Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone tell me the proper way to pack and ship a Boa? It's going from Tampa to San Diego tomorrow.

I'm thinking of placing the boa in a snake bag, then placing it in a styrofoam lined box filled with shredded paper.

The question that I have is, where do I place the heat pack? Also, will one heat pack be enough? I have 40 hour heat packs. I'm shipping next day air.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I want to make sure the snake arrives in good health.

Thanks,
Damian

If I were to ship an animal at this time of year, here is what I would do. First, I would use TWO insulated boxes. A larger one and a smaller one. I would place the smaller box inside the larger one and fill the void with shredded paper and one or two heat packs. NEXT, I'd place the animal along with ONE heat pack inside the smaller box and again fill the void with shredded paper.

Here are a couple links to check out that will give you some useful information in deciding how to ship. Dogpile is an excellent resource for weather info and allboas.com has a section on shipping simply explained.

http://www.allboas.com/methods.php
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/wthrac/index.htm

The biggest problem you will face is the difference in temps from the origination point (Tampa) and wherever the shippers distribution hub is located. Memphis, if shipping FedEx. You do not want your animal to get overheated before flying out of Tampa BUT you also do not want it to freeze when in the colder climate up north. We live in Sarasota, so I know the problem you are facing.

Good luck!

Denny

Wow, that's extactly the information that I was looking for. Thank you very much for the information!

Damian