Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's getting cold and I'm not comfortable shipping when the lows are going to drop below 40F on my end or the other. What is everyone's experiences w/shipping at or below that temp? What are your Lowest temps to ship at, and what methods do you use to keep everything warm? I have the standard reptile shipping boxes sold by reptilepackaging.com and use heatpack(s) as necessary.

It looks like I won't be shipping after the next week if I stick to my judgement about the 40F 'rule'. What do you think?

Thanks for all experiences.
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

Hey Rob,

I also go by the 40*F rule, that's my limit. I think any lower and we start really pushing our luck.

Talk to you later.

-----
-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Ball Pythons, Red Striped Leos, W.Hognose and Screaming AFT's

Thanks Ross, I appreciate your reply. It really is all about the geckos. They can wait around here as long as necessary or we can sell them locally. I'm sure someone will want a gecko for Christmas near here. I actually already have 2 reserved for a coworker's children. Looks like after this week, I'm not shipping again until April when it gets back up above 40 at night.

Thanks again.
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

I was thinking about doing a rudimentary experiment where I ship an empty box (no gecko, newspaper and 1 heat-pack only) Overnight Air to some place COLD, and have the inside temperature measured when it arrives. Then, the person on the other end puts 2 heat-packs in the box and then ships it back over-night, and I would measure the internal temperature. It would cost the shipping charges, but we could split it and it would give us some good information. Any suggestions? Anyone?
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

If you have any tech-savy (sp?) friends, a simple circuit with a microprocessor could be designed to measure and record the temperature every so many minutes or something. It would be relatively light, and would give you a graph of exactlly what the temperatures where during the shipment, and even when and possibly where they got the coldest. This may be a bit overboard, but it's a possibility. This is what happens when an engineering student is on vaca, but his brain is not =)

I'd love to try it. Let me talk to my wife and we can continue this process via email. What about if we throw a digital in/out thermometer w/memory in there? It should give us a good idea of the min/max, because they'll be hotter and colder than the room temp when we put it in.

Does anyone know of any (not too expensive) temp monitoring device we could read w/times and temps with?

I'll email you, Marcia.
-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

I know there is a special thermal "strip" than indicates min/max temeratures... they use them when shipping tropical fish. I'll try to hunt down a source.

I did a test last night with a heat pack in one of my 1" thick molded styofoam inserts in a heavy duty corregated box left outside overnight. I used a 40-hour heat pack with shreaded newspaper inside, and measured the temps inside the container and outside at sporatic intervals. The inside temps varied from 68-77 degrees, but it did not get colder than 47 degrees outside.

I shipped a gecko in one of these boxes with a 40-hour heat pack to Florida on Monday, and the recipient said the gecko was very cold when he arrived the next morning, so I am very concerned.
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

They are very accurate too and only cost about $10....let us know how the turn out is if you go through with it...
-----
-Bryan

I found a company that sells small transit thermometers with chart recorders that will go for 5 days... this could make for a pretty good experiment. www.telatemp.com/Logging/TmprfF.htm
It would be kind of expensive, though. It would cost $25-35 for the temperature indicator, $6.00 for the box and heat-pack, and as much as $80 for shipping the box round-trip. I think it would be worth the money if the experiment was designed properly, and it would be of value to those of us who ship year-round.

Comments or ideas?
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

It would be very interesting as well as instructive!
-----
Andrea A.

Absolutely! If it's done correctly, perhaps I/we could write it up for publication in Reptiles Magazine, as well!
-----
Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com