Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I read the stories about shipping...I'd really like the breeders in here who ship often to be as specific as they can about there shipping methods...down to the T if possible! Your success rate with shipping if possible. How do you know if you need a heat/cold pack? Where do you buy you heat/cold packs? Given a scenerio of coming from Say Cali to Ohio what methods should be taken? Thanks guys!!!

KEITH

We've used a variety of carriers including Airborne, Fed-Ex, UPS, and Delta (receiving only). We use Airborne 95% of the time even though we have had a few packages delayed 1 day due to a routing error. This seems to be the most common problem Airborne has. We've never lost a dragon in shipping and have shipped out close to 175 dragons this year.

Delta would be the choice method of shipping any reptile since it's same day service but it is un-practical. Cost is usually $65 to $85 and must be picked up at the airport or cargo center of delta near the airport. So, having said that we must deal with the rest as best we can. Also have to remember, UPS, Fed-Ex, and Airborne aren't designed to deal with shipping live animals, even though it's real frustrating when they mess up.

The posts below answered some pretty good detail about how to properly ship a dragon. In short, this is how we do it.

Schedule a pickup for after 5pm (the latest our local Airborne will let us). The later the better and normally the dragons are picked up after 6:30pm. This really helps because the dragons are not on trucks all day in the heat they are in their cages with heat and room to move around.

Dragons are packaged in either deli-cups, corrugated boxes, or similar depending on size stuffed inside an insulated shipping box with Perishable labled on the outside of each side. We use soft tissue paper inside the container where the dragon is moistened just a tad to keep it a lil more hydrated. Container is stuffed between lots of newspaper and a corner to minimize movement during shipping. Box is properly taped and two airholes are punched on each end.

If the weather is extreme we will add either a hot or cold pack. Since we ship out late in the day and the package arrives early in the day, I am ver hesitant about placing cold packs inside. At night inside the shipping carrier it's normally not temp controlled so it can get very cold I believe, so I'm careful about that. The reverse is very important too, in the winter or fall heatpacks are good to use and we have used quite a few of them to help keep the dragon as warm and comfortable as possible. Common since is used, if it's cold out, they get a heat pack. If it's freezing and raining or snowing we will delay shipping a few days to it calms down.

We buy our boxes and cups here: http://www.reptilepackaging.com They have decent prices but we have found cheaper. I like the guy who runs the place. Crazy guy who tries real hard and has always provided outstanding service to us, so we go back. To clarify I say crazy in a nice way, not crazy like mental.

The steps I would take for you is to open an account with your choice of carrier which is free. Typically you will receive somewhat better service with an account and that will hold true the more shipping you do. Buy the proper packaging materials, follow the steps we and the posts below provided, accurately label the shipping label, schedule a pickup late in the day, stay at home and keep the package inside until the doorbell rings, and off you go. If you only have a few dragons to ship I advise to not bother dealing with all of this and keep it local. If you have a lot of dragons to sell I would follow the post's information from everyone who responded.

Wow, that got long. G'luck.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature