The hours before a courier collects a reptile you have sold or rehomed are your last chance to create a record of the animal as it left you. That record protects everyone: the buyer can confirm the animal that arrives is the animal they bought, the courier has a condition baseline if anything is questioned later, and the reptile gains a documented handover instead of arriving as an anonymous animal in a tub. Ten unhurried minutes with a phone and a notebook does nearly all of it.
Photograph the animal, markings first
Start with identification. Take a clear shot from directly above, one of each side, and close-ups of whatever makes this individual recognisable — a broken pattern band on a snake, an unusual scute arrangement on a tortoise, a scar, a kinked tail tip, a gecko's particular spotting. Add a close photo of the face and eyes, which shows both identity and alertness. Photograph against a plain background in ordinary light; dramatic lighting and filters that flatter the animal undermine the record's only real job, which is to be believed later.
Photograph condition, not just identity
A second set of photos should show the animal's condition on the day: body shape from above so weight is honestly visible, the tail base on lizards and geckos where fat reserves show, and the animal moving or, if the timing falls kindly, feeding. If there is anything a new owner should know — a retained shed on toes, an old healed injury, a tail that was already regenerated before you owned it — photograph it and write it down rather than leaving it to be discovered and misread as transit damage.
The written note that travels with the photos
Photos without notes age badly, so record the facts while you know them: species, sex and age as far as you know them, weight if you have it, the date of the last feed and what was taken, the last completed shed, and the temperatures and setup the animal has been living in. Note the collection date and the courier's name as well. Keep your own copies of everything, and send the set to the buyer before the courier arrives, so the handover is agreed while the animal is still in your hands.
Photograph the packing before the lid closes
Take one final photo of the animal settled in its travel container — bagged or tubbed as the species requires, with heat pack placement visible if one is used — before the lid goes on and the box is sealed. This is the shot that answers any later question about how the animal was packed, and it takes five seconds. KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles is designed so a handover like this carries the animal's whole story with it: the profile transfers to the new owner with history, records and routines intact, meaning your photographs and notes become the first page of the reptile's continuing record instead of its last.