Kitten Vaccination Schedule

How to use this kitten vaccination schedule

1. Put in the date of birth. Everything else follows from it. If you adopted or found your kitten and nobody knows the birthday, tap "I don't know the birthday" and give an age in weeks instead, or work the age out first with the kitten age chart.
2. Choose where the series ends. The guideline says somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks and means it. Twenty is the safer default and the tool starts there; the reason is below.
3. Say whether your kitten will go outside or live with other cats. This changes the adult feline leukemia booster and nothing else. Every kitten gets the full FeLV series either way.
4. If shots have already started, say so. Open "Already had some shots?", enter how many FVRCP doses and the date of the most recent one. The schedule carries on from there. A kitten that is behind does not start again.
5. Book from the list. Each row is one appointment with everything that happens at it. There is no calculate button; the dates update as you type.
6. Print the record and take it. The PDF has your dates already in it and blank columns for the product, the lot number and the vet's initials, so it becomes the real document rather than a plan for one.

Why this kitten vaccination chart is different

Search for a kitten vaccination chart and every result publishes the same thing: a table of age bands. PetMD has one, so does Chewy, so do half a dozen individual veterinary practices, and the third result is the actual AAHA guideline as a PDF poster — correct, authoritative, and rendered as a grid of ticks across columns headed 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 weeks. All of it is accurate. None of it tells you when to phone the vet.

• It does the arithmetic. You have a kitten with a birthday and you want dates. Turning "every 3 to 4 weeks until 16 to 20 weeks" into four appointments spread over four months is the whole job, and no page on the first results page attempts it.
• It thinks in visits, not vaccines. Three vaccines run on three overlapping cadences. The guideline is written per-vaccine because that is how a guideline works; a trip to the vet is not. This tool merges the doses into the smallest honest number of appointments and tells you what happens at each.
• It handles a late or interrupted start. The guideline has a genuinely different rule for a kitten first seen after 16 weeks — two doses, not the full series — and another for continuing a part-finished one. Most kittens are adopted at eight to twelve weeks with one shot already done. Every other chart shows only the textbook six-week-old.
• It explains the 16-versus-20-week choice instead of quietly picking one. It is the most consequential decision in the whole series and it has a real reason behind it.
• It gives you the record, not just the plan. Somebody is selling a printable cat vaccination record on Etsy, and that listing ranks in the images for this search. That tells you what people actually want. Ours is free and comes with the dates already filled in.
• It shows its work. Every rule below maps to a named clause of the published guideline, and an automated test re-derives thousands of schedules against those clauses on every build.

The kitten vaccination chart

The tool above turns this into dates. Here it is in the usual form, for reference and for printing off the wall.

What each kitten vaccine actually does

FVRCP — Feline viral rhinotracheitis (FHV-1), calicivirus (FCV), panleukopenia (FPV)

Panleukopenia is the one that kills. It is a parvovirus, it survives in the environment for months, and mortality in unvaccinated kittens is very high. Herpesvirus and calicivirus are the two causes of the cat flu that never quite goes away.

Kitten series: 3 to 5 doses, every 3 to 4 weeks, from 6 weeks until 16 to 20 weeks of age. As an adult: Every 3 years.

Feline leukemia — Feline leukemia virus

A retrovirus passed in saliva through grooming, shared bowls and fights. It causes anaemia, immune suppression and lymphoma, and there is no cure. Kittens are markedly more susceptible than adults, which is why this is core for every kitten and only risk-based afterwards.

Kitten series: 2 doses, 3 to 4 weeks apart, from 8 weeks of age, after a FeLV test. As an adult: Annually with regular exposure; every 2 to 3 years without, where the licence allows.

Rabies — Rabies virus

Invariably fatal and transmissible to people, which is why it is the one vaccine written into law rather than into guidelines. Indoor cats are not exempt from the law in most states.

Kitten series: 1 dose, usually from 12 weeks, on the age your state and the product label set. As an adult: Every 1 or 3 years, whichever your state requires.

Why feline leukemia is on the list even for an indoor cat

This is the one people push back on, and the guideline is unambiguous: FeLV is a core vaccine for every cat under a year old, indoor or not. The reason is age, not lifestyle. Kittens are markedly more susceptible to the virus than adult cats are, and "indoor only" is a plan rather than a guarantee — kittens escape, households acquire a second cat, and plenty of indoor cats spend a fortnight somewhere else at some point. After the first year it becomes a risk-based decision, and that is where the indoor-versus-outdoor choice in the tool actually bites.

