When you create a custom database you'll pick a species from a dropdown that includes:

• Dogs
• Horses
• Cows
• Goats
• Sheep
• Cats
• Pigs
• Rabbits
• Chickens
• Birds
• Hamsters
• Guinea Pigs
• Mice
• Rats
• Other Animal

Our dog and horse configurations are the most polished out of the box. They ship with breed lists, color and marking presets, species-specific fields like hip and elbow ratings for dogs, and a default add/edit form tuned for breeders in those communities. Every other species starts from a sensible generic baseline.

If your species isn't in the dropdown, pick Other Animal. You'll get the full pedigree and reporting toolkit along with our complete library of predefined and custom field types, which you can combine to track almost anything with a parent/offspring relationship.

We're also happy to help. If you'd like us to set up breed lists, color presets, or field defaults specific to your species or registry, just email us after you sign up and we'll work with you to configure your database.

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Your custom pedigree database comes with our full suite of reports, including every pedigree, family-tree, and breeding-analysis tool we offer. As an administrator you can enable or disable individual reports per database from the Reports tab in your database settings, so your users only see what's relevant to your registry.

Pedigree reports

• Pedigree: Up to 9-generation pedigrees with a highlight filter for calling out inbred or duplicated ancestors. The available highlight options are Inbreds (the default), All Duplicates, Cross Duplicates, and No Highlight. You can also toggle whether the subject animal itself appears on the pedigree.
• Certificate: Printable, branded pedigree and registration certificates for any animal. We ship a default set of templates and you can save your own custom certificate templates (logos, fonts, layout) from your database settings.
• Photos Pedigree: A 3-to-5-generation pedigree laid out with each ancestor's photo instead of text, perfect for sharing visual family trees.
• Embed: A slim, embeddable version of any animal's pedigree that you can drop into another site with a single snippet.

Family reports

• Offspring: A complete list of every animal's direct offspring. Filter by sex (males or females only) and by color, and show up to 250 offspring per page.
• Siblings: Every sibling of the subject animal, filtered by sibling type (Half, 3/4, or Full), by the sibling's sex, and with an optional toggle to include "same sire" matches. Results paginate 25 to 100 per page.
• Female Family (sometimes called the dam line or bottom line): Lists every descendant along the female line. Configure how many generations deep to search (1 to 12) and how many dam generations to expand (1 to 4), with up to 500 records returned.
• Tail Family: Traces an animal's tail-male or tail-female line, showing all descendants along a single-sex chain.
• Common Ancestors: Given two animals, find every ancestor that appears in both of their pedigrees. Useful for spotting shared influences before you plan a mating.
• Common Descendants: The inverse of Common Ancestors. Given two animals, find every descendant that has both of them in its pedigree.

Breeding analysis

• Linebreeding: Calculate the coefficient of inbreeding for up to 13 generations of a pedigree, with a full breakdown of where each inbred ancestor appears, how many times, and their percentage of influence. Filter the report by Only Inbreds, Only Cross Dupes, Only Males, Only Females, or All Animals, and narrow further by classic inbreeding influence thresholds (2x2, 2x3, 3x3, all the way out to 7x7). You can read more about the linebreeding report in our knowledgebase.
• Hypothetical Mating (Hypomating): See what an animal's records would look like if two animals were bred, without creating any records in your database. Pick a sire and a dam and you get a virtual foal with its own pedigree, linebreeding report, siblings, photos pedigree, female family, tail family, equivalents, and certificate. Nothing is saved, so you can experiment freely without polluting your database with test records.
• Equivalents: Calculate an animal's equivalent generations, a more nuanced measure of how complete its pedigree actually is compared to a raw generation count.

Record management

• Directory: Browse every animal in your database with search, filters, and sorting across any field you've configured on your add/edit form.
• Changelog: A full audit trail of who changed what on each animal's record, so administrators can review edits and, when necessary, revert them.

All reports respect your database's privacy settings and field-level permissions, so anything you've marked as admin-only (for example, an "internal notes" text field) stays hidden from non-admin users regardless of the report they're looking at.

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Custom Database Field Management

Our custom database field management allows you to add virtually any type of field to your database. You can choose between a set of predefined fields that we have carefully curated for most of your needs. If we don't have a field that fits your requirements, you have the ability to choose between various custom field types. To begin managing your fields, simply go into your database account area and click the "Manage Fields" link in the navigation. You will be taken to a page that lists all of the fields that have been defined for your database separated by category. These categories reflect the structure of your database's add/edit form.

