Paperwork for a travelling pigeon has two audiences: the loft receiving the bird, and you if anything goes wrong on the road. Send a pigeon to another loft with its identity and health story in writing: ring number, age and sex if known, origin and lineage details if kept, recent health notes including any treatments and dates, and feeding details so the receiving loft can match diet. Include your full contact details and the transport arrangement agreed, with a copy kept at home. For events, confirm the loft or show's own entry paperwork and health requirements in advance, and never send a bird showing any sign of illness, however minor it seems.
What Actually Matters Here
A receiving loft makes decisions from paper before it ever handles the bird: the ring number identifies this pigeon, recent treatment dates tell the loft what has already been given, and feeding details stop an abrupt diet change on arrival. Keep the pigeon's identification, health history, feeding notes and your contact details together in one packet, updated as things change rather than reconstructed from memory on transport day.
Pigeons read clearly if you know the individual: a bird off its feed, with changed droppings or a quieter manner than usual, is not fit to send, and the receiving loft should hear about any recent change before the bird arrives, not after.
A Workable Routine
Work through these in order and give each one time to become routine before you judge it:
- Keep ID details, microchip or band numbers, and a recent clear photo together
- Store vet history, vaccinations, and medication notes in date order
- Write the daily routine down — food, amounts, times, quirks, and vet contact
- Update records the day something changes, not at the next visit
- Share a copy with your emergency contact and your regular sitter
Keep a simple note of what you tried and what changed. If the pigeon is delayed, treated or fed differently en route, that note is what lets you and the receiving loft reconstruct the journey.
Day to Day, Done Well
Judge the pigeon's fitness to travel against its own loft baseline — its usual appetite, droppings and energy at home — because a departure from that pattern is a reason to postpone, not to pack. Loft keepers who send birds well are rarely doing anything complicated: they write the health notes before the transport is booked, confirm the receiving loft's entry requirements in advance, and never let a deadline overrule a bird that looks unwell. File the copy with the pigeon's other records and refresh it whenever treatment, feed or ring details change, so the next journey starts from current paper. Kept in KinsLe's Pet Passport, that packet travels with the pigeon on paper even when you stay home, and KinsLe keeps the copy behind it current.