Getting first BP, worried about shipping temps!

Hi everyone!

This in my first post in this site, though I am usually active on several other herp sites as well. I'm getting my first BP in about a week. It's supposedly a female and she's a normal, about 30-36 inches in length. The owner doesn't have a weight on her, but I've seen many pictures and she looks healthy and is eating large mice.

The owner does not breed snakes and has never shipped a snake before. She's giving the BP to me for free, I'm just covering shipping. She has bought one of the SYR kits through FedEx and it comes with one 40 hour heat pack which she intends to use. I should be receiving the snake the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the temps here in Montana are suppose to be between 30-40*F. The snake is being shipped from Minnesota to Montana, so not a long distance, and the temps are slightly warmer in Minnesota right now at about 50*F. Do you think the snake will be fine with one 40 hour heat pack.

I'm afraid I've been a little bit annoying contacting the owner about all the shipping info/making sure she has a heat pack and proper supplies. I'm also not sure if she has an extra money to save up for more heat packs (how much do they cost?) since she's giving me the snake for free and can't afford the shipping costs. What do you guys all suggest I do?

The BP is going to be held at my local staffed FedEx upon arrival. I've had several snakes shipped to me before but it was always during the summer months.

Thank you, thank you!

I live on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I had 2 ball pythons shipped to me this last Monday. The temps were 40 degrees over night and like 49 during the day. As I said I live where the bp is coming from and I would not ship. tomorrow and sunday are supposed to be near 0 degrees, not sure about thanksgiving weekend but its too far out to know for sure. This time of year in the mid west is cold. ESPECIALLY if this person has not shipped before I would not risk the sake of the animal until you are 100% certain that the temps will stay above 40 degrees over night. Sadly I don't think we will see that until winter is gone.
Your over night temp is extremely important being when the ball python is shipped it will be later in the day, and the travelling happens all night and then put ona truck to deliver to your home before 1030 am the next morning.

Here is a copy paste from weather.com for that area, not even remotely close to acceptable.
I know how it is waiting to get the animal, however don't risk its health or well being just to get it faster imo.
Wed Nov 27

Sunny
25°

17°

Sunny

Chance of precip:0% Wind:NE at 6 mph
Details



Thu Nov 28

Mostly Cloudy
29°

22°

Mostly Cloudy

Chance of precip:0% Wind:SSE at 7 mph
Details



Fri Nov 29

Partly Cloudy
30°

21°

Partly Cloudy

Chance of precip:10% Wind:S at 8 mph

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xStatic

Hi everyone!

This in my first post in this site, though I am usually active on several other herp sites as well. I'm getting my first BP in about a week. It's supposedly a female and she's a normal, about 30-36 inches in length. The owner doesn't have a weight on her, but I've seen many pictures and she looks healthy and is eating large mice.

The owner does not breed snakes and has never shipped a snake before. She's giving the BP to me for free, I'm just covering shipping. She has bought one of the SYR kits through FedEx and it comes with one 40 hour heat pack which she intends to use. I should be receiving the snake the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the temps here in Montana are suppose to be between 30-40*F. The snake is being shipped from Minnesota to Montana, so not a long distance, and the temps are slightly warmer in Minnesota right now at about 50*F. Do you think the snake will be fine with one 40 hour heat pack.

I'm afraid I've been a little bit annoying contacting the owner about all the shipping info/making sure she has a heat pack and proper supplies. I'm also not sure if she has an extra money to save up for more heat packs (how much do they cost?) since she's giving me the snake for free and can't afford the shipping costs. What do you guys all suggest I do?

The BP is going to be held at my local staffed FedEx upon arrival. I've had several snakes shipped to me before but it was always during the summer months.

Thank you, thank you!

---

There are Saturday deliveries now? I doubt you will run into trouble if temps are good, I have a shipment coming from California to me in TN next week. If temps are borderline, have the animal shipped hub to hub and hold for pick up, but honestly I would wait if things get into the twenties and lower.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Physician&Snakes

There are Saturday deliveries now? I doubt you will run into trouble if temps are good, I have a shipment coming from California to me in TN next week. If temps are borderline, have the animal shipped hub to hub and hold for pick up, but honestly I would wait if things get into the twenties and lower.

---

Thanks everyone. The python would be shipped to the FedEx location and help for pickup, so it wouldn't be place on a truck and brought to my home. I would drive to the hub and pick it up.