Predefined Fields

Required Fields

Before we begin, it's important to understand that we have a few fields that cannot be removed and have limited preferences. Unless otherwise noted, you can control the field's label, category, description, and whether or not admins are the only users that are allowed to edit or view each field.

Name - The name of the animal. This field has a maximum length of 200 characters. Because this is a required field, if you only allow admins to edit the field, non-admins will not be able to create new animals.

Sex - The sex of the animal. The only options are Male and Female for this field. Because this is a required field, if you only allow admins to edit the field, non-admins will not be able to create new animals. Once an animal has offspring, its sex becomes read-only in order to preserve the integrity of the pedigree.

Sire - The animal's sire or father. You can set whether this field is required when adding or updating a record. You can also set whether or not you'd like the sire field to be hidden when adding a new animal to the database. Lastly, you can control whether or not a dropdown for the sire's breed is displayed next to the sire's name on the animal's add/edit form.

Dam - The animal's dam or mother. You can set whether this field is required when adding or updating a record. You can also set whether or not you'd like the dam field to be hidden when adding a new animal to the database. Lastly, you can control whether or not a dropdown for the dam's breed is displayed next to the dam's name on the animal's add/edit form.

Date of Birth - The date of birth of the animal. This field has quite a few customizations available. You can set whether this field is required when adding or editing an animal's record. You can also choose to hide the field when adding a new record to the database. If you want to allow your database to accommodate approximate DOBs you can check the "Allow approximate years" option, which will let users enter a tilde preceding the year (e.g. ~1990) or a trailing question mark (e.g. 1990?). If you only have a year of birth instead of a full date, you can check "Allow only year when an exact date isn't known," which will not require an exact date. If you only have a decade, you can check "Allow decade" which accepts entries like 1950s. Lastly, we provide a configuration where our database will approximate the year of birth of an animal's sire and dam when they are entered from the offspring's add/edit page. For example, if you're adding an animal's sire but it's not yet in the database, you will select the option labeled "Not found (this animal will be added to the database)." In that case, we will estimate the YOB based on the subject animal's YOB and the "Sire/Dam Age Estimate (In Years)" field. So if the subject animal was born in 1990 and the Sire/Dam Age Estimate is set to 9, the new sire's YOB will be set to ~1981.

Locked - This field allows you to lock a record. Administrators can always edit locked records.

Optional Fields

The remaining predefined fields are all optional, although we have set up your database with a sensible configuration to start. 

Awards - The awards field is a hybrid dropdown/text field similar to color, breed, etc. We will not pre-fill the "Dropdown Options," meaning the default settings allow your users to enter custom awards. If you'd like to restrict your users from entering custom values, you can uncheck "Allow users to add custom values" and set the available awards in the dropdown by entering values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new award you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no awards are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in an award. The field also allows you to control the maximum number of awards that your users can associate with a record, up to a maximum of 10.

Birth Country - The birth country field allows you to set where the animal was born. We pre-fill the dropdown options with all countries, but you are welcome to modify this list however you'd like. You can set the available countries by entering values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new country you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no countries are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in a country. This field also allows you to control whether or not you allow users to set custom values.

Breed - The breed field is a hybrid dropdown/text field that allows you to set the breed(s) of your animals. You can set the available breeds to select in the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a breed you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no breeds are entered in this text area, your users will always be allowed to type in the breed free-form. You will see a dropdown labeled "Maximum entries allowed" that allows you to control how many breeds your users are allowed to associate with an animal. Lastly, there is a checkbox labeled "Allow users to add custom values" which will allow users to type in a breed regardless of the breeds in the "Dropdown options" box. 

Breeder - The breeder field is a basic text box and allows you to enter the animal's breeder(s). If you'd like to also store breeder address information, we suggest creating custom text fields for the applicable address, city, postal code, etc., or using a Contact Field (see below).

Breeding Status - A hybrid dropdown/text field that describes whether an animal has been neutered or is otherwise unavailable for breeding. It behaves the same as our other tag-style fields: you can pre-fill the dropdown options, control whether users can add custom values, and limit the maximum number of entries.

Call Name - The call name field is a simple text field.

