Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What's the proper way to ship a snake?

AND

Should you NOT tell the UPS people what your shipping?

Need input A.S.A.P.

Thanks!

Marcus

1) You DON'T use UPS. You use an airline (ie Delta Dash, Air Canada, etc etc)

2) You don't have to tell UPS anything, because you don't ship live animals with them. At least not snakes.

3) Packaging the animal involves using at LEAST 24-48 hour heat packs, a cardboard box lined with styrofoam, and possibly the use of heat-retaining gel packs. Animals should be secured on one end of the box, with the heat and gel packs on the other end. Animals in a small environment like this can quickly over heat of smothered by a heat pack.

4) You should set up a box several days in advance to calibrate temperatures. I shoot for an ambient of 75-80F. The way I set mine up, I can achieve this for about 1.5 - 2.5 days, no matter how cold the outside of the box is.

Shipping snakes is not rocket science, but it should NOT be taken lightly. Living things have a right to not be subjected to extreme conditions and/or half-hazard packaging attempts. When in doubt, watch an experienced shipper pack a shipment.

I see you need this info "ASAP". Well I advise against just packing up your animal(s) just because YOU need or want it gone. You really need to learn the nuances of shipping live animals in North America before you just box up your animal and send it off. Be kind to reptiles.
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I will share this information with the person that is shipping the snake to me.

Thanks for the good advise.

Marcus

No problems! Remember, in winter and summer, all the bad things associated with shipping are amplified. If you're on your game, seasons are irrelevant. If you are a weak shipper at best, summer and winter could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Best of luck!
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Unfortunately, it's fairly difficult to become a "known shipper" with Delta. Apparently many of their employees are afraid of snakes and will not inspect them so they generally only allow known shippers that they don't feel the need to inspect to ship snakes. The process to become a known shipper takes time and luck. You generally need to show that you are a business and that you will ship fairly often and you need to live close enough to the airport that you can get them to come out and inspect your facility. Then they need to decide to give you an "ok".

All these difficulties are some of the reasons why even some moderately big breeders and most small hobbyists ship via the less secure and shady method of UPS and the like. As mentioned, UPS policy does not accept snakes, however it is quite a bit cheaper than Delta Dash which I suppose also factors into it's use.