So far, I've only been selling my snakes locally but this year seems to be slower for me than the previous and my fiance and I (mostly my fiance lol) have decided I should probably start to offer shipping. I have a few questions that I'm sure you guys can answer for me.

I see that quite a few have a set price for shipping like $60 or whatever. I was wondering, how do they come up with this number? Are they just taking a loss if the snake costs more to ship or is there something I'm missing about shipping that only costs flat rate to anywhere?

My other questions are about when not to ship. This is the biggest reason I haven't offered shipping yet as I'm super freaked out that I could ship one of my babies and it overheats in the box and dies. I know reptiles get shipped all the time and so far none of the ones I have received have had any issues but it's a very huge fear for me for some reason. I know you want to check temps and make sure they are in range to ship on both ends but what time of day are you looking for? The hottest part of the day or morning/noon when the snake should arrive/leave? And my last question would be: What about the places they stop in between? I know at least some of the shipments I've received have stopped in TN (I live in SW Florida) and could have a much different temp than we have. Do you need to check the temps for the places they stop? If so, how do you know where they are stopping at?

Thanks all for putting up with all the questions and my excessive paranoia. I just want to feel somewhat at ease when I ship one of my babies out.