Clubs - The clubs field is a hybrid dropdown/text field similar to color, breed, etc. We will not pre-fill the "Dropdown Options," meaning the default settings allow your users to enter custom clubs. If you'd like to restrict your users from entering custom values, you can uncheck "Allow users to add custom values" and then set the available clubs in the dropdown by entering values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new club you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no clubs are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in a club. The field also allows you to control the maximum number of clubs that your users can associate with a record, up to a maximum of 10.

Color - The color field allows you to set an animal's color(s). We will not pre-fill the "Dropdown Options," meaning the default settings allow your users to enter custom values. You can set the available colors by entering values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new color you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no colors are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in a color. The field also allows you to control the maximum number of colors that your users can associate with a record, up to a maximum of 10.

Comments - The comments field is a long-text area. You may enter up to 2,000 characters. If you'd like to format the content with headings, bold/italic, lists, or links, you can enable the "Markdown" option on the field and your users will get a Markdown-aware editor.

Competition Stats - The competition stats field is a structured field for tracking competition results such as starts, 1st/2nd/3rd placements, and earnings. It's rendered as its own grouped form on the add/edit page rather than as a single input.

Current Country - The current country field allows you to set where the animal currently resides. We pre-fill the dropdown options with all countries, but you are welcome to modify this list however you'd like. You can set the available countries by entering values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new country you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no countries are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in a country. This field also allows you to control whether or not you allow users to set custom values.

Date of Death - The date of death field behaves like Date of Birth: you can require it, hide it on create, and allow approximate years, year-only entries, or decades if you'd like.

DNA - Our DNA field allows you to upload simple key/value pairs for your animal's DNA markers. On the add/edit form you will see a text box for "DNA Marker" and another next to it for "DNA Value." We have a pre-defined set of markers that has been populated for dogs, but users are allowed to enter custom markers directly from the add/edit form. You are allowed to add up to a maximum of 250 marker/value pairs.

Height - The height field displays a text box and a dropdown for the units of the animal's height. You can manage which units are allowed to be saved (mm, cm, in, hh, ft, m) and the minimum and maximum numeric values allowed. Please note that the maximum/minimum values are not unit-based. For example, you can't enter "90 cm" for a maximum value. Instead you will need to enter "90." This is a known limitation and we will work on making it more flexible.

Markings - The markings field is a hybrid dropdown/text field similar to color, breed, etc. We will not pre-fill the "Dropdown Options," meaning the default settings allow your users to enter custom markings. If you'd like to restrict your users from entering custom values, you can uncheck "Allow users to add custom values" and enter values into the "Dropdown options" field. Once you enter a new marking you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. If no markings are entered in this text area your users will be allowed to manually type in a marking. The field also allows you to control the maximum number of markings that your users can associate with a record, up to a maximum of 10.

Owner - The owner field is a basic text box and allows you to enter the animal's owner(s). If you'd like to also store owner address information, we suggest creating custom text fields for the applicable address, city, postal code, etc., or using a Contact Field (see below).

Performance Titles - The performance titles field is a simple text field. Any performance titles associated with an animal will be displayed after the animal's name in its pedigree.

Photo - The photo field allows you to attach photos to the animal record. Supported formats are JPG, PNG, GIF, and WebP, and each file can be up to 20 MB. By default, each animal can have up to 10 photos attached.

Registry Number - The registry number field is quite flexible. Along with a free-form text field, you can also add a list of optional registries in the "Registries" text box. Once you enter a new registry you can press "TAB" or "ENTER" on your keyboard to confirm the new option. Once you have added at least one registry, a dropdown will appear next to the registry number field on the add/edit form and you will not be able to enter a registry number without also selecting an option from the registry dropdown. We also can auto-generate registry numbers for you. Simply check the "Automatically generate a unique registry number if one is omitted when creating a new record" checkbox and set a numeric value in the "Begin at registry number" field. Whenever a new record is added to the database without a registry number, we will automatically generate a number based on these settings. You can also control whether or not a registry number is automatically generated when adding new sire/dam records from the offspring add/edit page by selecting the "Automatically generate a registry number for the sire and dam when creating at the same time as their offspring" checkbox. If an animal needs to be tracked in more than one registry, you can raise the "Maximum entries allowed" setting so multiple registry/number pairs can be stored on a single record. Each individual registry number has a maximum length of 40 characters.

Show Titles - The show titles field is a simple text field. Any show titles associated with an animal will be displayed before the animal's name in its pedigree.

