We all know that US to Canada shipping is a pain, what about the other way around?

[Peter Williams]

We know that is it is an incredibly long and hard process to get the required paperwork to transport ball pythons from the US to Canada. But what about Canada to the US? A few months ago I applied for canadian cites papers to see how long it would take. It wasn't very much paperwork to fill out, it was free, and I got it back in about 3 weeks. This leads me to believe in the future it would be quite easy for me to ship snakes to US customers.

Has anyone ever done this, or can anyone shed some light on the subject?

[Peter Williams]

I guess not.

[dsirkle]

Urban claims to easily and quickly ship to the US though I have not bought any of their quite nice looking animals.

[LGL]

I wasn't going to mention this to anybody until I actually received it, but this might help you. I bought a new Ball Python from Canada just under two months ago that I was planning on breeding this year. The breeder applied for the CITES paperwork, and it came back after about 3 weeks. We tried to get it shipped out before winter set in, but it needs to be inspected by the US Fish and Wildlife. Since I do not live by a designated port and I don't have the proper documents to get around that (Import/Export License and an Exempt from Designated Port Permit), the shipment needs to be sent through a USFW designated port. Due to cold weather restrictions by the airline, we haven't been able to get the shipment sent out. We are going to try again sometime in January, since we don't want something to happen with the snake during Christmas and New Years. It's a long process in the winter to get a package through. You have to call the airline everyday to check for weather restrictions in all of the cities that the shipment will go through. Also, the airline won't book a flight unless there are no weather restrictions anywhere that the package will be traveling. Because of when the airline reviews weather restrictions, we were needing two days in a row of no weather restrictions in order to book the flight, and then ship it out. Also, throughout this time, the person in the US who is importing the snake needs to be contacting the USFW Inspector that will be inspecting the shipment daily to keep them updated on when the shipment will be coming. If weather conditions are proper, I can see how the shipping process wouldn't be that bad. In the winter, though, it is a huge hassle to get a snake sent out. The breeder is handling it nicely, and hopefully I'll be able to received my new Ball Python sometime next month!

[Peter Williams]

Thanks guys