Traveling with snakes ?

[Squishy Burrito]

I am going to be going back to wisconsin from florida for six months. I got an offer i cant refuse. (lots of money)So i plan to go back for six months and i need to bring my snakes on a 1200 mile trip and i was wondering what the best way to transport them would be. I will be takeing only my car back so i will be cramped for space but i do plan on driving strait through. The weather is good so no problen there. Just wondering what the best method would be. I have 2 boas at about 5' and 2 pb's at about 3'.

[coldbloodaddict]

The best way would be to bag them up and put them in Styrofoam boxes...You can get some Foam from Home Depot and custom make some boxes...You could also use Styro coolers from Wal-Mart...

Good Luck...Moving Sucks!

[rabernet]

OR, you could also find a breeder local to you that would agree to ship them to you once you got settled in Wisconsin.

[JLC]

Use snakebags if you have 'em...if not, pillowcases turned inside out work fine, too. Be sure to use one bag per snake...but I think it's ok to put the bags in the same box, so long as none of the animals are in quarantine. (If so, the quarantine animal needs its own box.)


Make sure the box is insulated with styrofoam (as already suggested) and add some other material to fill it out and cushion the snakes to keep them from shifting around in there as the car moves.

If you wanna get fancy, get an acu-rite digital thermometer...place the probe in the box and the unit on top of the box...then you can check on the temps inside without having to open the top. So long as the temps stay around 80 degrees in the box, the snakes will be fine for the duration of your trip. Even if you stop overnight...just carry the box into the room with you, then back out to the car. No need to take the snakes out of the bags.

The most important piece of advice:
Never, ever, even for 3 minutes, leave the snakes alone in the car during daylight hours. It will heat up faster than my home oven and can become lethal literally within minutes.

I traveled cross-country with my animals by myself once and I carried an extra set of car keys so that when I made a bathroom stop (which I made an effort to keep to a minimum) I could leave the car running but still lock it up....dash in and use the restroom, and right back out again. Meals were taken by way of drive thru. Once the sun went down though, it got easier.

Or...you can find someone to ship 'em for ya, as Robin suggests.

Good luck!