Weight - The weight field displays a text box and a dropdown for the units of the animal's weight. You can manage which units are allowed to be saved (g, oz, kg, lb) and the minimum and maximum numeric values allowed. Please note that the maximum/minimum values are not unit-based. For example, you can't enter "100 lb" for a maximum value. Instead you will need to enter "100." This is a known limitation and we will work on making it more flexible.

Custom Fields

Basic Text Field - A basic text field will be the most common type of field you will want to use. Aside from the label, category, description, and standard checkbox settings there are no special configuration options for this field. All basic text field values have a maximum length of 200 characters.

Long Text Field - If you need something longer than the 200-character limit of a Basic Text Field, you should use a Long Text Field. This functions exactly the same as a Basic Text Field but supports up to 2,000 characters. You can also enable the "Markdown" option, which gives your users a Markdown-aware editor with support for headings, bold/italic, lists, and links.

Dropdown Field - A dropdown field is essentially a hybrid dropdown/text field and is a perfect option for when you want to give your users the option of selecting values from a list and/or limiting the values that your users can enter. When creating a dropdown field you can enter values in the "Dropdown options" field to populate the dropdown that's available on the add/edit form. If you check the "Allow users to add custom values" box, users will have the ability to either select from the dropdown or manually type in a custom value. If you don't enter any values in the "Dropdown options" setting, users will be forced to type in a custom value. Use the "Maximum entries allowed" setting to limit how many unique values can be associated with an animal's record. Dropdown fields also support "sex-linked" choices, which let you show a different set of options depending on whether the animal is male or female.

Numeric Field - Numeric fields are very similar to basic text fields with the exception that the input on the add/edit form only allows numeric values and you have the ability to configure a minimum and maximum value. These settings are not required.

Date Field - Date fields allow you to associate simple dates with your animals. Common uses might be: registration date, date of last measurement, transfer date, etc. Like our Date of Birth field, you can optionally allow year-only entries, approximate years (prefix with ~ or suffix with ?), and decades (e.g. 1950s).

Yes / No (Boolean) Field - The Yes / No fields allow you to add a simple dropdown with "Yes" and "No" as the only options.

Length / Height Field - Length / Height fields allow you to save length or distance measurements on your animals' records. When you create a length / height field you can select which units you'd like to show on the add/edit form: mm, cm, in, hh (hands), ft, m. We will start you off with a sensible default, but you are free to add or remove any of these units. You are also welcome to set a minimum and maximum value that is allowed. Please note that the maximum and minimum values are not unit-based. For example, you can't enter "90 cm" for a maximum value. Instead you will need to enter "90" and users will not be allowed to enter anything with a numeric value over 90 (e.g. "90 in" or "90 ft"). This is a known limitation and we will work on making it more flexible in the future.

Weight Field - Weight fields allow you to save weight measurements on your animals' records. When you create a weight field you can select which units you'd like to show on the add/edit form: g, oz, kg, lb. We will start you off with a sensible default, but you are free to add or remove any of these units. You are also welcome to set a minimum and maximum value that is allowed. Please note that the maximum and minimum values are not unit-based. For example, you can't enter "90 kg" for a maximum value. Instead you will need to enter "90" and users will not be allowed to enter anything with a numeric value over 90 (e.g. "90 g" or "90 lb"). This is a known limitation and we will work on making it more flexible in the future.

Contact Field - A Contact Field is designed for associating people or organizations (breeders, owners, trainers, veterinarians, etc.) with an animal. Unlike a free-form text field, contacts are stored as structured records that can be re-used across animals, and you can choose which pieces of their information are displayed on the pedigree: address, city, state/province, postal code, country, phone, and email. You can also cap how many contacts may be associated with a single record.

URL / Link Field - URL fields let you attach one or more web links to an animal's record. Each link can optionally have custom display text, and you can choose how the link is rendered (full URL, domain only, or custom text). You can cap the maximum number of links per record, and if you want to restrict where users can link to, you can enter a list of allowed domains.

Media / File Field - Media fields allow you to attach files (such as PDFs) to an animal's record. Individual files can be up to 20 MB, and you can configure how many files are allowed per record.

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Preface

We suggest that you first read about our different custom database field types before learning how to manage the fields in your custom database.

Please make sure that you're logged into your custom database. You can log in by going to your database homepage, hovering over the My Account menu in the top-right corner of the page, and clicking the Sign In link.

