Why use cool packs?

Like it says, why do people ship their snakes with cool packs?

It just seems like if your shipping over night in the dead of summer, the temps are much cooler and comfortable (sometimes too cool), and having a cool pack in there isn't going to do much good if the package is dropped off in the morning.
And maybe it makes it much too cool for the snake during the overnight leg?

BUT, if the package doesn't get dropped off by 10:30 in the morning, and it does start to get pretty hot, wouldn't the ice pack be completely melted by the time it's really hot (say noonish) and be worthless? :oops:

No, the shipping box is essentially an ice chest (insulated). Adding an ice pack to a package going to a warm or hot area will lower the temps in the box by several degrees for a few hours. From what I've seen, most shipping deaths are due to warm or hot conditions rather than too cold. A cool pack will insure that the box doesn't get too hot during the hours in transit.

Imagine if you shipped a snake to AZ. And it sits in the 100+ degree truck, for hours and hours, until its delivered.

Hell, its 90 degrees at midnight sometimes out there!!!

Or are there different sized ice packs that are thicker and larger so they last longer? :oops:

I'm just thinking, today we have a high of 80, but at night its been dropping into low 40's. That's a big range... I dunno, just thinking aloud...

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Originally Posted by Patrick Long

Imagine if you shipped a snake to AZ. And it sits in the 100+ degree truck, for hours and hours, until its delivered.

Hell, its 90 degrees at midnight sometimes out there!!!

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Yes i live in AZ. During the summer, at 10.30 am when the snake should be at my door, during the middle of summer ITS 110 by that time, so inside a UPS truck with no air conditioning it could hit 120 easy, witch means cooked snake :tears:, so i always have them ship with the cold packs. I think it would be better to go safe side of having the snake a little colder then normal then hotter and have the snake cooked.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

BUT, if the package doesn't get dropped off by 10:30 in the morning, and it does start to get pretty hot, wouldn't the ice pack be completely melted by the time it's really hot (say noonish) and be worthless? :oops:

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Would you rather there be no cool pack, and let the snake have no chance whats so ever of cooling off?

During the summer, I almost always use cold packs. I have to have the animals to FedEx by 5 pm my time............if it's 90 degrees then (or hotter), and it's going to take some time to get that package containerized and on the plane, that animal could be sitting in the hot sun (or hot container, or car!!) for an hour or more. No reason to risk it. With reptiles, it's always safer to go cooler than hotter. ;)

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Or are there different sized ice packs that are thicker and larger so they last longer? :oops:

I'm just thinking, today we have a high of 80, but at night its been dropping into low 40's. That's a big range... I dunno, just thinking aloud...

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exactly... that's why you have an insulated corrugated cardboard box as a buffer to those extremes.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

No, the shipping box is essentially an ice chest (insulated). Adding an ice pack to a package going to a warm or hot area will lower the temps in the box by several degrees for a few hours. From what I've seen, most shipping deaths are due to warm or hot conditions rather than too cold. A cool pack will insure that the box doesn't get too hot during the hours in transit.

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Thats what I was gonna say;)