Heads up on Gourmet Rodent

What I'd like to know is if the buyer thinks they froze or if they expired from overheating. The heat pack stuck in between the two deli cups (and not secured in place) was definitely a poor choice, though.

Originally Posted by SPJ

It was ice cold. Nowhere near an adequate heat pack. Nothing to secure the containers to prevent massive movement when the package is handled. Basically compared to how I pack animals when I ship, this was crap. They did refund me but they really need to look into the way they pack their animals.

He said they were ice cold. The same happened to the snake I was shipped, although unfortunately she survived and is doing fine at the moment. In my case the heatpack itself was still warm.

I don't think the pictures show the size comparison very well, but the box is unnecessarily huge and either the heatpack was not large enough or the setup they had was unable to retain heat properly.

Larger boxes will hold a more stable temperature if the heat pack used is sufficient for the space. IN the case of the Gourmet Rodent, the fact that they use an inner and outer box, along with crumpled paper which will aid in the retention of heat and act as a shock absorbing material, I cannot see what else they could have done. A heat pack failure is something that can happen to anyone. Unfortunately there is no way to know if the pack will fail. Wrapping it in paper will not do anything to the packs longevity, or likelihood to fail.

The only way to avoid this, is to ship only when months allow shipping without heat or cool packs. That means that the buyer will have to only purchase when that is possible, or the seller be willing to hold the animals until that period. That, in most cases, is unlikely to happen. I have personally shipped in every month of the year, with temperatures ranging from the mid 30's to the mid 90's. I have yet to have an issue, and I do not use double insulation like the Gourmet Rodent.

I think in this case it was simply a heat pack failure. Totally unavoidable.

Warren

Originally Posted by Warren_Booth

Larger boxes will hold a more stable temperature if the heat pack used is sufficient for the space. IN the case of the Gourmet Rodent, the fact that they use an inner and outer box, along with crumpled paper which will aid in the retention of heat and act as a shock absorbing material, I cannot see what else they could have done. A heat pack failure is something that can happen to anyone. Unfortunately there is no way to know if the pack will fail. Wrapping it in paper will not do anything to the packs longevity, or likelihood to fail.

The problem is in my case the heatpack was warm but the snake was limp from cold. I don't know whether the OP's heatpack was still warm when it arrived. You have to realize that with more insulation material it will also take more to initially heat the box up, the styrofoam in their middle layer isn't exactly airproof, there are small gaps in every corner. I personally would prefer to see a simple small box with tight styrofoam as opposed to a large box (with tons of empty space) and loose styrofoam.

I think it'd be best for Gourmet Rodents to do some testing on their packing method. I can assure you that the snake I received wasn't getting heated at all even though the heatpack was working. The only reason I don't have a measurement of her surface temperature was because the first thing I did was try to warm her up asap.

They aren't a bad company though, they are easy to work with and they deliver what you pay for. Though in the future I will wait till temperatures are in the 70-80s here to order.