Once you're logged in, head to your account area by hovering over your email address in the top-right corner of the page and clicking the Account Dashboard link. From your account area, find your database under My Database in the left-hand navigation and click the Fields link. That will take you to your custom database's field management.

Custom Database Field Management

The Fields page is one tab in a row of settings at the top of the page: General, Fields, Popups, Reports, and Privacy. The Fields tab lists every field that's currently associated with your database, grouped into seven categories: General Information, Health Information, Genetic Information, Additional Information, Contacts, Media, and Record Settings. These categories mirror how fields are grouped on your animal add/edit form.

To add a new field, scroll down to the category you'd like to add it under (e.g. Additional Information) and click the Add New [Category] Field button in the card's header.

A popup will open with a dropdown of every field type you can add. The list includes both our predefined fields (Breed, Color, DNA, Photo, etc.) and our generic custom field types (Text Field, Dropdown Field, Numeric Field, URL Field, Contact Field, etc.). Pick a field type and click OK. The popup will close and the new field will appear at the bottom of the category with its preferences already expanded so you can configure it.

Please note: changes to a field aren't saved until you click the green Save Field button at the bottom of that field's preferences. Each field is saved independently, so you can tweak one field at a time without touching the others.

Each field on the page is collapsed by default. Click the chevron on the left of a field's row to expand it and view its preferences. You can also drag any field by the grip handle on the right side of its row to reorder fields within a category. Fields that can't be removed (Name, Sex, Sire, Dam, Date of Birth, Locks) are marked with a small "This field cannot be removed" label.

Depending on the type of field you selected, the preferences panel will show some combination of the following options. Every field has the first three; the rest appear only when they apply.

Common to all fields

Title / Label: The label your users see on the add/edit form and in reports.
Category: Which of the seven categories the field is grouped under. Changing the category moves the field on both the add/edit form and in the informational popups on the reports.
Description / Help Text: A short hint that will display as help text underneath the field on the add/edit form.
Only Administrators can edit this field: When checked, only users with the administrator role can change the value of this field.
Only Administrators can view this field (internal use only): Hides the field from non-admins entirely. Useful for private notes or internal tracking fields. If you check this, the "can edit" admin-only option is enabled automatically.
Require this field when adding or editing an animal: The add/edit form will not save unless a valid value is provided. Note: if "Only Administrators can edit this field" is also checked, only administrators will be able to add or edit records.
Hide this field on the Create New Animal form: When checked, this field is hidden on new records and only shown when editing. Useful for trimming the add form down to essentials.
Display this field in an "Info Card" below the pedigree report: Adds the field's value to a compact info card shown beneath the pedigree report on the animal's page.
Hide this field from the Directory sort dropdown: Removes the field from the options your users can sort your directory by.

Dropdown, Breed, Color, Markings, and other tag-style fields

Maximum entries allowed: How many values your users can associate with a single record (up to 10).
Dropdown options: The values that populate the dropdown. Type a new value and press Enter, Return, or Tab to add it. Duplicate options are removed automatically. If you leave this empty, the field is completely free-form and users can type any value they like.
Allow users to add custom values: When checked, users can type a value of their own even if the dropdown has options defined. When unchecked, users must pick from the options you've entered.

Date fields (including Date of Birth and Date of Death)

Allow only year when an exact date isn't known: Lets users enter just a year (e.g. 1990) instead of a full date.
Allow decades when the exact date is unknown: Lets users enter a decade (e.g. 1850s). Only available when "Allow only year" is also checked.
Allow approximate or questionable dates: Lets users prefix a year with a tilde (~1990) or suffix a date with a question mark (1990-05-23?) to indicate uncertainty.
Estimate the YOB of sire/dam when they are added to the database: For the Date of Birth field only. When enabled, if you add a sire or dam from an offspring's edit page, we'll estimate the parent's year of birth based on the offspring's year of birth and the Sire/Dam Age Estimate (In Years) value you set.

Length / Height, Weight, and Numeric fields

Allowed Units: For Length/Height, pick from mm, cm, in, hh (hands), ft, m, km. For Weight, pick from g, oz, lb, kg. Only the units you select will appear in the dropdown next to the value.
Minimum value allowed and Maximum value allowed: Constrain how small or large a number users can enter. Please note that these are not unit-based. A max of 90 means 90 regardless of the unit selected.

