Packaging the herp for the trip

Here is one thing that has puzzled me for some time. In two opportunities I have received snakes from reputable individuals that were packaged as follows.

1. The cardboard box was brand new and all styrofoam lined. So far so good, excellent!

2. Upon opening the package you find a lot of crumpled newspaper to avoid the herp from being tossed around during the trip plus warm heat packs to maintain the animal comfy. Great also! Good packaging techniques!

3. Uh oh!!?? The herp is placed loose in a translucid plastic container (huge deli-cup) instead of a cloth bag???

In my opinion what was tried to accomplish in point 2 (the cushion) is now negated by the fact of having a loose herp in the plastic container.

My preference has always been cloth bags. I can understand why a baby reptile will need more moisture and thus the use of the deli cup, but if you throw him in there without adequate cushion IMO it's not going to be a very pleasant trip!

What do you think?

We always place white paper towel (the soft kind like "Bounty" that you use around the kitchen, no sharp edges like with packaging paper) inside the deli cup. This also allows you to spray the paper with water for the humidity loving animals (chameleons in our case) without making a sloppy mess in the deli cup.

We always place white paper towel (the soft kind like "Bounty" that you use around the kitchen, no sharp edges like with packaging paper) inside the deli cup. This also allows you to spray the paper with water for the humidity loving animals (chameleons in our case) without making a sloppy mess in the deli cup.

That's OK. In both cases the snakes were inside large (almost 1 foot diameter) clear plastic delis with aspen as substrate.

Kindly.

For me, if it won't fit in either a 4" or 6" deli cup, it gets bagged. I have used the real big containers, but they're mainly for bugs now. This means hatchlings are cupped and that's about it. Things like hatchling balls get a 6" cup and while they aren't cramped in there, they don't have an excess of room to bounce around either.

I often use paper towel in the cup, but also use aspen at times. Not only is it for cushioning, but to absorb any excrement they may pass enroute.
I then put packing material under and over the container, enough so that when the lid is on the box there's a slight pressure on it holding it in place.
And above all tape the lids on! Many people forget to do that and the lids of the cheap cups can pop off during shipping. I've received packages that were a snake short because of this, and have had to take a box apart to get snakes from behind the styrofoam.

I often use paper towel in the cup, but also use aspen at times. Not only is it for cushioning, but to absorb any excrement they may pass enroute.

Excelent point Clay! One of the animals that I received recently had made a mess inside the bag. Some kind of an absorbent medium would have taken care of that.

Regards.