The weather site I usually rely on it reporting a high of 38 degrees and a low of 25 degrees that day. I ideally wanted her to send the snake so that it gets here on Friday after Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if that's possible since I'm sure FedEx is closed on Thanksgiving.

I am definitely worried about the health of the snake and can talk to the current owner about waiting, but I'm pretty sure she's trying to get rid of the snake ASAP. I've already invested probably $200 dollars in supplies with the 50 gal tank, thermostat, heat pad, etc.

It's not worth it if the snake ends up sick or dead, but I guess I just don't really want to totally give up on it at this point. I could offer to give her extra shipping money if she adds additional heat packs (2 or 3). I've read quite a bit on this site and others about winter shipping with BPs and some say that putting a barried between the snake and 3 heat packs keeps the package plenty warm. I do realize she is an inexperienced shipper though. I could provide her with the same informational links as I've been reading?

Sorry I'm not trying to argue and I really value the experts' opinions! I'm just trying to fully explore all options before I just give up on this one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xStatic

Thanks everyone. The python would be shipped to the FedEx location and help for pickup, so it wouldn't be place on a truck and brought to my home. I would drive to the hub and pick it up.

The weather site I usually rely on it reporting a high of 38 degrees and a low of 25 degrees that day. I ideally wanted her to send the snake so that it gets here on Friday after Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if that's possible since I'm sure FedEx is closed on Thanksgiving.

I am definitely worried about the health of the snake and can talk to the current owner about waiting, but I'm pretty sure she's trying to get rid of the snake ASAP. I've already invested probably $200 dollars in supplies with the 50 gal tank, thermostat, heat pad, etc.

It's not worth it if the snake ends up sick or dead, but I guess I just don't really want to totally give up on it at this point. I could offer to give her extra shipping money if she adds additional heat packs (2 or 3). I've read quite a bit on this site and others about winter shipping with BPs and some say that putting a barried between the snake and 3 heat packs keeps the package plenty warm. I do realize she is an inexperienced shipper though. I could provide her with the same informational links as I've been reading?

Sorry I'm not trying to argue and I really value the experts' opinions! I'm just trying to fully explore all options before I just give up on this one.

---

I'm not an expert by any means, but I would imagine if it was just as easy as adding 2 or 3 extra heat packs and a barrier, breeders would already be shipping all year round.

(Sorry for double post)

Okay so I'm an idiot and did not actually realize that there were no shipments on Saturdays. Since my local staffed location is open on Saturdays I assumed they would accept shipments. Since I realized this I would probably opt to have the snake shipped on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday. The temps are suppose to be a high of 54*f/Tues and 48*F/Wednesday and lows of 32*F on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Would these temps be safer to ship in?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 200xth

I'm not an expert by any means, but I would imagine if it was just as easy as adding 2 or 3 extra heat packs and a barrier, breeders would already be shipping all year round.

---

That's exactly what they suggest doing in this thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-shipping-tips!!!

From this site. I got a lot of really useful information from here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xStatic

(Sorry for double post)

Okay so I'm an idiot and did not actually realize that there were no shipments on Saturdays. Since my local staffed location is open on Saturdays I assumed they would accept shipments. Since I realized this I would probably opt to have the snake shipped on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday. The temps are suppose to be a high of 54*f/Tues and 48*F/Wednesday and lows of 32*F on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Would these temps be safer to ship in?

---

Yes, that would be preferred. Those are similar temps to what my group will experience.

Get it eating rats

This all has me concerned. Where did you find this person? Do you know this person? Why are they shipping if they have never shipped/don't breed? Have you paid for the shipping already? If they are giving it away for free why couldn't they find someone locally? I'm concerned they are looking for a quick $50-$60 and they aren't going to send the snake. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm worried.

As for shipping.... Snakes should not be shipped late in the week, I won't ship past Wednesday. If the box gets lost, there's a chance it will be lost for days (over the weekend) which is really bad. Shipping in cold weather is fine if the shipper knows what they are doing. Heat pack/s on the bottom, lots of insulation, and a small box are the main things. I only ship hub to hub (airport to airport), especially in extreme temps.

The temps over here in Minnesota aren't supposed to get above 30, with lows in the teens. I wouldn't risk the shipping.