Registry Number

Registries (optional): If you want to force users to pick a registry whenever they enter a registry number, add the registry names here. Once at least one registry exists, a dropdown will appear next to the number on the add/edit form.
Automatically generate a unique registry number if one is omitted when creating a new record: When enabled, any new record saved without a registry number will have one generated automatically, starting from the Next generated registry number value you specify.
Automatically generate a registry number for the sire and dam when creating at the same time as their offspring: When enabled, auto-generation also applies to parent records created via the offspring's add/edit page.

URL Field

URL Display Format: Choose whether links display as the full URL or just the domain (e.g. youtube.com).
Allowed Domains (optional): Restrict URLs to a specific set of domains. Use *.domain.com to allow any subdomain. Leave empty to allow any URL.
Allow users to enter custom display text for each URL: When enabled, users can provide their own link text (e.g. "Watch Video" instead of the full URL).

Contact Field

Contact fields (used for breeders, owners, trainers, etc.) have a set of checkboxes that control which pieces of contact information appear on the entry form: address, city, state, zip, country, phone, and email. Turn on only the ones you care about.

Basic Text Field

Directory / Search Behavior: Controls how your users' searches match this field in the directory. Options are Allow a partial match anywhere in the value (wildcard), A partial search must match the beginning of the value (anchored), or Force an exact match on the value.

Comments

Use Markdown editor and formatting: Swaps the plain textarea for a Markdown-aware editor so your users can add headings, bold, italics, lists, and links to their comments.

Breeding Status

Associate different breeding statuses for males and females: When enabled, the field splits into two dropdowns, one for males and one for females, so you can offer sex-appropriate statuses (e.g. Gelding for males, Spayed for females).
Display breeding status in place of sex in reports: When enabled, the animal's breeding status (e.g. Gelding) appears in place of its sex (Male) in reports.

Sire and Dam

Show breed dropdown next to the Sire/Dam field: Adds a breed dropdown alongside the parent-name input on the add/edit form, useful if your registry tracks cross-breed parents.

Once you've configured a field the way you want, click Save Field. If a field isn't required, you'll also see a Delete Field link next to the save button to remove it from your database entirely.

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You control what's visible and what isn't

As an administrator, you have fine-grained control over your custom pedigree database at three levels:

• Report level (Settings → Reports): gate any of our reports behind a login and a specific ability. Anything from "let anyone view the pedigree report but require login for linebreeding" to "require login for everything."
• Field level (Settings → Fields): hide individual fields from non-admins, so private notes or sensitive values never appear on the public side.
• Role level (Users → Manage Roles): build custom roles that bundle exactly the abilities you want, and assign those roles to the users you've approved.

Layered together, these give you anything from a fully open public database to a fully private members-only registry, plus every hybrid in between.

Who can view your records?

A new custom database starts out publicly browsable: anyone with the URL can view animal records and reports. You have three tools to change that.

Report-level gating

On the Settings → Reports tab, every report has a checkbox that reads something like "Users must be logged in and have the 'View Pedigree' ability to view the pedigree report." Covered reports include:

• Animal Search
• Pedigree (with a separate control for basic pedigrees of 5 generations or fewer vs. advanced pedigrees that use filters or go deeper)
• Offspring, Siblings, Linebreeding, Female Family, Tail Family
• Common Ancestors, Common Descendants, Equivalents
• Hypomating (with a separate control for non-saved vs. saved hypothetical matings)
• Photos, Certificate, Directory, Changelog

Check a report's box and that report becomes visible only to logged-in users who have the matching ability. Leave it unchecked and the report is open to everyone, including guests.

Field-level hiding

On the Settings → Fields tab, expand any field and check Only Administrators can view this field (internal use only). The field is then hidden from non-admin users everywhere it would otherwise appear (animal pages, the directory, reports, exports, and so on), while remaining fully visible and editable to administrators. This is the right tool for private notes, owner contact details, or any other value you want to keep internal without locking down a whole report.

Role-level access

Report-level abilities are handed out through roles. On the Users → Manage Roles page you can edit our built-in roles or create your own, and assign any mix of view abilities to each one. A custom role called "Verified Member" might get View Pedigree, View Offspring, and View Siblings but not View Hypomating or View Changelog. Users you assign that role can view those three reports but none of the other reports you've gated.

Putting it together: a fully private database

1. On Settings → Reports, check every login-required box for every report you offer.
2. On Users → Manage Roles, either update an existing role (like Registered User) or create a new one, and grant it only the view abilities you want members to have.
3. Back on Settings → Privacy, turn Open database registration off if you want to vet every member by hand, or leave it on if you want members to self-register and then be promoted.
4. Add users yourself (or let them register) and assign the role you created.

