-count-group-to-buyers-applications-and-reservations-lin2v6/)