First time shipping beardie. In serious need of help!

Hey all,
So I've almost finished my first term off at school and will be going home for 5 weeks during the Christmas break. That means Milo will also be coming home with me. I have to ship him since no airline will allow him to fly with me, and I'm starting to worry a little. I just have these fears of him not making it or something going wrong during the shipping process. So I was hoping to hear the advice or feedback from you guys who have shipped your beardies, and how they handled it.

Also, I've been doing a lot of research and plan on ordering a shipping kit, though I don't know what size would be best for him. He's full grown at about 18 inches, and I was wondering if this size would be good http://shipyourreptiles.com/shop/shipping_kits_1-5/product/snake_shipping_kit_3/ . I know you don't want them to move much during shipping so I'm unsure if that's too much, not big enough.... etc. I planned on packing him the way I've seen it online- put inside the cloth bag with packing peanuts/newspaper, heat pack wrapped up, couple of air holes, heavily taped, etc. The weather from California to Texas is somewhat similar (40's at night or so) so a heat pack would be a must. I THINK I've got that part down... but now I need help deciding the best box for him. I want him to be comfy but I don't want him having enough space to shift around or get hurt when his box is handled. As far as shipping goes, I just planned on making the label through Shipyourreptiles and will try to drop him off as late in the day as possible at FedEx so he spends less time in the box. He'll be overnight shipped so he should arrive to me by 10 a.m., which means no more than 16 hours in the box hopefully. I'm hoping he just sleeps the entire way since he's starting to show signs of brumation, so maybe that'll help reduce any stress.

As far as that goes, I'm not sure what else needs to be done or what I can expect. I know these guys handle shipping very well, but it always worries me when anything involves his safety. I literally wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to him... so you can see why I'm a nervous wreck. But I can't leave my baby for 5 weeks with someone either, especially considering no one in my current town really knows reptiles. Is there anything else I should do? And to those who have experiences with shipping reptiles, how did everything go?

You have everything you need and your plan of action is right on . I've shipped plenty of lizards and it's a very easy and safe process. What date are you shipping him on ?

I plan on shipping him out on Dec 15th since I leave that day. That way he should get to me by the next morning before 10. I'm going to be monitoring the temps though since California can get pretty cool at night, and Texas just has some pretty random weather. As long as it stays about 40, he should be fine considering he'll have a heatpack as well.

That's good...I was hoping it wasn't the week of the 24th, there is such a high volume of packages that there is a slightly greater chance of a delay. But the week of the 15th will be fine. Temps. dropping to 40 are no problem at all , the heat pack will keep him cozy. Open the pack about 45 minutes before to be sure it heats up O.K and wrap it lightly in newspaper.

AHBD":19ytr0r2 said:

That's good...I was hoping it wasn't the week of the 24th, there is such a high volume of packages that there is a slightly greater chance of a delay. But the week of the 15th will be fine. Temps. dropping to 40 are no problem at all , the heat pack will keep him cozy. Open the pack about 45 minutes before to be sure it heats up O.K and wrap it lightly in newspaper.

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Yeah, I was worried about that as well! I was hoping the 2nd week of Dec wouldn't be too busy. I was even planning on sending him earlier to my parents, but I have to set up his cage back at home again, so he wouldn't have a place to stay. >.< But phew, I'm glad he SHOULD be okay for the trip. I just fed him a good amount of hornworms to kind of prepare him for the trip, and I'm going to give him multiple baths that week before he's shipped out. Probably will withhold all live prey from now until I get him home, and no food 2 days prior to shipping. Is that a pretty good plan? Oh, and as far as delivery goes, should I have him held at the post office or is it best just for him to be delivered to me? I will be home and awake 100% that morning waiting for him so it's not like the box will be left out, but I wasn't sure if more people preferred them being held at the office or not. What are your thoughts?

And thanks again for the info. He's a healthy little guy so I think he'll do fine, but I worry about everything with him lol. I'm currently visiting family and I've got my roommate taking care of him, and I text her all day about him. I'm a little obsessed... so imagine me 5 weeks without him. I'd be a wreck.

You actually don't need to hydrate or feed him any him any differently, just no big meal the day before. And since you are shipping with shipyourreptiles, the package will go Fedex, not to a post office. When you make the label you will choose the 10:00 guaranteed delivery option and it will arrive before 10:00 a.m. There just needs to be a person there to receive the package. You CAN have the package held at the Fedex hub nearest to you, but it NEEDS to be the hub, not just a Fedex store. Then when you come in for it you need proof of I.D and the tracking #. You would need to have the address of the hub and write in big letters [ HOLD FOR CUSTOMER ] and your name of course.

You might as well just have it go to your house though, it comes good + early and is very reliable.

