Identity and health screening
A boarding service that asks questions is protecting your animal as much as its other guests, so expect the file to start with identity: species, a recognisable photograph, age and sex if known, and a distinguishing description. Then comes the health screening — recent appetite and shedding history, any current issues, and treatments the animal has had, especially for mites or other parasites, with dates. Many services ask when the animal was acquired and whether it has been kept apart if it is new to you, because a recently bought reptile boarded too soon can carry problems into a shared room. Answer fully; a service that waves these questions away is telling you something about its standards.
The care specification they will work to
Staff will ask for the care numbers, not your philosophy: the warm-end and cool-end temperatures your animal is kept at, its humidity needs, its light cycle, and whether it soaks, needs misting or relies on a humid hide. Feeding is specified just as concretely — prey type and size, feeding days falling inside the stay, supplements used, and how the animal takes food, including shy feeders that only eat at night or under cover. Handling rules belong on the same page: animals that must not be handled, animals that musk or bite when lifted, and any that are mid-shed or recovering and should simply be left alone.
Vet details and emergency authorisation
Boarding services will ask for your veterinarian's name, practice and phone number, plus your own contact details for the whole stay — and a written authorisation stating that they may seek emergency treatment for your animal if you cannot be reached, with any spending limit you want to set. Sign it before you travel, not from an airport. If your animal has a known history — past retained sheds, a sensitive stomach, an old injury — it belongs on this form too, so staff watching the animal overnight can tell its normal from a change that warrants waking the vet.
What good boarders ask that surprises owners
First-time boarders are often surprised by the household questions: what other reptiles live at home, whether any are new or unwell, and whether your animal has been in contact with other collections at shows or through shared equipment. These are quarantine questions, and they decide which room your animal stays in. You may also be asked what enclosure and equipment travel with the animal — some services board in their own vivariums, others take yours — and whether the animal is a known escape artist. None of it is nosiness; parasites and escapes are the two classic boarding disasters, and the questions exist because both are preventable.
Making the handover a formality
Assemble the whole file before you book — identity, health history, care specification, vet details and signed authorisation — and the check-in conversation becomes a formality instead of an interrogation at the desk. Send it ahead when the service allows, so staff can flag anything missing while you still have days to find it. The same packet serves your sitter, your vet and a future keeper without alteration. The Pet Passport in KinsLe keeps those records together in one portable packet, ready for boarding check-in, vet visits and every handover in between.