Okay, okay, everybody take a deep breath. Today I shipped two separate snakes to two different customers. I also combined my paper towel and hammock with a decent amount of Carefresh substrate. NOT wall to wall packed (in the deli cup), but enough to provide stability in shipment.

I am not convinced that a certain density of substrate is necessary. My reasoning for this is simple. No snake I have bred and shipped has ever died within 4 weeks of delivery. No snake I have bred and shipped has had a feeding response that was less than stellar. Those two indicators tell me that the snakes aren't arriving significantly stressed--even with just a cut paper towel and hammock. Keep in mind that the deli cup is in a snake bag, which is suspended and buffered on all sides by shredded paper. Undoubtedly, certain boxes have different "in transit" experiences (treatment), but I would argue that there is NOT "one and only one" correct way to package a deli cup.

Personally, I think the snakes I shipped today will arrive less stressed than previous shipments because they will be more secure--regardless of how well or how poorly the box(es) are treated by the shippers. But the substrate was not packed into the cup, it was "loosely placed" and I expect it will work quite well. I will know for a fact how well it worked tomorrow and then over the course of the next four days (I encourage my customers to NOT feed a recently shipped snake for two to four days, allowing it to acclimate to it's new environment and to recuperate from the stress and dehydration of having been shipped).

So, rather than argue, let's hope that average breeder who is getting ready to ship for the first time takes a long hard look at what we know works so as to avoid making a potentialy fatal shipping mistake (both for the snake and the potential pilot/crew of the plane it is being shipped on). As long as they follow the basic guidelines I proposed in my original post, they can tweak the details (such as the deli cup contents) to their personal liking all they want.

Keep the feeback coming though, none of us are perfect and all of us can stand to learn something, I know I did.

Thanks to all for your comments up to this point,

David

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