How long can they survive in a shipping box?

Well I was suppose to receive my snake yesterday but right from the start things went bad. The package has been delayed several times and still don't know when the package will arrive. The breeder has also been tracking the package and says it might arrive today or tomorrow. The snake was shipped monday. Is that too long for the snake to make it?

A lot of variables involved.

How was it packed? did they have a reptile heat pack? if so which one and how long was it meant to last.

What are the temps at each step of the journey and where and how is it being treated? Is it in a heated building?

YIKES! I would be very worried. If I were the breeder I would be going crazy on FedEx. Today or tomorrow is not an acceptable answer if overnight shipping was paid for and guaranteed to be in your local hub by 9am yesterday morning.

Depends on how good the shipper is what I don't understand is that the shipper cannot tell you for sure??? Did he contact Fedex, ask for a tracking on his package instead of just tracking online?

When a package get lost and it happens (happened to me 3 times in 18 months time :rolleyes:) you have to be pro-active and track get answer, once you do they will find where your package is an re-route it in the right direction and in the meantime is is usually placed in an air conditioned room until the next flight. They can also provide an exact re-delivery date not maybe tomorrow or the day after.

All my packaged arrived 24 hours late and the animals were fine.

I had one last year take two days to arrive when a whole pallet-load of overnight express packages was mistakenly put onto a ground-shipment truck instead of being sent to the airport. The snake was fine but it was shipped in July so overheating was the concern.

The shipper and SYR were on FedEx like white on rice.

Do you have the tracking number?

FedEx has an alert on their site that shipping may be delayed due to storms in the Memphis area.

Alert

Was it shipped via Fed-Ex? Or was it just mailed in a box? If it's FedEx and weather conditions are within normal limits, I can't imagine FedEx not being able to give you an exact date that it will arrive, unless in fact the package has been misplaced or delived to the wrong address, which they should still be able to tell you.

If it wasn't sent via FedEx and it was just put in a box and mailed, who knows...

My main concern would be the temperatures. I would expect a healthy snake could probably live a week or more in temps that were between 70 and 80 degrees. if there was a little airflow in the box.

FedEx tracking is apparently down. I had a hard time tracking my package today- it kept saying it was in Memphis. I called customer service twice, the first time they said the tracking system was wrong, and it would arrive by noon. The second time, they said it would be a day or two before it arrived IF I was lucky, due to severe weather. 10 minutes after I got off the phone my package arrived! Hopefully yours arrives soon, too.
They did make it clear that the FedEx tracking is malfunctioning, so I wouldn't count on it to be reliable.

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Originally Posted by Megg

FedEx tracking is apparently down. I had a hard time tracking my package today- it kept saying it was in Memphis. I called customer service twice, the first time they said the tracking system was wrong, and it would arrive by noon. The second time, they said it would be a day or two before it arrived IF I was lucky, due to severe weather. 10 minutes after I got off the phone my package arrived! Hopefully yours arrives soon, too.
They did make it clear that the FedEx tracking is malfunctioning, so I wouldn't count on it to be reliable.

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I'm having the same problem. A corn snake is supposed to arrive today but it shows to still be in Memphis but they are not sure because the tracking is down. Unacceptable answer.

Yep, and everyone had a different answer. I understand if there's severe weather in Memphis, but I'm not sure why their system is down. It would be nice if they could at least tell people where their live animal shipments are. OP, I hope your snake makes it to you okay!

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Originally Posted by Megg

Yep, and everyone had a different answer. I understand if there's severe weather in Memphis, but I'm not sure why their system is down. It would be nice if they could at least tell people where their live animal shipments are. OP, I hope your snake makes it to you okay!

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Yes, really frustrating they can't tell me where for sure the snake is in their system or when it will be delivered. Hopefully he is ok.

I received my snake. The snake was shipped FedEx priority overnight. And just like others said the tracking info is not correct. It also said the package was in Memphis. It was frustrating. I'm just glad she arrived and looks good.

