Well, to butt in here, I recently had the chance to discover the exact guidlines for shipping live reptiles as I ship out geckos and have a full grown Bosc that needs to be shipped to California. At this time I use USPS with no problems. The people at the post office I went to weren't sure. They had the new printing of the books that cover regulations of shipping live animals including reptiles of all stripes. They will not ship snakes... they have reinstated shipping live lizards and amphibians. The man I spoke with made a call into their main office or whatever while I was standing there waiting to ship my gecko. As long as the shipping container cannot be crushed easily they will ship it. Express mail holds a $100 liability if the package arrives late to an area that is expressly covered under the one day service. They may or may not pay for the replacement cost of the animal themselves depending on the circumstances if the animal dies. This was just 2 months ago that I both inquired to make sure and sent out a package of geckos.

Their rulebooks state turtles and snakes are on the prohibitted list.. though they said the one on snakes is debateable because it lists venomous animals and animals over 6 ft from what I was told on the phone by the express mail system operator I spoke with yesterday. The problem they have is the fedex planes for the most part not accepting live stock... and the live reptiles are carried on commercial flights which load people first and their luggage before adding mail if there's room which can make the delivery date late and have shipments laying around on loading platforms waiting for the next commercial flight. This information came to me just yesterday when I spoke with the express mail people...The packaging has to be sturdy and marked "perishable" as well as Live Animal, Fragile, and Handle with Care. In addition the top has to be indicated to keep it upright. Within these guidelines they will ship live reptiles. MANY post offices will tell you no they don't simply for the fact that many of those in the offices are scared of the animal possibly getting away in their care. It has nothing to do with the legalities and all to do with the employees ignorance and not wanting to do the work of looking it up since it is a very labor intensive procedure. The rules for reptiles are not listed under the agricultural rules with things like bird's eggs and chicks but under another headding. It took my post office a bit of time to find the exact passage but they did find it finally.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 2.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystic))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"

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