Friends, I am heartbroken. I successfully bread my Vanilla Pastel last year and produced 9 healthy babies. Yesterday afternoon, I shipped one out to a buyer. I packed her in a cardboard box with holes in the top. I lined the sides with styrofoam board to prevent heat loss, and filled the box with shredded paper and 2 heat packs. I placed her in an internal plastic container with holes in it to allow for ventilation, and placed it on top of the shredded paper. I put a slightly dampened paper towel in her plastic bin. This afternoon, she was unboxed and had passed away. Her head and mouth were massively swollen- I have no idea what would have caused that inflammation except an allergic reaction. I care deeply for my animals and made sure she was in perfect health before she was shipped. This is really hard and I’m inclined to never ship again. What did I do wrong?
What were the temps at your location, the destination, and the hub she went through? What size box was she in? Depending on temps, my guess would be overheating from the heat packs.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I honestly don’t have enough knowledge to be able to give you advice, but wanted to give you my condolences.
So sorry for your unfortunate experience. Depending upon how and where you placed the heat packs, and the fact that you included 2 of them, the snake could definitely have over heated, especially if the shipping temps were in the normal ranges. Is this the first time you have ever shipped an animal?
What kind of heat pack did you use? What was the duration?
What was the Origin and Destination temps and the size of the box?
Heat packs, especially two, should never be used if the temps go above 65°F for any reptile, and knowing its been warming up quite a bit as summer approaches I suspect this is the most likely culprit…
And the minimum size for one heat pack to be safely used is a 12x9x6 insulated shipping box.
How were the heat packs positioned in the box?
I’m really sorry that this happened, its every breeder’s worst nightmare 
But if we can rule out the heat packs as the culprit, at least you can know that this is something that can be avoided in the future so you can still keep shipping.
This is a pretty clear case of overheating. The swelling is from her pushing against the container, trying to get out and away.
Depending on the size of the box and thickness of the insulation, along with the weather, one heat pack might’ve been too much, let alone two. It is much safer for a snake to get a little cold than to overheat. Realistically at this time of year, if you’re shipping hub to hub, a snake won’t be exposed to temperatures below 65ºF for any extended period. MorphMarket has a video with Marc Bailey about shipping and heat pack use that is very informative, I’ll add it set to start at the relevant section:
So sorry this happened to you.
I agree that overheating sounds like the most likely cause. When I had a snake shipped to me across the country in February during an unusually cold winter (got lucky with a warmer window where we could ship), she still was only packed with a single small heat pack, taped to the top of the box so it never came into direct contact with the snake. And the inside of that box was plenty toasty, she was warm and active when I unboxed her. That was with temperatures in the 50s. It’s warmer this time of year, so I think two heat packs just made it much too warm. You may have not even needed one heat pack.
As @noodlehaus said, it’s actually a lot safer to err on the side of snakes being a bit too cool for a short time than it is to risk overheating them. Which can be a little counterintuitive, since most of us think of reptiles as needing to be kept warm. But overheating actually kills a lot faster than being too cold.
I’m so so sorry, @chadwatkins53. You’re doing the right thing by trying to figure out what happened.
I concur that this sounds like overheating. Even in the depths of winter, only a very large box would require more than one heat pack. I know that the video above includes this info, but not everybody who reads this thread will watch it so I’ll add a couple of tips to those already stated. Heat packs need to be well secured to the top of the box with protective material between the heat pack and the animal’s container. The animal should never be able to come in contact with a heat pack. Under no circumstances should a heat pack be beneath an animal. Phase packs are great for smoothing changes in temps and can be used alongside heat packs. In moderate temps, a phase pack can be used alone. The insulation in a proper shipping container is very effective And yes, it’s much better for the animal to be a bit cool than too warm.
Many people are who concerned about overnight/early morning temps don’t realize that animals who are shipped hub to hub are kept in a climate controlled area at the destination hub. They’re not sitting out in the warehouse in the cold or heat.
You obviously care very much about the animals, @chadwatkins53. Don’t give up on ever shipping again because of this. Packing for shipping is an important skill, and yes, it can be complicated to learn. The good thing is that since it’s a skill, it can be learned. You can do this. Again, I’m very sorry for your loss.
I’m in agreement with that she overheated. The only snake I ever received DOA came from someone that also had used two heat packs in a 12x9x6 box. Unless you used a box that was large, something like 30" x 16" x 10" or larger, two heat packs (and never used hand warmers) should ever be used.
Also, the minimum size box to use a heat pack in is 12x9x6. The overuse of heat packs is the number one killer of animals. While we don’t like to think about an animal getting cold in transit, cold is much better than too hot, because most will survive if they get a bit cold, they don’t if they get too hot.
It also sounds like you made your own box?
Something to keep in mind is that the dedicated white boxes with red or green print are handled differently than other boxes (at least I was told once they are supposed to be). There are crush standards for the boxes that are approved to ship live animals, if you make your own, they may not meet that, and possibly could be refused during transport or the animal injured. (I have seen some how tos on using your own supplies so that they meet crush standards, so you could check one of those out, too.)
I would recommend that you take a thorough read of the shipping standards that Redline shipping, Ship Your Reptiles, Reptiles2You, Reptiles Express, and/or Morphmarket state to see what the shipping standards are and how to properly put the holes in the box, where to place the heat packs, also how to properly use heat packs, cold packs, and at what temps they should be used at and when not to ship at all based on temperatures, alerts, and days of the week.
Thank you. It is even more difficult now, knowing that just a little bit more research on my end would have saved her. This was my first time shipping and I watched several videos on how to ship safely - but I failed to read about the dangers of overheating. I thought to myself “It may drop to below 50 tonight, better put two packs in, just to be safe”. The poor girl was just trying to escape and my stupidity caused her death. I just wish I could go back and pull those heat packs.
She was in a 12x9x6 exactly. I used the special reptile heat packs with 48 hour heat - I had read that they didn’t activate the same way hand warmers do, and that they were safe for use with reptiles. I never thought for an instant they would cause overheating, I wish I had taken the extra time to read the fine print. Yes, I used a brand new cardboard box and labeled it myself. I’ll never risk that again and will just invest a few dollars for the red/green box.
Thank you for your input. I try so hard to do research beforehand on these things and I simply dropped the ball here. So hard when it can’t be undone.
The problem is with as much information as is out there, you never know what’s entirely accurate. I wouldn’t say you were stupid in this instance, just uninformed on the safety risks, which can happen to anyone shipping for the first time. It’s hard to know everything and unfortunately you learned the painful way that sometimes less is more. Heat packs are marketed as safe, and many shipping instructions say to use them for a really wide range of temperatures. Often there are no warnings about what the risks of overheating are. I am so sorry for your (and the customer’s) loss, it’s obvious you cared about deeply about your animal.
This bears repeating. A molded styro box (not a panel box) with a couple phase packs is a far safer/secure option than a panel box with heat packs. Since phase packs cannot overheat the box, multiples can be used. Also, phase packs are reusable so they’re actually more economical than heat packs in the long run (assuming the recipient has an opportunity to ship a herp).
In the short run, this is a more expensive option, of course, but nickel and dime-ing savings in animal care is penny wise and pound foolish.
And as mentioned above, shipping overnight between two FedEx Ship Centers (not necessarily UPS, since their Customer Service Center holding areas are not necessarily climate controlled – my local one is their truck garage, no lie) will not expose the box to more than a couple minutes of direct outside temps.