With proper packaging and reasonable temps, a snake can survive a day or two delay just fine. We have seen 5 day delays over long holiday weekends in the past (exceptionally rare) and the animals arrived safe and sound. When you receive a live reptile on a delayed shipment, your first concern should be hydration and access to fresh water. Get the animal in a proper setup with proper temps, fresh water, a hide spot, then be hands off for a few days, let them recover from the stress and settle in.

IN REGARDS TO THIS PARTICULAR STORM DELAY- delays are exceptionally bad. We don't yet have specific numbers, but over 50% of packages are delayed, hundreds of live reptile packages. Thunderstorms in Memphis are very common this time of year, delays aren't unusual. Delays of this magnitude are though.

To make it worse, the FedEx tracking system is indeed down and malfunctioning. We have seen plenty of packages "tracking" as stuck in Memphis, scheduled for delivery tomorrow, and then 10 minutes later they are delivered to the door, safe and sound. The tracking system is just chaos.

It is going to take a couple of days for FedEx to fix the tracking issues and get the Memphis hub back up to full speed. In the meantime, those delays ripple across the entire country. We strongly suggest holding off on any live shipments until next week.

On a positive note, temps are very favorable across much of the country, so that is a positive for those packages that are still waiting on delivery.

If you have a delayed package with ShipYourReptiles, your best bet right now is to email us at Info@ShipYourReptiles.com. Staffers are available by phone at 303-730-2125, but they are also constantly on the phone with FedEx right now, so email is the best way to communicate at the moment.

Calling and hollering at FedEx won't do much good at this time. If you have a ShipYourReptiles package, ALWAYS bring issues directly to us, let our pro staffers handle it, we have our own elite team of FedEx service folks for our account, not the often-numbskulls at the 1-800 number : )

If you aren't using SYR for your live reptile packages, you are also missing out on the On-Time and Live Arrival insurance, which no other service offers. Well over 100 packages were shipped yesterday with insurance, they will all be getting shipping refunds. It was an expensive hit for us, but that is exactly what insurance is for!

Thanks for everyone's patience and understanding. Chaotic delay days like this are very few and far between!

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Originally Posted by Gerardo

I received my snake. The snake was shipped FedEx priority overnight. And just like others said the tracking info is not correct. It also said the package was in Memphis. It was frustrating. I'm just glad she arrived and looks good.

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Good for you. That makes two that finally showed up maybe mine can make three. My fingers are crossed. Mine is shipped priority overnight as well.

I'm about 2 hours from Memphis. We are having severe flooding. In my area the storm dumped 5 inches of rain in a few hours and heavy rains are to continue till Sunday. Schools shut down early and many roads are underwater. If your package went through the Memphis hub, the weather was likely what caused the delay.

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

I had three packages delayed today and the last one was just delivered so hopefully FedEx is getting caught up...

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Originally Posted by Asherah

I'm about 2 hours from Memphis. We are having severe flooding. In my area the storm dumped 5 inches of rain in a few hours and heavy rains are to continue till Sunday. Schools shut down early and many roads are underwater. If your package went through the Memphis hub, the weather was likely what caused the delay.

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk

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Stay safe!
Floods are nothing to mess with - don't try to drive thru anything that looks at all iffy.

Glad to hear the snakes arrived.:)
I have two pkgs. w/ FedEx, and was wondering about the Memphis part...just stuff, so the delivery date is not crucial, but I kept logging in, and wondering how they were supposed to arrive by tomorrow to NM, if they were endlessly in TN?

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Originally Posted by Gerardo

I received my snake. The snake was shipped FedEx priority overnight. And just like others said the tracking info is not correct. It also said the package was in Memphis. It was frustrating. I'm just glad she arrived and looks good.

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Yes, mine said picked up, and then said it was in Memphis. It actually still says it was in Memphis, and I received it 7 hours ago. I really hope they get their tracker fixed soon so no one else has to deal with these issues.

I will add that the actual person who delivered my package was very apologetic, and explained about the delays in Memphis.

Looks like the FedEx tracking system is back working and up to date. They should be clear of the backlog of packages this weekend, Monday looks like an ok shipping date again, weather/temperatures permitting as always.