Moving long distance in the winter...

I am moving in three weeks and it will be to Northern Ontario Canada. It is going to be an 8-9 hour journey. I could really use some advise on how to move Gella. She is our 800 gram pastel and first ball python. First snake actually.

I was thinking of buying a styrofoam cooler and putting some air holes in it and using some sort of heat pad. She would be in a snake bag of course. I don't know where I could get heating packs that would work locally in Oshawa. Hand warmers maybe?

The stryofoam box is fine but I would be trying to track down some proper heat packs meant for shipping.
I had a snake shipped to me this last year with hot hands hand warmers, unfortunately that snake didn't survive.

Maybe a power converter for the car and a human heat pad inside the Styrofoam cooler?
I would test out the heat pad and see what kind of ambient temps it will provide in the cooler ahead of time if you do this.

Why not do the inverter and heating pad and plug your t stat into it then you would have perfect temps the whole trip.

Not sure I want to risk using my T-Stat with an inverter incase it fries... I don't trust inverters all that much but the temps in the car will be pretty much stable and we are only stopping for half and hour to eat. The human heat pad may be a really good option. I just want to keep the ambient around 75-85 so I can run some tests at least.

I can't seem to locate shipping heat packs. I am going to make a few calls today to try and locate some though.

Why can't I use 10 hour hand warmers and replace them half way through the trip? I am just asking because i see people saying not to use them with no reason why.

Because they arent designed for reptile use. Its like using a human heat pad vs. One that is designed for reptile use

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I found my local reptile shop can get poper ones in so that beats me testing other methods.

Thanks everyone.

Reptiles shipping supplies would be your best bet http://reptileexpress.com/ has a good selection of supplies you can get delivered to your door. Just package your reptile like you would be shipping it but "deliver" it yourself. As a plan B, I'd go myself with cooler with hot water bottles. Refresh the bottle every time you make a stop for gas/food/etc and make sure the bottles are secured and it should be all fine.

Well I used the a few heat packs (40 hour ones). Glad I did because of a bad snow and ice storm we didn't make it all the way in one day. Very rough we we doing 50kmh in a 90! I put the BP in a snake bag and the gecko in a small rubbermaid taped shut with air holes. I put both animals in a larger rubber maid taped shut with heat packs wrapped in newspaper loosely and it was perfect! Thanks for the help everyone. My BP took her first meal last week and looks ready to eat this week. The gecko isn't eating much but that could be the winter and/or stress.

Thanks again everyone.

The reason why the little hand warmers are not recommended is they heat fast and very hot and then cool the temp spikes like crazy. The longer ones as you discovered are slow to heat (20-30 min) and don't get as hot but stay warm longer. remember all the chemical packs use oxygen so air holes are needed.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

The reason why the little hand warmers are not recommended is they heat fast and very hot and then cool the temp spikes like crazy. The longer ones as you discovered are slow to heat (20-30 min) and don't get as hot but stay warm longer. remember all the chemical packs use oxygen so air holes are needed.

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Thanks. I used reptile ones and followed the instructions to a tee. Lots of air holes and I did a test run a few days before the move to make sure I had proper temps. We also checked the temps along the way. It was 12 hours of driving the first day and 2 the next. Everything went great and I didn't have to use my spare packs.

On another side note, neither one relieved themselves during the trip either which was awesome.

Thanks again. If I didn't find reptile heat packs I was just going to make sure the car temps were warmer.