I am nervous about having a reptile shipped to me. I live in the pacific northwest and it seems many of the breeders are in florida or back east. I need some encouragement I guess from breeders or buyers who have had good experience with having scaly pals shipped. They seem so fragile and vulnerable. I dont trust non herp folks (airlines workers/delivery people) to handle my animal is one of my problems. I’m afraid they will just throw or bounce the boxes around. I know there is a risk in everything, but I just want to know that there are more positive stories about reptiles being shipped than negative. Thank you all.
Picture of my past beardie
5 Likes
I just got my first bp in thru the mail Tuesday,. I was nervous also. I had her held at the hub to eliminate her going into a truck all day. I was there at 9am the truck was late and she wasn’t available till 10:30. When I went in again to get her she wasn’t there,. She had been scanned in and no one could find the package. They had 3 people go look and found her in 5 mins. I was a panic for that time. Things can happen, and they do but 99 percent of the time everything is ok. I had 2 leopard geckos shipped to me and 2 gargoyle geckos shipped to me also with no problem. As long as the breeder packages them well there is nothing to worry about. There is a reason why only fedex handles the shipping. Don’t stress too hard. But if I can pick up I do within reason just to eliminate all that. ** Welcome by the way
3 Likes
Lucky you! The first time is always the best… but… every other time is just as amazing and never gets old. If you buy and animal Thursday, they’ll ship it out Monday, for the sale of the animal. It’s 99% safe, there’s the .5% of the breeder being dumb and there’s a .5% that you didn’t do research on the breeder to see if the person has shippied many animals and review the reviews. But after buying my first snake off morph… I rarely use anything else. It’s like a … national eBay/Craig’s. I also love personally working with breeders, I’d have having to pay a MM fee or whatever. So WELCOME. And ur welcome. 
4 Likes
If they’re packaged correctly and the seller has made sure to ship in safe temperatures (or with correct heating or cooling), there’s no need to worry. I always have mine shipped to a FedEx Ship Center to be held for pickup, since I live in Arizona and I don’t want them sitting in a hot truck all day. They’re guaranteed by 10:30 but I’ve literally never had them take that long. I always plan on being at the hub by 9 although my last snake arrived there super early, like 7:30. Check seller reviews if you can to see that they are good shippers. And you may want to read through shipping guidelines to familiarize yourself and ask the seller questions about how they ship.
3 Likes
Have a snake shipped is always nerve wracking, and I find myself pacing at the door around 10:30 waiting for them to arrive, but I’ve always had a good experience and they’ve arrived healthy with no problems. There was even a little mixup with the last one I bought where I got shipped somebody else’s snake and they got mine, and we had to ship them out again right away to the correct owner so they were in transit for 48 hour instead of 24. Even in that case both snakes were fine.
I would just recommend making sure they’re tank/tub is set up 24-48 hour hours in advance so the temps and humidity are stabilized and where they should be. That way as soon as your snake arrives you can unpack them and put them away ASAP to minimize stress. All of my new ones settled right away and even ate that night, so evidently they weren’t that stressed out
4 Likes
I have received and ship snakes for the past 14 years without issues even when delays occurred.
I comes down to buying from a reputable breeder that knows how to ship which means packaging as well a close temperature monitoring.
6 Likes
Thank you all for the input, I appreciate it and I feel better about it. I will look more closely at the sellers adds on here.
1 Like
Welcome!
Go with a reputable breeder, and/or ask them what their shipping practices are and compare them to our recommendations:
2 Likes
I have had most of my collection shipped from all over the country. Mostly snakes but also skinks and Leopard gecko. “live in southern Alabama”
I always ship to a particular hub in Mobile, they got most of the live shipments and take good care of them. LOL, some of the people recognize me and have my critters on the counter and ready to go when they see me coming.
1 Like
Prefer shipping to a Fedex hub. No bouncing around in a truck.
3 Likes
I just had my first shipped neonate Garter Snakes arrive last Tuesday from a breeder here on Morph Market. They came all the way from NY to WA. I think FedEx does a pretty awesome job.
1 Like
Same me, I’m planning on getting a baby likely from New York and I live in WA too. Did you have the baby sent to your door or did you pick up at the warehouse? I know they have a shipping hub at Sea Tac airport too. I’m trying to reach them to see what options I have.
If you swim to the Breeder I am sure he will give you a discount
I’m on east coast and have gotten snakes from Cali without issues. All is contingent on the breeder packing the animal right however. For what it’s worth, I worry every time about my animals being shipped, I can’t help it 
1 Like
I’ll update on how it all went once my baby gets here, supposed to be Tuesday.
These babies were delivered to my door because I wasn’t aware of the option of having them held at a hub. Next week I have more being shipped and I am picking them up at the FedEx Hub.
Iamnervousalso