Moving 2600 miles..with 11 snakes

[JLC]

I've made many, many long, cross-country trips with critters like that. It takes some forethought and planning ahead, especially for one so long, but it's quite do-able with minimal stress for both you and the animal.

As already pointed out, La Quinta is always animal-friendly...and they're also very affordable and easy to find. Plan out your route ahead of time and figure out where you need to stop for each overnight. Find your hotels long before you start driving. If there is no La Quinta where you need to stop, call around to all the hotels just off the freeway. High traffic hotels that cater to cross-country travelers are often pet-friendly.

Don't mention the reptiles...just keep them covered when you carry them in. Don't plan on staying long enough to worry about being caught by house keeping. If you DO need to stay for two nights, just put up the "do not disturb" sign and skip having your bed made by the maid.

It sounds like you'll be moving in the summer? If so, you will NOT need heat packs. Even if moving in the winter, I probably wouldn't use them because it's very easy to keep the car (or hotel room) warm enough, and that's where they'll be staying. It'd be too easy to overheat them with heat packs in such a controlled environment.

When I had a beardie, I packed him in a shoe-box sized tub with paper towels, holes in the sides, and the lid secured. The snakes go into snake-bags or pillow cases (turned inside out so you can check the security of the seams and make sure they don't get tangled in any lose threads). The snake bags go into one tub. If you have any baby snakes or really small animals (geckos or whatever) put them in deli cups rather than bags. They can go in the same tub with the bagged snakes and won't get squished. Or put all the small bagged snakes in one tub and the larger bagged snakes in another tub.

With the beardie, I had one big, deep tub that I'd cut out the center part of the lid and replaced it with hardware cloth. I carried a heat lamp as well. The tubs of snakes, the beardie's tub, and all the assorted lamps and water bowls, extras paper towels, and stuff...all went into that one big tub. When we stopped, everything came out...paper towels went down into the big tub...water bowl...beardie hide...and the beardie got to stretch out in the big tub with the heat lamp over it. The snakes came out of the bags and got placed in individual tubs just big enough to hold them and a very small water bowl.

In the morning, pack it all back up. You may need multiple tubs that can nest together if necessary...you have more animals than I did. But not a lot more. Mostly, it just takes a little common sense and creative planning ahead.

You can leave the snakes bagged overnight if you need to...for one night. But the beardies will need to stretch out and have some water. I would not feed any of them during this trip. They'll all be fine. Try to maintain ambient temps near 80 in the car and hotel rooms and you won't have to worry about things like heat mats and such. Helps if you carry a little digital thermometer with you.

Make sure the travel tubs in the car are kept out of direct sunlight. A place on the floorboards in the back seat is good. If you have to run the heater though, be careful because the floor can get warmer than you think. I don't think that'll be an issue for a summer move, though.

Hope my ramblings help some. Shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions I can help with. Been there, done that!

And I LOVE Arizona. Miss it very, very much!!