Why the series ends somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks

A newborn kitten gets a loan of its mother's immunity through her first milk. Those borrowed antibodies are genuinely protective, and they are also the reason the series is so long. While they are still circulating they will neutralise a vaccine the same way they neutralise a virus, so a dose given too early does nothing at all. They fade at a rate nobody can predict from the outside: in one kitten they are gone by ten weeks, in its littermate they are still blocking doses at eighteen.

That is the whole reason for repeating the shot every three to four weeks rather than giving one and trusting it. It is not a case of building immunity in layers. It is a case of keeping on trying until one of them lands, and the last dose in the series is the one that matters, because it is the first one given after the borrowed antibodies have gone.

So the choice between finishing at 16 weeks and 20 weeks is really a question about how much of that uncertainty you want to cover. Sixteen weeks is enough for most kittens. Twenty catches the ones whose mothers were very well vaccinated and passed on a lot, and it is the reason the guideline also suggests a further booster at six months rather than waiting for the first birthday. If your kitten came from a vaccinated mother, or you have no idea because it was found in a hedge, the longer version costs one appointment and removes the question.

What it costs, roughly

Prices vary far too much by region to put a number in a calculator and pretend it means something, but the shape is worth knowing. The core kitten series is typically three or four visits, each with an examination fee plus the vaccines given that day, and rabies is often priced separately because it is a legal requirement rather than a clinical choice. Shelters, rescue groups and low-cost vaccine clinics run the same schedule for a fraction of a private practice's fee, and many councils run free or subsidised rabies days. If cost is the thing standing between your kitten and its panleukopenia shots, ask a local rescue where they send their fosters — they will know.

Frequently asked questions

What vaccines does a kitten need, and when?

Three, all core. FVRCP protects against panleukopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus, and is given from six weeks, repeated every three to four weeks until the kitten is sixteen to twenty weeks old. Feline leukemia is two doses three to four weeks apart from eight weeks, and is core for every kitten whatever its lifestyle. Rabies is a single dose, usually from twelve weeks, on whatever schedule your state's law and the product label require. In practice that lands as three or four appointments over about three months.

Is my kitten too late to start?

No. There is no age at which vaccination stops being worth doing, and a kitten that has missed doses does not go back to the beginning. If the series has not started at all by sixteen weeks, the guideline switches to a different and shorter regime: two doses three to four weeks apart rather than the full kitten run. The tool applies that automatically once the age you enter passes sixteen weeks.

We missed an appointment. Do we restart the series?

Almost never. A late dose is given as soon as you can get in, and the series continues from there. Restarting from scratch is not the standard response to a gap, and it costs you an extra visit for no gain. Open "Already had some shots?" in the tool, enter the doses so far and the date of the last one, and it will space what remains correctly.

Does an indoor kitten need the feline leukemia vaccine?

Yes, for the kitten series. The guideline makes FeLV core for every cat under a year old on the basis of age, because young cats are far more susceptible than adults. It becomes risk-based after the first year: a cat with genuinely no contact with other cats can stretch to every two to three years where the product licence allows, while a cat that goes outside or lives with cats of unknown status stays on an annual booster.

Does an indoor cat need a rabies shot?

Usually yes, and usually as a matter of law rather than of risk. Most US states require rabies vaccination for cats regardless of whether they go outdoors, and an unvaccinated cat that bites someone or tangles with a bat can face a quarantine that a vaccinated one does not. Your state's rules, not this chart, are what govern the timing.

What is the earliest a kitten can be vaccinated?

Four weeks, and that is a hard floor rather than a recommendation. The guideline says not to give the modified-live panleukopenia component any earlier because of the risk to the developing cerebellum. In normal pet practice the first dose is at six to eight weeks anyway. This tool will not schedule anything before four weeks at any input.

Why does my kitten need so many shots for the same thing?

Because each one is an attempt rather than a layer. Antibodies from the mother's milk will block a vaccine while they are still present, and there is no way to know from the outside when they have faded in a particular kitten. Repeating the dose every three to four weeks is how you make sure at least one lands after they are gone. It is the last dose in the series that does the work.

What is the 3-3-3 rule for kittens?

Nothing to do with vaccines, despite how often it comes up alongside them. It is a rule of thumb about settling in: roughly three days for a new cat to stop hiding, three weeks to start behaving like itself, and three months to feel genuinely at home. Useful, but it is a behaviour guideline, not a medical one. For settling a new kitten, our guide on introducing a cat to a new home is the relevant one.

Can I embed this kitten vaccination schedule on my website?

