Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Following "911" many of us became "designated shippers" with Delta Air which entailed having a Delta rep coming to one's home or facility to see if you really existed and you were not "living" out of mailboxes etc! That sufficed to be entered in to their system and as a result any designated shipper could walk in to a cargo office with I.D. a "fish box" with reptiles etc and ship them w/o difficulty. This was especially benificial at Daytona for many fanciers! At any rate I recieved word today that the TSA was narrowing the scope of these matters, and since I am not recognized "business" I would no longer be able to ship in a like manner. Has anyone else recieved this treat in the mail
? Relying on the UPS shipping outlets can be tenuous at best, and shipping venemous will mean a long drive!!!!

Due to recent pressure for more security, UPS is now inspecting a lot more of their overnight packages, especially those brought directly to their distribution centers. A friend of mine dropped off some boxes of snakes for overnight shipping earlier this week... all of the boxes were opened by UPS, and he had to go back and pick them up because they wouldn't ship snakes. I shipped a box of snakes the same day and they went through fine.

Shipping has always seemed like a big weak point of the reptile trade.

Shipping blues......

Our local delta dash-delta air cargo guys got touchy about 10 years ago and wouldn't ship live. I, like many I'm sure, struggled with options until getting help from one of our very own Pituophis gurus. He turned me on to a rather easy protocol for becoming a fedEx certified live animal shipper. FedEx is interested in knowing that you are responsible in your packing technique and they also want you to sign paperwork absolving them responsibility if animals die during shipping. It was a quick and painless process!

You will have to drop off your shipment at a center that accepts live animals and you should carry your paperwork from FedEx when you go in because there is sometimes a disconnect between employees regarding policies.

Some FedEx employees won't be in the loop so you might initially get a bit of run around but just hang in and you will eventually talk to an informed person.

You need to get an account then send a mock up box to their testing center This is a box within a box. You will have better results if you take the time to attend to details like a detailed packing list of contents {This box contains five (5) live harmless reptiles including: 3 Pituophis m. melanoluecus, 2 P. sayi)...etc.} I used hot/cold packs, deli cups with air holes and bedding, bags with ties....etc. The only thing I didn't do was put the actual snakes in the box.

Takes less than a week and solves most of the shipping woes..........

Thanks much John, I believe I shall pursue that. Not clear thought exactly how to initiate the approval process?

btw, WHAT THE HECK IS THAT INCREDIBLE LOOKING SNAKE???? I need to know.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Go to the FedEx website and get an account...easy. Then talk to your account rep about becoming a certified live animal shipper. they will give you all the details. If you have any trouble drop me a line.

That snake is a Kingsville Tx Red bull crossed with a Kankakee Co. IL dark bull (F3). I called them "Black and Gold" bulls. I wanted to get the colors of the one and the contrast of the other. At first the cross produced really plain "midwestern" looking bulls but after a few selective breedings the color started to jump out. The Kingsville line is great looking but they really lack contrast for the most part. I hatched out a legit contrasty kingsville a couple of years ago and abandoned the outcross project.... I know that John Schmit at Suncoast sold all the Black and Golds but I don't know what they look like as adults or where they are.....

Thanks again. That is one spectacular snake, especially the face. Head shape doesn't look typical of bull for me though. It seems flatter, more suggestive of west coast animals....but what do I know???
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Yeah... not sure what is throwing you off, maybe the camera angle. On the head close up that snake screams sayi. The key is the height of the rostral scute against its width. In the image it is at least twice as tall as wide.....

again, it is probably the funky distorted camera angle......

Yep, the high rostral, I noted that obvious bull feature. For some reason though the head looks "flat" to me and the eye looks big...maybe the pattern and shading is affecting my perception too. ...maybe it's my brain. LOL
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Interesting. Have you ever had your packages opened when shipping through an approved FedEx account?

A few years ago when [bleep] came out offering discounted FedEx approved shipping to the masses, a couple friends who shipped using their boxes (plainly marked as having live reptiles) had several packages opened. Once they switched to plain boxes, they had no trouble. It seems as though flying under the radar involved less hassle than going "legit".

Yeah, u gotta jump through a few hoops but it's worth it...and once it's done, it's done. So far I haven't had any problems either, and I suppose it's mainly because I ship from the same local shipping center and they know me.

Good Luck!

I received a small box of 1.2 Lpyromelana (exactly what was hand written in small print on the box) from Texas this last Thursday to California. It was shipped UPS Next Day Air. The box did not appear to have been opened or tampered with in any way. The driver did leave the box at my front gate, though, and if I hadn't have been watching for it, my babies would have sat out in the cold! Usually when I get live animals I have to sign for them. Odd. I have not myself shipped any snakes so don't know much else about the policies of UPS. I have received many snakes from both Fedex and UPS over the years, this leaving the box at the gate was a first, and I hope a last! I do not blame the breeder in any way; he had to go out of his way to mail them to me as we wanted to beat a big winter storm coming in.

Oh No! I see my new laptop in that pile! Nah, just kidding. LOL!
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

I don't usually ship reptiles as I generally only keep mine, but about a month ago I shipped my first hognose to a friend down in Fla. He suggested using shipyourreptiles.com and I did. For those of you not familiar, they use UPS overnight shipping. I printed a label, taped it on the plain cardboard box (w/ lots of holes), went to the shipping center and had no problems. Apparently they have a contract with UPS so although UPS technically doesn't ship snakes, they do ship if you use that company.

Or... I just got lucky and didn't have any problems. Also, its a hell of a lot cheaper, only cost about $30.

"Ship Your Reptiles" aka Chad Brown was suspended from snake shipping for a time last summer by UPS, though non-snake shipping was still viable. I heard this resulted when someone shipped a False Water Cobra and when someone saw the "cobra" portion trouble followed. There was a 2nd business at Daytona performing the same service at the time w/o limitations as to the type of reptile other then non-venomous of course. At any rate that is what made me suggest shipping through those outlets can easily be interrupted. If it's going in to UPS's plane they're shipping it, and have a lot at stake that few dollars from snake fanciers will not begin to replace. In time it is likely that one will need to show the package contents at a shipping point, which is not unreasonable in the current scheme of things.