The Receipt Itself: Names, Date, Money, and the Bird Described
A private sale between individuals deserves the same paper discipline as a shop purchase. Get a receipt or short bill of sale signed by the seller that gives both full names and contact details, the date of sale, the amount paid and how, and a description of the bird that could pick him out of a room: species — cockatoo species vary enormously, so the exact one matters — age as stated by the seller, sex if claimed and on what basis, and identifying marks. Both of you keep a copy. If the seller resists writing anything down for a bird of this value and lifespan, treat that reluctance itself as information and slow the purchase down until the paper exists.
The Band or Chip Number Belongs on the Receipt
Before you pay, read the bird's closed band yourself and copy the full inscription onto the receipt, or record the microchip number and scan it if he is chipped. Identity written on the sale document is what turns a general receipt into proof that this bird was the one sold. Photograph the cockatoo from both sides and photograph the band on purchase day, and file those images with the receipt. Cockatoos are long-lived and valuable, and they are also a group where paperwork disputes and stolen-bird claims genuinely happen; the buyer who can produce a dated receipt quoting the bird's own band number is in a completely different position from one holding a verbal assurance.
Collect the Bird's Earlier Paperwork at the Same Moment
Ask, before the sale completes, for everything the seller holds: hatch certificate if the bird was bred domestically, the seller's own purchase receipt, vet records under the seller's name, and any species permits or certificates that must legally travel with the bird. Save the original sale listing and your full message thread with the seller as well — sellers routinely describe age, history, health, and reasons for sale in messages that never reach the receipt, and that thread is part of the bird's documented history and, if anything is later disputed, part of your evidence. Once the bird is home, a gap in the chain is almost impossible to repair, because private sellers move on quickly. This matters doubly for cockatoos, several of which sit under conservation controls: ask directly which certificates the seller holds for this bird and make sure the ones that must accompany him are physically handed over at the sale, not promised by post.
File the Sale as the First Page of Your Own Record
At home, put the receipt at the front of the cockatoo's file, ahead of the vet visit you book in his first weeks, and note anything the seller told you verbally as a dated, labelled note — reported by seller, not verified — so future keepers can weigh it properly. Update your insurer or register the chip in your name where applicable, using the receipt as the supporting document those changes ask for. Using KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles to move his profile from the seller to you keeps that collected history — band record, vet notes, and routines — attached to the bird under your ownership, preserving the chain your receipts started.