Transferring Your Pet to a New Owner

If your pet is going to a new owner, the microchip registration has to move with them, or the chip continues pointing at you instead of them.

Transferring the registration is the step people most often forget when rehoming, and it is the one that matters if the pet is ever lost afterward.

How to transfer ownership

Ownership changes are made by the organization you adopted from, not from inside your account. Contact them directly and tell them the pet has a new owner. Once they process it, the change is reflected in Adopterluv.

There is no fee to transfer ownership.

If you are not sure the chip is registered with us, check your pet's registration status first.

Before the pet leaves

• Pass on the microchip number and the name of the registry it is held with.

• Pass on the pet's vaccination records and any documents. You can download them from your account.

• Tell the new owner to register their own contact details against the chip as soon as the transfer is processed.

See viewing and uploading your pet's documents for where to find the records.

If you are returning the pet to the shelter instead

Contact the shelter or rescue you adopted from. They will process the return in their own system and the pet will come off your account once they do. Managing pet ownership, returns and refunds covers refunds.

What happens if you do nothing

The chip keeps pointing at you. If the pet is found and scanned, the vet or shelter calls your number, and the new owner has no way of being reached through the registry. That is a solvable problem right up until the day it matters.