Of all the birds you might bring home, a diamond dove is the most likely to arrive with no paperwork at all — these small doves are inexpensive, widely bred, and often sold as a pair from an aviary with a handshake and a carry box. That informality is a problem later, when a veterinarian asks the dove's age, a future keeper asks its mutation, or you try to remember which seed blend it came on. A short written record, requested at the point of sale, prevents all of that. Here is what to ask for, knowing you may have to prompt for every line.
Age, sex, and origin — the lines sellers skip
Ask for a hatch date, or at least the season and a genuine age estimate, and have the seller write it rather than say it. Diamond dove ages are notoriously lost as birds pass between breeders, and 'young bird' hardens into fact by repetition. Record where the dove was bred and by whom, with a contact, plus the sale date for your own files.
Sex deserves an honest label. Diamond doves can be sexed by eye-ring and behaviour with reasonable confidence by experienced keepers, but it is not certain, so the record should read as the seller's assessment, not a guarantee — especially if you are buying a presumed pair. Note the colour mutation in writing as well; diamond doves come in many shades beyond the natural grey, and mutation names get garbled quickly when passed on verbally.
Diet and daily care details to capture before you leave
Get the current diet specified: the small-seed blend the dove is eating, whether grit and cuttlebone are offered, any egg food or supplements the breeder uses, and how water and baths are provided. Diamond doves feed on the ground and drink by suction, and a bird unsettled by a move does better when its first week at home tastes familiar. Write down the housing it came from too — indoor cage or outdoor aviary, and the temperatures it is used to — because a dove moving from a sheltered aviary into an air-conditioned room, or the reverse, needs a gradual adjustment you can only plan if you know the starting point.
Ask directly about health: any past illness, losses in the same aviary, treatments given, and for a hen, whether she has laid before and how often. A reputable breeder answers these plainly, and the answers belong in the record even when they are reassuringly uneventful.
Pairing history, because doves are rarely solo stories
If your dove arrives as one of a pair, record the mate's identity and whether the pair has raised young; if it arrives single from a group, note that too. A dove that pines after separation behaves differently from a dove that is unwell, and the distinction starts with knowing what it left behind. If either bird carries a leg band, transcribe the number and photograph it for the file.
You may end up writing most of this page yourself from the seller's answers — that is normal for this species, and it still counts. What matters is that the facts exist somewhere durable before they evaporate. Putting them into KinsLe through the Pet Passport turns those first-day notes into a standing record for your diamond dove, ready for a vet visit, a sitter, or a future home.