Yes — copy the snippet at the bottom of this page. The embedded version is a clean, ad-free widget built for veterinary practices, rescues, foster coordinators and cat blogs. Attribution is included in the snippet; there is no fee, no signup and no tracking.

Related tools

• Kitten Age Chart — how old is this kitten, from its teeth, eyes and ears →
• Kitten Weight Chart by Week — is it growing the way it should? →
• Kitten Feeding Schedule Calculator — food, meals and amounts by age →
• Cat Tooth Chart — which tooth is that, and when does it come through? →
• Browse all free cat-care tools by Dr. Anand →

What else a kitten needs through these months

The vaccination series runs from about six weeks to about five months, which is exactly the stretch when a kitten does most of its growing. Food matters more here than it will at any other point in the cat's life: it needs a formula carrying the AAFCO growth statement rather than maintenance, and enough calorie density to keep up with a body that is doubling in size. Dr. Anand's picks for the best kitten food work through which ones genuinely qualify, and the kitten feeding schedule by age covers how much and how often.

The other thing worth planning for is the trips themselves. Four car journeys in four months is a great deal of upheaval for an animal that weighs two pounds, and a kitten that learns early that the carrier means something unpleasant will be difficult to get into one for the next fifteen years. Feeding in the carrier at home, with the door open and nothing else happening, is the single most useful thing you can do between appointments; calming treats take the edge off the journey itself for the kittens that need it, and a handful of good treats on the vet's table does more for the next visit than anything that happens during this one.

Methodology & sources

Every date this tool produces comes from the 2020 AAHA/AAFP Feline Vaccination Guidelines, read from AAHA directly rather than from anyone's summary of it. The rules are implemented as a small engine: nothing before four weeks, FVRCP from six weeks and then every three to four weeks until the series end you choose, two FeLV doses three to four weeks apart from eight weeks, one rabies dose from twelve weeks, an FVRCP booster at six months, and FeLV plus rabies boosters twelve months after the last FeLV kitten dose. Doses are then merged onto shared dates so the kitten makes as few trips as the guideline allows.

An automated test runs on every build. It checks the named cases, and then generates a schedule for every starting age from newborn to two years, at both series ends and both lifestyles, and asserts the guideline's own structure against all of them: that nothing is ever scheduled before four weeks, that every FVRCP gap falls inside the three-to-four-week band, that the final dose lands at or after the chosen end, that a late start produces exactly two doses, that there are always exactly two FeLV doses and one rabies dose at the right minimum ages, that the one-year visit carries both boosters exactly 365 days after the second FeLV dose, and that changing the lifestyle setting alters the adult booster advice and never the kitten series. It also checks that a kitten who is exactly eight weeks old, finishing at sixteen, reproduces the 8 / 12 / 16-week schedule every other page on this topic publishes. If any of that stops being true the site does not build.

Two things are deliberately left out. There is no shelter protocol: shelters and rescues run a tighter cadence than pet practice does, and rather than approximate it, the tool scopes itself to owned pet kittens and defers to your organisation's own schedule if you are fostering. There are no non-core vaccines — Chlamydia felis and Bordetella are risk-assessed by a vet in front of the cat, which is not something a calculator can do. The four-week floor is taken from the shelter guideline because it is the one point stated there without ambiguity.

• AAHA/AAFP — Feline Vaccination Schedule for General Practice (PDF), the schedule poster: first-dose ages, "revaccinate every 3–4 weeks until 16–20 weeks of age", and the revaccination intervals.
• AAHA — Core Vaccines for Pet Cats, the two-dose rule for a series started after 16 weeks, the FeLV series and its 12-month booster, the 6-month FVRCP recommendation, and the adult intervals.
• AAHA — Core Vaccines for Shelter Cats, the four-week floor and the cerebellar-hypoplasia reason for it.
• 2020 AAHA/AAFP Feline Vaccination Guidelines, the core/non-core definitions and the individualised risk assessment behind the lifestyle question.
• RabiesAware.org, state-level rabies vaccination law, which the guideline itself defers to and so does this tool.

The guideline this implements is a fixed 2020 document; if AAHA and the AAFP publish a revision, this page needs rewriting rather than redating. Sources and product credentials are re-checked annually. About Dr. Anand · Last reviewed September 14, 2026.

Embed this kitten vaccination schedule

Free for veterinary practices, rescues, TNR and foster groups, and cat blogs. Required attribution is included in the snippet — no fee, no account, no tracking.

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  Kitten vaccination schedule by
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  &middot; Reviewed by Dr. Priya Anand, DVM, ABVP (Feline)
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