Anyone who isn't logged in, or who is logged in but doesn't hold the right ability, now sees a permission denied message instead of the record.

Who can add or edit records?

Editing is governed by the same three tiers.

Guest edits (database level)

On the Settings → Privacy tab, Allow guests (users who are not logged in) to edit animals in the database controls whether editing requires an account at all.

• Unchecked (default): only users you've added to your database can add or edit animals. Guests can browse (subject to the report-level settings above) but not change anything.
• Checked: anyone, logged in or not, can add and edit animals. Pair this with the Changelog report if you enable it, so you always have a record of who changed what.

Field-level editing

On the Settings → Fields tab, the Only Administrators can edit this field checkbox lets you lock down a single field without changing the overall database permission. Non-admins can still view the field (unless you've also hidden it), but they can't change its value.

Role-level editing

Editing is tied to three abilities: Edit Animal, Delete Animal, and Lock Animal. Assign these through Users → Manage Roles the same way you'd assign view abilities. For example, a "Read-Only Member" role would have view abilities but no edit ability, even though the user is logged in.

Can visitors sign up for accounts on their own?

On Settings → Privacy, Open database registration controls whether visitors can create accounts themselves.

• Unchecked (default): no public signups. You add users manually from the Users section of your admin area and assign each one a role. Use this if membership is gated on payment, club approval, or any other process you handle outside the software.
• Checked: any visitor can sign up for an account directly on your database. New signups are automatically assigned the Registered User role, which you can reconfigure (on Manage Roles) to carry whatever abilities you want new members to have. Membership fees, if any, are something you handle separately.

Common setups

User roles, at a glance

Every database ships with three built-in roles. You can edit their abilities or create new ones on Users → Manage Roles.

• Administrator: manages users, approves edits, edits and deletes animals, locks records, and views advanced reports.
• Moderator: approves edits, edits and deletes animals, views advanced reports. Cannot manage other users or lock records.
• Registered User: adds, edits, and deletes animal records by default. This is the role new signups receive when open registration is enabled. Edit the role on Manage Roles if you'd like new signups to have a different set of abilities.

Changing your settings later

Every privacy control described above can be changed at any time without affecting the records already in your database. If you launch with an open database and later decide to gate it, flipping the checkboxes on Reports, Privacy, and Fields is enough. If you gate a field or report that previously contained data your users could see, the data itself is preserved. It just stops being visible or editable outside the roles you've granted the matching abilities to.

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We know every breeder, club, and registry has different needs, so we offer flexible pricing that lets you pay only for what you use. Your custom database's cost is simply the combination of two independent choices:

• Records - how many animal records your database can hold. Start with a small tier and scale up as your registry grows. You're free to swap tiers at any time. You will not be able to downgrade if your database has more records than the smaller tier.
• Members - how many registered user accounts your database allows. Members are how you control who can view, edit, or manage your records.

Records and members are priced as independent tiers, so you can pair a small records tier with a large member tier, or vice versa - whichever fits how your registry is organized. Yearly billing saves over 15% compared to paying monthly.

For the current record and member tier prices, and a side-by-side comparison of the starter bundles, see our Pedigree Software page.

Want to try before you buy? Every new custom database starts with a free trial of up to 100 records, no credit card required. Add records at your own pace and pick a paid tier whenever you're ready.

Need more records or members than the largest published tier? Contact us - we work with large registries and can put together a custom plan for you.

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Yes, and we'll do the work for you.

Switching pedigree database software is a big undertaking, and we don't want that to be the thing standing between you and a better database. So once you've signed up, simply email us a copy of your existing data as a CSV, XLS, XLSX, or database dump files and we'll import it into your new custom database for you, free of charge.

A few tips to help us give you the best result:

• Include every column you'd like to carry over: names, sires, dams, dates of birth, registry numbers, colors, comments, and any custom fields you track. If it's in your export, we can bring it in.
• If you have photos you'd like attached to the imported records, let us know when you send the file and we'll coordinate the best way to get them over.
• It's helpful to have your custom database's fields set up the way you want them before we run the import, so every column in your file has a home to land in. If you're not sure how to structure things, just ask. We'll take a look at your export and recommend a setup.

Once we've received your file we'll get to work on the import and let you know as soon as your data is live.

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