Moving Advice Needed

[BP2]

I'm going to be moving form CT to CO in August. I have 20 ball pythons that I'm going to be taking with me. My question is what is the best way to move the collection with the least amount of stress? (for me and the animals) I'm going drive out there with all of my belongings. Can the the balls be bagged individually for a couple days and driven out? Is there another way? Any suggestions are welcome! thanks!

[xdeus]

The best way would probably be to ship them. That would take less than a full day, but of course it would be pretty expensive.

Barring that, I think they should be okay if you bagged them up. You can supplement the heat using heat packs (don't allow your snakes to come in contact with the heat packs, though). Just monitor the temps continuously and make sure they are secured well so they don't move around with every bump and turn.

Good luck!

[BP2]

Thanks! I was talking to a buddy of mine and it sounds like they make outlet converters for your cigarette lighter. you can plug a heat pad into it. I'm going to look into that now.

[zues]

I did this from CO to the east coast a few years ago. I found a couple of old coolers and drilled an air hole in each of the four sides and a few on top. I filled water bottles with warm water and put them in the bottom of the cooler and covered them with shredded paper. Placed all my snakes in snake bags and loaded them in the coolers. Between the cooler insulation and the shredded paper over the water bottles it held temps pretty good. I would redo the water bottles every morning before leaving the hotel. I was traveling with three kids and car trailer loaded with two cars so it took us about 3 1/2 days. All snakes arrived in good shape which is better than I can say for my nerves.

[Shadera]

I drove from WV to MT this last December, and brought 6 balls with me. I got an RB sweaterbox rack for the trip, and it fit in the car perfectly (Honda CRV).

I didn't feed the snakes for two weeks prior to the move, to make sure everyone was good and empty.

During the day while I was driving, I put a tub divider into one tub, bagged the snakes in cloth shipping bags, and placed each into an upside down hide box so they couldn't move around too much. Three on each side of the divider. I took several shipping heat packs, activated them, then wrapped them in newspaper and tucked them into the tub with the animals. (not touching them though.) The other 3 tubs in the rack were used as storage.

At night when we stopped, the rack was very easy to just lift out of the car and onto my little dolly. I'd wheel it in to the hotel room first. (did I mention it was mid-december and freezing outside? lol) Once I got the unpacking done, I'd pull everything out of the rack, plug it in, and then set up each tub for the snakes. Next morning, bag them up and start over.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it actually went quite fast, and the snakes got to relax each evening. I probably could have just left them bagged for the entire trip, but it took four days, and I wanted them to be able to stretch out and have some real heat.

Within a week of getting here, everyone ate with no hesitation.

Since it was handy, here's a picture of the rack in my car that I took while I was doing a trial run to make sure everything would fit.

It really took up very little space, and since I could use the free tubs for storage while the snakes were bagged up I really didn't give up much.

Good luck, no matter which route you decide to go with.