Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,
I only lurk on here from time to time but I decided to ask a question of you knowledgeable turtle folks. There are several states that have protected the spotted turtles and I don't want to get caught in any legal issues when I decide to sell some later this coming spring. Does anyone know which states I could ship to without problems? I currently live in Texas, so keeping them and selling them here isn't an issue.

My other question is regarding shipping. I am very familiar with shipping snakes (through the airlines) but I have only shipped a few turtles. I know many of you ship turtles regularly and in-expensively. What method do you use? What size box and do you use heat packs? Any suggestions?

I am not looking to sell any turtles from this post. I just want to get some accurate information so I can be better prepared in the spring. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Hillary Webb

>Does anyone know which states I could ship to without problems?
Most likely any state outside of their natural range. I've seen other sellers indicate that laws and regulations are the burden of the buyer; don't know how that works out though.

>What size box and do you use heat packs?
TurtleHomes (see link below) has good directions.

>Any suggestions?
**Read through the "Shipping Forum" here on Kingsnake.** If you have established a "relationship" with any carrier, you are fortunate given the vagaries of the carriers.

Your hatchlings are beautiful! Congratulations!
Link

I only ship with Airborne - they knowingly ship turtles. It's not inexpensive, though. I pretty much follow the advice at Turtle Homes, namely double boxing, shipping smaller turtles in deli-style cups with damp sphagnum moss inside of the inner box, although I've never shipped anything as small as you'll likely be dealing with. I NEVER ship in the winter, and definately not during the holidays.

I don't know about other states, but in MD, it seems that so long as the turtle is accompanied by paperwork, it is legal. One needs a permit to keep spotteds in MD, so any purchaser would need paperwork anyway showing that they came from outside of MD.

Katrina

I sure do appreciate the replies. Thanks for the link to the shipping information too.

Happy Holidays!
Hillary