Evaluating new litters

In our area, as litters approach 5-6 weeks of age, they are eligible to go to pet markets. So we try to go through each litter at about 6 weeks.

Here's what we do (and record):

• Weigh each baby
• Tattoo each baby (although sometimes we don't tattoo obvious pets)
• Check teeth for malocclusions and eyes for eyespots
• Determine sex (although some seem to change back and forth for a while...)
• Evaluate type: body structure, shape of head, crown, width and length of ears, etc.
• Establish rank of each baby in the litter
• Check feet. In Hollands, the proportion of the feet (width to length) in a baby gives good clues into the body type of the animal. Babies with wide, short feet will often have wide, short bodies and also wide heads.
• Take photos of each baby to compare to later. Sometimes a nice 6-week-old baby will go through an ugly stage so it's nice to be able to look back at those baby photos to remember what we liked. Photos help us evaluate the stages of development.

Anything you'd add to this evaluation list?