I just wouldn't do it... especially with the holiday... god forbid something would happen (lost package, mechanical breakdown... etc)
I just would not be willing to take the risk.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xStatic

That's exactly what they suggest doing in this thread http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-shipping-tips!!!

From this site. I got a lot of really useful information from here.

---

It also says the deli cup went down to 58... can anyone say RI???


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

This all has me concerned. Where did you find this person? Do you know this person? Why are they shipping if they have never shipped/don't breed? Have you paid for the shipping already? If they are giving it away for free why couldn't they find someone locally? I'm concerned they are looking for a quick $50-$60 and they aren't going to send the snake. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'm worried.

As for shipping.... Snakes should not be shipped late in the week, I won't ship past Wednesday. If the box gets lost, there's a chance it will be lost for days (over the weekend) which is really bad. Shipping in cold weather is fine if the shipper knows what they are doing. Heat pack/s on the bottom, lots of insulation, and a small box are the main things. I only ship hub to hub (airport to airport), especially in extreme temps.

---

Sorry everyone if this post has turned into a mess :/

The owner who is giving the snake to me has been my online "friend" or acquaintance for a few months. We've chatted about keeping snakes and such for a little while, but that's it. She only has her BP and another Hognose snake, but lately she's really gotten into spiders and has been expanding her collection of tarantulas. She's a grown adult, but she still lives at home with her parents to save on University costs, and her parents have decided to impose a "pet limit" on here. She has to either get rid of a snake or some spiders. Since her BP has the biggest enclosure, and costs the most to feed and care for, she decided to get rid of her. For the past couple months she's been posting online repeatedly that she wants the snake to go to a good home with someone who is knowledgable about snakes. She was at first selling her for $100 dollars (she's just a normal, so not worth a whole lot) but the only people interested didn't seem like very responsible pet owners. She finally decided to make the snake free and ship within the mid/northwest to anyone who could prove they were knowledgable and responsible pet owners.

I finally caved and decided to help her out, and I was also excited to get a new snake for the reasonable price of shipping. She's really depending on someone taking this BP off her hands because her father is getting pretty irritated that she hasn't managed to get rid of any of her pets yet.

We decided to switch the shipping dates again. Now she's shipping on this coming Monday with Tuesday delivery. My temps are a high of 54*F and a low of 32*F and her temps are at a low of about 45* for Monday. Her part of the state is not getting as cold as others so that's good.

I gave her info on safe winter shipping and she seems to have accepted the advice gracefully. She does care for this snake after all, and she's thankful to me for taking it.

I know it sounds weird to people who are in the hobby that she was having a hard time GIVING AWAY a snake for free, I thought so too. But I watched her post add after add with no legitimate responses and she didn't want to just hand her python over to any 13 year old kid who was willing to ask for her.

Thank you so much for all the help you guys have given me though! I personally feel comfortable going for it since the temps are going to be in the mid 30s to mid 50s, and I'm going to have the snake held for pickup at the FedEx staffed location.

Any last minute words of advice never hurt though! And I'm not saying I wont change my mind between now and Monday :)

Just keep your eye on the weather and you do decide to go through with it I hope it goes well

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

That makes me feel a lot better. I thought this was going to be a Craigslist thing. People definitely give normals away for free, or do just pay shipping type deals. If you're having it shipped to a hub of sorts the box will stay inside and it will be safer. Do you know if she got heat packs specifically for shipping animals/reptiles? They are usually 48 to 72 hour shipping heat packs, they are very different from hand warmers. Hand warmers get out of control and release a chemical that can cause neurological issues in reptiles. If she got the entire shipping kit from SYR it has one in it I think.

Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

That makes me feel a lot better. I thought this was going to be a Craigslist thing. People definitely give normals away for free, or do just pay shipping type deals. If you're having it shipped to a hub of sorts the box will stay inside and it will be safer. Do you know if she got heat packs specifically for shipping animals/reptiles? They are usually 48 to 72 hour shipping heat packs, they are very different from hand warmers. Hand warmers get out of control and release a chemical that can cause neurological issues in reptiles. If she got the entire shipping kit from SYR it has one in it I think.

Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk 2

---

Yes! She bought a kit directly from Ship Your Reptiles and it comes with a 48 hour reptile specific heat pack. The snake is going to be shipped from hub to hub and be held for pickup by me, inside the building.

I will be watching the temperatures, on both ends, very closely.

Thanks everyone!