I remember when we had to ship our baby boy from Florida, all the way to Michigan - it was honestly one of the hardest and scariest things I have ever had to do in my life.
We got Sam at a PetSmart down there, and he had to only be about four or five months old when we had to move. We were new to raising reptiles, and with him being such a young age we had plenty of worry and fear in our hearts. But our little guy made it just fine. It was no doubt hard - and I say again the hardest thing I've ever had to do - but everything went smoothly and he arrived right on time. My girlfriends Mother was there to accept him and she happily set him up in a tank she had prepare there. He made it back before we did, even!
My advice is to try to not worry yourself out of your mind. I know it's no easy task! But keep in high spirits - let him know you know everything is going to be fine.
Update us when he is sent out/received!

rlanguid":3ngst1ya said:

I remember when we had to ship our baby boy from Florida, all the way to Michigan - it was honestly one of the hardest and scariest things I have ever had to do in my life.
We got Sam at a PetSmart down there, and he had to only be about four or five months old when we had to move. We were new to raising reptiles, and with him being such a young age we had plenty of worry and fear in our hearts. But our little guy made it just fine. It was no doubt hard - and I say again the hardest thing I've ever had to do - but everything went smoothly and he arrived right on time. My girlfriends Mother was there to accept him and she happily set him up in a tank she had prepare there. He made it back before we did, even!
My advice is to try to not worry yourself out of your mind. I know it's no easy task! But keep in high spirits - let him know you know everything is going to be fine.
Update us when he is sent out/received!

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Hey, thanks for the reply! I got caught up in finals and forgot to get back to this thread.
That's a relief to hear honestly. I'm actually not stressing as much because Milo is currently in brumation, and I've actually put him inside the cloth bag already that he is going to be shipping in. So all I'll really have to do is just move him into the box, pack him up, and he should be unaware of what is going on haha. I'm stressing a little about the weather here though, because he was going to be shipped out this coming Tuesday, but Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be extremely cold here. Monday is supposed to be in the 30's, and Tuesday is just under 40. I can't ship him out today either because it's not recommended to ship over the weekend due to possible delays. So now I'm in a tricky situation. I'm not sure if I risk it and ship him out Tuesday where it's supposed to get as cold as 36F, or if I need to have someone ship him out for me once the weather warms up. The problem is, I'd feel more comfy packing him myself just to ensure it's done properly and all.

Another part of my is actually wondering if I should just leave him here, considering he's in a deep sleep at the moment. I just don't know if I can trust anyone enough here to take him out, bathe him once a week, and keep an eye out on him as he's brumating. Gah, this is stressful. I wish I monitored the temperatures a bit more carefully. Now I might be screwed if it gets too cold next week.

That is not too cold for shipping, the styrofoam and heat pack will keep the box warm. Be sure that you have the 3/4" styro. If you don't you can actually buy a piece of styro at Lowe's/Home Depot and cut it to fit the box. I've shipped beardies as low as zero outside, then I used 2 heat packs and they arrived fine, but 36 will not be a problem at all. Don't poke a bunch of holes in the shipping box, beardies can breathe in there because the boxes are not airtight and they do NOT need to have holes in them.

On the other hand, if he's in a true brumation he can actually stay home + sleep if you DO have a trusted friend to check him once a week. My dragons sleep for about 2 months usually with no disturbance at all.

AHBD":cn733t1t said:

That is not too cold for shipping, the styrofoam and heat pack will keep the box warm. Be sure that you have the 3/4" styro. If you don't you can actually buy a piece of styro at Lowe's/Home Depot and cut it to fit the box. I've shipped beardies as low as zero outside, then I used 2 heat packs and they arrived fine, but 36 will not be a problem at all. Don't poke a bunch of holes in the shipping box, beardies can breathe in there because the boxes are not airtight and they do NOT need to have holes in them.

On the other hand, if he's in a true brumation he can actually stay home + sleep if you DO have a trusted friend to check him once a week. My dragons sleep for about 2 months usually with no disturbance at all.

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Yes, the styrofoam is plenty thick enough so he should stay nice and toasty. He'll be packed in the little pillow case that comes with the reptile shipping kit, plus some newspaper/packing peanuts. I know they don't technically need holes, but I'm a little paranoid about there being none. >.< I was only going to do a tiny screwdriver sized hole, just to put myself at ease lol. And yeah, he's been in and out of brumation but I don't feel like I can fully trust someone with him. When I was gone for a few days, my roommate watched him and literally made me panic the entire time, because she was making it sound like he was dead every single time she checked on him lol. Plus, when he's in brumation, he does tend to go into a deep sleep so I don't want to freak out anyone. He doesn't tend to brumate for long though, so I'm expecting him to only be sleeping for about another week, then he should perk up again. At the most, he tends to be out for about 3 weeks before returning back to normal. So it's best he comes home with his momma. But that's good to know they can handle those temperatures. I checked the temperatures in Memphis (for some reason, his overnight flight stops there) and Texas, and they are staying above 40's, so I should have nothing to worry about. Plus I have a 40 hour heat pack ready to go, along with all his packing materials. I'm going to give him a couple of baths beforehand (trying to avoid any accidents on the road) and pack him up Tuesday right before I leave for the airport. I'm feeling much more confident now about his travels. I will definitely update this once my little boy arrives home safe and sound. His other momma (my mom, haha) is eagerly waiting for him too.

