Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How does anyone ship these out once they hatch and sell. With eggs hatching so late, snow and winter shut down shipping before these thing even hatch. How do other breeders do it without risking losing the animals in transit? Do you just wait a year and offer them up next march or may? If this is the case do you brumate them on their first winter almost immediately after hatching?

They can be shipped very safely in most cases I have found if you pay VERY close attention to proper shipping methods. The use of 3/4 inch styrofoam insulated boxes is an absolute MUST, along with the proper use of heat packs(40 hr. packs) that need to be CAREFULLY placed in the insulated box as well so they do NOT touch the snake containers themselves. The lid in this pic isn't visible, but it also has to be the same minimum 3/4 inch styrofoam as well so the animal is totally insulated all the way around with only a couple small holes on two sides in very cold weather. This will be fine for a snakes metabolism as they will have plenty of oxygen as compared to a mammal that would not with little air-flow. On really cold days I even seal up all the perimeter gaps along the box too so ONLY the tiny screwdriver holes that are punched are open. Some ship snakes and don't add any holes at all, and have been shipped successfully too in the cold. But you have to use good judgement. if it is a tiny hatchling, odds are it will get plenty of oxygen flow from just the cracks in the box joints, but I still poke just a couple small holes through the entire box anyway.

I only ship snakes if the temps where they are going is above the low to mid 20's. I check this via the internet, and you can easily get an accurate several day forcast for the zip code area they are going to.

If the proper methods and precautions are met, you shouldn't have much problem with shipping when it gets cold, but only to a certain point I will also say of course.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I have had a couple of transpecos breeders tell me its not unusal to brumate their hatchlings without offering food due to the late hatch and their lack of interest in food. Some may not want food and its been speculated that they do the same in nature (brumating before their first meals). You can try offering meals after their first sheds, but if they refuse, just brumate them. I hear they come out of brumation with good appetites. I will hopefully have a clutch of TPs season after this, so will probably have similar questions LOL!! FYI, you can ship in winter, and Doug gave some good tips with his reply on how to do it.