Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've never done it and even in some older vehicles of mine we had to stop occasionally to " air " the critters out and they were in the cab portion of my older non-air conditioned vehicles on a approximately over 90 degree ( sometimes over 100 degrees )about a 1,000 mile return trip from west Texas. I would like for ANYBODY wanting to add/refute my friend idea that is thinking about this in either July or Aug. for a west Texas run to post so i can show him. He has mentioned several ideas of containers either made out of wood or plastic. I won't be going this year with him because of conflicting interest of vacation time but I told him NO WAY on transporting species like this. The reason he thinks he needs to do this > his family is going and they will take up all the room in the cab area of his huge monster pick-up and he is only interested in a few WC atroxes for breeding purposes and he is meeting someone down there that has a couple of easterns db for sale. And if the snake gods are on his side, he wouldn't pass up a alterna if found. Believe me that when we go together we never keep more than a couple animals found if we even keep any from collecting ( meaning > not even pick up from pavement, leave there, etc. ). I would surely appreciate any arguments against this or recommend a better way to transport so I could show him. If he definitely can't have the herps in the vehicle, I suggested maybe ice coolers with a little ice in the bottom of the coolers and the snakes in plastic jars and not bags. I have used several sizes of plastic jars and screw top containers ( all of those people that have gone with me or met up with me in the past 20 years knows what I use ). What do you think .............
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

1. SHADE
2. VENTILATION

Wood might work better than plastic. Especially if he soaks the wood in water, the evaporation should (might) keep it sub lethal temps. Also, you can wrap a wet, light colored towel around the container and re-wet it every hour or so. Otherwise put the family in the bed and strap those atrox up front by the AC!

Try a putting the contained animals in a small ice chest and put the small ice chest inside a large ice chest. Put ice in the large ice chest. You can test to see how much ice approxiamately you will need and whether this will work by putting a max/min thermometer in the chest where the snakes would go and leaving the set up in the sun all day. I think this way you would have to be just as worried about getting the snakes too cold but with frequent stops to check the animals it could easily work.

...I think mebbe youve been out in the sun too long if youve herpt a few years & need to ask this ?

The icechest is the answer, w/ the herps on the bottom in containers, ~ 1" of newspaper/cardboard above them & a couple of ice packs on top of that. The IC should then be covered w/ a light colored sheet or blanket. Every 24 hrs the icepacks will need to be re-frozen. If you use real ice, the herps need to be above the melted water.
The IC should be labeled too...ya dont want some kid whos thinking hes swiping a load of beer to get bit!

Cheers, RxR

suggestion from me...leave his freaking family at home and meet up with some of you guys while down since i can't be there this year ! LOL ! That way he can put what ever he plans on coming back with in his cab and not in the pick-up bed !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......