How to ship?

[drgpenardo]

How on earth do you ship a live tortoise safely and with a reasonable cost? I saw USPS only guarantees a 2-3 day delivery and it looks like UPS wants hundreds of dollars (though I could be calculating it all wrong) How does everyone else do it? I received a tort once and I was boiling mad over the way he got there. He was upside down, stressed out, no ventilation and no special handling. I can't do that to a living creature. Any suggestions?

 

[Yvonne G]

We just so happen to have an answer to that question:

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-1379.html

Yvonne

 

[bettinge]

I have recieved many animals shipped from California to New York. Going this direction I have the time zone advantage, as they will spend 3 less hours in the box. Basically, the animal spends the night restrained in a box, and since none were nocturnal creatures, they would not have been active during the shipping hours anyway.
The torts I have received were well positioned in the box so they were upright if the handler read the outside of the box were it said repeatedly "Live Tortoise, this end up" with arrows pointing up. There were also notes about not freezing or overheating.
I have never felt the animal was mistreated during the shipping process, and will do it again when needed!

As far as cost goes, I have paid anywhere from $35 to $80 for shipping. The $80 was from a guy who did not want to use a smaller box to save on costs. He said he had shipped over 500 tortoises without one loss, and did not see a need to change his shipping practices. I agreed and gladly paid $80 to have them arrive safe in a proven shippment!

 

[drgpenardo]

What company was used? Do you remember?

 

[bettinge]

I have had Chameleons shipped from LLLReptile and Torts shipped from Thetortoiseman.com

 

[Yvonne G]

I use UPS now. No problems with them so far.

Yvonne

 

[LIttleGreys]

I have used DHL twice and they were fantastic, but I believe they are out of business now. I have also used UPS and FedEx and had excellent service with both. UPS and FedEx both seem to run somewhere around $50 for overnight, that was for an adult box turtle. I had them shipped to the vet clinic where I work, where we get both UPS and FedEx shipments everyday, so the drivers know to be very gentle with my turtles!

 

[Millerlite]

I always used UPS without a problem, prices can be high like 60-80, depending on the box size. But its really not to bad since the tortoise will get there next day by 10

 

[dmmj]

Years ago soemone shipped me a box turtle overnight thru USPS. She shipped it out on the 23 and it arrived the 24th, day before christmas. I think it was around 20$ for overnight shipping, the only problem is that USPS won't knowingly ship live animals.

 

[bettinge]

USPS may not allow live animals, but UPS does. I would be uncomfortable shipping with any carrier that does not allow it. I would rather pay more and go for a carrier that does. While no carrier will gurantee the animal, in the worst of situations (9/11) where a box may be delayed for days, a caring employee may take care of an animal if the box is labeled "Live Tortoise"

 

[dmmj]

Now see that is funny, I always thought DHL was the only company that allows live animals to be shipped, but someone said they are out of business now. You learn somethin all the time.