O.K, be sure to read the instructions on your heat pack, they usually have a red line that indicates that side should be facing up. And just poke a couple of very small holes....if you poke larger ones + too many of them it can compromise the strength of the box as well as can let in the cold air. It should all be fine though, the boxes hold up very well because of the added strength from the styro inside.

Just wondering, was this the shipping day + how did it go ?

AHBD":2z6452po said:

Just wondering, was this the shipping day + how did it go ?

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Thanks for checking in! Sorry, I meant to reply sooner but my day became hectic. Travelling from LA during holidays =/= fun lol.

I'm happy to say my buddy made it safe and sound. He arrived early, around 8 in the morning. However, the ***** who was delivering him just left him on the front door without bothering to knock or ring the door bell. He just left him. Thankfully I was awake and had notifications for his tracking, so I called my mom as soon as I saw that he was delivered. I'm hoping he was out there for only a couple of minutes at the longest. My mom did say though that when she was unpacking him, the box wasn't warm at all, and that he was pretty cold to the touch. So something must have happened to the heat pack, or his box was left out in the cold during delivery. I had lightly wrapped the heat pack (red lines weren't covered or taped down) so I wonder if that was the wrong thing to do. I should have just taped it directly to the top of the foam board and not wrapped it. Might have had better results then. But yeah, she said he arrived looking pretty cold and sleepy, and because I was still in Cali at the time, I wasn't able to have his set up ready. So my mom literally just cloaked him inside her jacket for hours and let him warm up to her body heat haha. He actually slept like that for a few more hours, then woke up and went CRAZY. She said he was running and jumping all over the place. Then he went back to sleep haha.

I currently have a quick set up thrown together, and tomorrow I'll finish it completely. He's nice and warm now, and is actually 10 times more active than he was before. I thought he was going down for brumation... but it appears he changed his mind lol.


But yeah, overall the experience went alright. They were a little rough with the box at the shipping office (they were taking in last orders and were rushing me through the line, and at one point almost flipped the box over completely....) so I wasn't thrilled about that. Plus the fact he was left outside in the cold without any care in the world. :/ My mom did call their customer service in order to notify the manager of the delivery guy today and let him know what happened to prevent this from happening again. It's ridiculous honestly. All over the box, I have things like fragile, harmless reptile, live animal, avoid extreme temperatures, handle with care, etc.... yet they chose to ignore it. Just glad my baby made it safely in the end. I made sure to pack him really well so he wouldn't be knocked around or anything. Not sure why he got so cold, but I'll try a different method with the heat pack next month when he's shipped back to Cali lol.

That's good....I know you were relieved to see that the package was delivered safely. Some Fedex/Ups drivers will knock and leave the package but they ONLY knock + wait for you if they have paperwork that says " requires signature". Unless you specifically request that the package is just left at the door.

And beardies do feel much cooler coming out of the box, wer'e used to how warm they feel in their 80-105 degree tank. Was the heat pack itself cold ? Was it warm when you put it in the box ?

AHBD":19nntkw8 said:

That's good....I know you were relieved to see that the package was delivered safely. Some Fedex/Ups drivers will knock and leave the package but they ONLY knock + wait for you if they have paperwork that says " requires signature". Unless you specifically request that the package is just left at the door.

And beardies do feel much cooler coming out of the box, wer'e used to how warm they feel in their 80-105 degree tank. Was the heat pack itself cold ? Was it warm when you put it in the box ?

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When I was making the label through reptile express, I did check mark the "requires signature" box but I guess it didn't go through. What's weird is that he didn't even knock though. My mom was sitting right by the front where she works (she was there to make sure she would hear him) but he didn't knock, ring the door, or anything. And he was supposed to get her signature too, so not sure what went wrong. I'm just happy my baby made it though, that's all that matters.

And I'm not entirely sure how cold he was, but she was saying the actual heat pack wasn't even that warm. It was working well when I packed it though. I made sure to activate it for nearly 2 hours before actually packing him, to make sure it was working properly. I'm assuming they probably left the box out in the cold that morning, and it just cooled down the entire box so the heat pack probably wasn't able to work as effectively. I believe it was in the 40's or so when he was delivered.

Just wanted to say thank you again for all the help you've given me! Milo seems happy to be at home again. He's acting crazy at the moment... such a weirdo. But I love him.