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How cold is to cold to ship?

A

Araidia

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I know ship your reptiles says not to ship snakes under 38 degrees but I hear of other people still shipping in temps lower than this. What is the lowest safest temp you can ship in? I have a snake that needs to go out to Washington state but it hasn't been warmer than 36 for the low on their end for weeks. Would a high of 40 and a low of 36 on their end and a low of 36 on my end be to cold to risk? I have boxes with 3/4 inch foam and 60 hour heat packs. I hear of some people using two packs but I'm afraid of over heating him, it's only a 12x9x6 box. Has anyone had any experience with this? If it's to risky to ship him that day I'll just wait till it warms up, it's not looking promising till spring though lol. Thanks for the help.
 
I believe that this issue varies from person to person. I've personally received as well as shipped to customers with the low temperatures ranging from 10-15 F. With that said, I've also done experiments (nothing too scientific) with the amount of heat packs needed for different temperatures. I also use 12" by 9" by 6" boxes regularly and have found that 3 heat packs work well for temps in the mid-high 20's.

Another thing to remember is that these packages aren't kept directly in the cold for long periods of time. They are on a truck, plane, sorting area, etc for the majority of the time.

Hope that helps.
 
This is from a blog I wrote last year on a heat pack experiment. I use rather small boxes because the animals I ship are small...

I conducted a heat pack test trying to push the limits to the extremes to see what the temp in the box would be.

I should have took photos (sorry) but I will try to explain the best I can what I did:

I had a 8x8x6 shipping box insulated on all sides with 3/4 inch Styrofoam . The box had one very small air hole punched in only one side.

Inside the box I have a plastic pre-punched deli cup. I put a remote themometer inside the deli cup and snapped the lid on.

I unwrapped and started TWO 40 hour heat packs and let them warm up in a towel for about 45 min. I then took the warming packes and wrapped them in newspaper and placed them on eaither side of the deli cup...as if I where packing a real chameleon.

Newspaper was packed in all the loose areas securing the deli cup in the middle.

I sealed up the box and let it sit inside for a two hours to simulate it sitting inside at the UPS center. Them moved outside where it was slightly cooler. I also had a thermometer to measure outside temp.

Heat packs where started about 10:00 and put in the box at about 10:55

TIME / OUTSIDE TEMP / INSIDE BOX

11:00pm / 76 F / 78 F

3:00AM / 70 F / 88.5 F (4 hours in the box)

Moved box at 3am (yes I got up at 3 am in the name of science) to the refrigerator set on the highest settings (45 F) After 4 hours at 45 degrees I turned the temp setting of the fridge down to 32 degrees

7:00 AM / 45 F / 68 F (8 hours in the box)

8:00 AM / 41 F / 67 F (9hrs)

9:00 AM / 39 F / 64 F (10hrs)

Now I decide to push the results more and put the box in the freezer The freezer is on its highest setting which is 8 degrees. My outside thermometer started to giveme error readings that looked like "L L L" ( I will just assume that means 'freakin cold')

10:00 AM / ERROR / 51 F (11hr)

10:30 AM / ERROR / 47.5 F (11.5hr)

11:00 AM / 14 F / 42 F (12hr)

12:00 PM / 19 F / 43 F (13hr)

1:00 PM / 15 F / 40 F (14hr)

1:30 PM / 15 F / 38.7 F (14.5 hr)​

I ended my experiment there but placed the box back in the fridge just to see how much longer the heat packs would heat the box. I went out to run errands and returned at 5:00 pm

5:00 PM / 39 F / 50.3 F (18 hrs)

I unpacked the box at 5:30pm after 18 hours inside the box. The heatpacks seemed warm to the touch but not hot. the newspaper not in direct contact with the packs where cold.

This was the only heat pack experiment I have done and I used Two 40 hour heat packs. I found the results very interesting. It seemed to do very well when the outside temp is 40 degrees.

Also I was surprised that the temp inside the box never dipped to freezing (32 degrees) even when the outside temp was 14 degrees.

