Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a friend that received a DOA today -- he was bummed and it was the last of that morph the breeder had -- so he's back to the drawing board looking for a replacement.

Anyway -- during the course of his commiserating he mentioned something that peaked my interested and got me to thinking.

I have only received one DOA -- and I know of only a couple of people that have had DOAs -- but there seems to be a commonality of all of these in that the snakes were all shipped in deli cups.

I know in my case and the one my friend received today the cups were properly packaged, had air holes, etc.

I'm just wondering if this is purely coincidental or if it's less safe to ship in those cups as opposed to bags?

Any thoughts or experiences?
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Tosha
JET Pythons

I am no expert on shipping snakes -- I am a consumer, and rarely a seller in this industry. But I would imagine that bags are much more comfortable and I guess more "shock absorbent" than deli sups. Bags I think would ease stress on an already stressful experience (shipping). Now whether shipping in deli cup kills, or causes more fatality than bags, I don't know. I just feel snakes would feel much more comfortable in a bag than a cup -- it "gives" more, you know?? (or course assuming there's newspaper or packing paper and such around it), Just my thoughts on the idea.
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)

It has been my experience that shipping in cups particularly where extremes of weather or heat packs are used is not a smart thing to do. The cups heat up much more than herps in bags. I learned that by trial and error some 25 years ago. And yes, the chance of a D.O.A. increases......TC

I personally like to ship in bags because I have always felt that the deli cups can be like acidic saunas if an animal urinates and it's hot.

JMO
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

I've only ever received 2 DOA's and both were in bags. One wouldn't have mattered because it was too cold with no heat pack. There were actually 2 baby balls in the package. The other 1 looked dead as well, limp as a rope, but I noticed a slight movement so I warmed her up and she survived. The other DOA was packaged well so I don't know what happened with that one.

early, before i was shipping smart, i used a heat pack too close to the bags i was shipping in. they heat up more than you'd think, especially bad if the snake cannot move away from it. one dead albino, the other survived.

now i ship snakes in cloth bags - put plenty of paper towels inside, in case they soil. then the bag goes into a large plastic animal terrarium (as they sell in petsmart, etc, the extra $15 is worth my piece of mind) with a breathable lid. maybe outside that, foam core as well, but the plastic terrarium is far stronger and resistant to crushing. this sort of situation will not overheat, as its large with tons of air circulation. then the heat pad, if needed, gets wedged into a few pieces of cardboard to create an ambient heat; not a spot heat. as well, i use tons of cardboard shaped into v shapes to act as shock absorbers against all 6 walls. this method has proven flawless.

i've no doubt those deli cups are far too tight and overheat.

remember shock absorbers deli cup full(Loose) of paper and shavings , bags shredded paper or styro peanut cushion.
remember king of queens " so state FRAGILE and AVOID EXTREME Temps........Just a thought...........C

I have had only one DOA which was actually a DOD "dead on delivery" to my customer. Heat packs did it. That's thousands of individual shipments over twenty years. The animal had signs of over heating. I have not used heat packs since. Some 14 years or so shipping from the frozen waste land of Minnesota!

It does make sense though that deli cups make the animal more likely to severe stress if it poops or peeps. (Peeps is a technical term for taking a leak).

I have only shipped Boas though... no Balls yet... yet.
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Boaphile Home
All Original/Boaphile Plastics
The Boa Network

Whatever do you mean?

I work for a shipping company as a package handler. I know what kind of tossing around those boxes can get. I'd use one of the insulated boxes packed with newspaper (or packing material of your choice) with a bag in the middle in order to reduce trauma from being bounced around.
You use and empty deli cup and you might as well shake the poor ball to death.
BTW - writing FRAGILE and AVOID EXTREME TEMPS can sometimes help, but NEVER rely on that. most trucks aren't insulated in any way (below freezing in winter and 120 in summer). and a lot of minimum wage workers don't care if they act like Jim Carey in 'Ace Ventura' with your precious cargo.