Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Good morning from Texas. I hope no one minds me posting this again. It got bumped really quickly last night.

I have been researching shipping geckos in the winter. I have looked on the archives, but I am confused as to whether I should use the 40 or the 60 hour heat packs. I see some people use one 60 and some people use two 40 hour heat packs.

Any tips? I will be shipping in acceptable winter weather, but want to make sure to use the right heat pack. My main priority is making sure the gecko stays warm and comfortable the whole trip.

Thanks in advance,
Tamara in Texas
nervous first time gecko seller

First I'll discuss the concept behind shipping in winter. The whole point of heat packs is too keep the gecko just warm enough to arrive at it's destination safely. Heat is far more dangerous than cold to any reptile, and I have seen and heard of many more geckos arriving cooked from too many heat packs in winter than those that arrived frozen. In most cases one 40hr heat pack is plenty, and you'll probably never use more than two. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's always better for the geckos to get cooler than you would like rather than too warm.

Now lets discuss 20hr vs 30hr vs 40hr vs 60hr. (from Superior Enterprises/ Reptilepackaging.com)

All the heat packs have the same amount of "juice", the only difference how quickly the chemicals are allowed to react with the oxygen. A 60 hr heat pack will take much longer to reach it's peak temperature than a 20 hr heat pack will. The 60hr will never get as hot as the 20,30, or 40hr heat pack will, but obviously it will last longer. 60hr heat packs are not really useful for overnight shipping because they take so long to reach their peak.

So basically the 20hr burns the same amount of "chemicals" as the 60hr, but in only one third the time. So that means it will heat up more quickly and "burn" at a higher average temperature. The 30 and 40hr heat packs work the same way.

If you call the guy at reptilepackaging.com he will tell you all the average times it takes for each type of heat pack to reach it's peak. I think your shipment(s) would have arrived at it's destination before the 60hr even gets cookin.

If you want/need any clarrification let me know.

Good luck with shipping. Typically as long as the box doesn't get exposed to temps below 40*f shipping is pretty safe.
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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

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

I appreciate the response

I had read the info on superior enterprise and was leaning toward the 40 hour heat packs. The only reason the 60 hour appealed to me was that in case of a delayed shipment they would have the extra heat.

Instead of the two 40 hour heat packs some use during the winter, would a 40 and a 60 be a better choice?

Another question I had was how much will a heat pack raise the box temperature? The website lists the surface temp of each heat pack, but not the amount the heat pack would raise the box temp at a standard temperature.

How do you ventilate your boxes during the winter? I want to ventilate enough, but no too much. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks again for your help. Have a great holiday

Tamara in Texas

If you are worried about delayed shipments then you might want to consider a 20hr heat pack and a 60hr heat pack. That way the 60hr would kick in at about the same time the 20hr is fading out. Like I said, your main concern is not overheating the box. In all honesty, a well started leopard gecko can easily survive temps in the 40's for limited periods of time. I'm not saying that you want to expose them to those types of temps, but I would rather have them go into a mini brumation and come out of it rather than get over-heated. I think the 20hr and the 60hr would be the best combo.

In most cases you don't need to have any ventilation holes during winter. There is plenty of oxygen in the box to support a 40hr heat pack (info from the owner of Superior Enterprises). If you are using multiple heat packs you might want to take a pencil or pen and poke one single hole for each heat pack. You can tape the pack with the red line over the hole. This way the heat pack can "suck" in oxygen from outside of the box. Just keep in mind that the more holes you poke the less insulated the box is.

Also, another way to manipulate how much heat the pack emits is by loosely wrapping it in newspaper before taping it to the box. The newspaper restricts the oxygen and causes the heat pack to burn more slowly and not quite as hot.

I think that the amount a heat pack raises the temp inside the box depends heavily on the temps outside the box. You might want to wait until we have a night that gets in the 30's and pack a box just like you would for shipping. But instead of a leopard gecko place a digital themometer inside the deli cup. Make sure the digital themometer tracks the High's and Low's. The next morning you could check the high and low the thermometer recorded and that would tell you what temps the leopard gecko would have been exposed to.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Good luck.

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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

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

Pete
Heatpack experiment