I also now know that my settings on my fridge and freezer are not accurate. Setting the temp on the freezer to 8 degrees yeiled a inside temp of 14 degrees and also the fridge set on 32 never got lower than 39.._
]
 
It depends, to some extent, on the species.
I am comfortable shipping at the current temps, BUT you also have to consider conditions at any stop in between (usually Memphis, for FedEx)...as well as other things that might cause delays (holiday volume, for example). Memphis has had a few weather related delays recently - fog and snow, I believe - which is particularly important if you are doing door to door. If the package gets to the destination city late, it may not even get put on a truck. I prefer FedEx to FedEx even in good weather, and strongly suggest against door to door in low or high temps.

With Christmas right around the corner, if the anticipated ship day is after this Wednesday...I would hold off until after the New Year.
 
hhmoore said:
It depends, to some extent, on the species.
I am comfortable shipping at the current temps, BUT you also have to consider conditions at any stop in between (usually Memphis, for FedEx)...as well as other things that might cause delays (holiday volume, for example). Memphis has had a few weather related delays recently - fog and snow, I believe - which is particularly important if you are doing door to door. If the package gets to the destination city late, it may not even get put on a truck. I prefer FedEx to FedEx even in good weather, and strongly suggest against door to door in low or high temps.

With Christmas right around the corner, if the anticipated ship day is after this Wednesday...I would hold off until after the New Year.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll wait till after Christmas even if the weather gets nicer.

And that was an interesting experiment, I might have to try that out sometime with different type and quantities of heat packs.
 
One thing to consider is that FAR more reptiles get killed by temps being too high rather than being too low. In some cases, this even takes place in the winter months when a shipper will put too many heat packs in too small of a box, and literally cook the animals. If you are going to make an error, err on the side of coolness rather than heat.
 
Honestly in this situation its all up to the person whos shipping & wat exactly they are shipping some reptiles arent as hardy as others....jus try your best make sure everything is packed correctly and not to much heat is being put in the box with heat packs or u could be setting your reptile up to face a microwave ride..i just shipping a sunglow redtail boa to ny about a hour ago and included one heat pack and im sure will arrive safe and sound.....my longest transit time for an animal was 2 pushing three days last year when i stayed in wisconsin i ordered a retic from greg bryant and the retic got caught up in memphis in a snow storm had to stay another whole day there....arrived the 3rd day...nearly frozen popped him under 90degrees of heat he was back up and slithering....just an example of past exsperiences with weather and being to cold...
 
TBH: I ship year round - Hub to Hub is safe no matter what the temperature is, as long as they have a heat or cold pack in with them and properly packed, they're good to go!
 
I have to disagree with that, only because of the "no matter what the temperature is" part. It's just not true, IMO. I'll agree that one can make accommodations for cold temps, and that hub to hub is a better option (year round)....even that in much of the country year round shipping is possible, if one takes the extra effort; but there are times that it's just too damn cold to be considered safe.
 
my only DOA was a baby boa shipped from CA to.. I think it was Ohio? or PA? from a failed heat pack, boa showed up super cold and dead. This was back in '03, I don't remember what the temps were but it was winter. I think lows 40s? I no longer ship anywhere if temps are lower than 60. As I understand it the heat packs generally raise the temps in an insulated box about 10 degrees.
 
I look at several variables:

1.) My overnight temps.
2.) Overnight temps at the destination
3.) How close to holidays I am shipping
4.) Species involved

As a "for instance"; I have shipped wood frogs when it was 10 degrees out, no heat pack at all. Why? They're wood frogs, and can freeze solid and be just fine. Conversely, I have shipped wood frogs to NM when it was 90 out, and included about 5 cold packs. Again, arrived just fine. Would I go no heat pack for tropicals in extremely cold conditions? Of course not. As a matter of fact, the lowest I will ship tropicals is around 35, and that is of course with at least one heat pack (depending on destination). In other words, the temp range described by SYR is a very generic range that works well for many species and destinations, but is not the gospel.
 
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