Moving Across Country with BTS

[DonkeyHands]

I'm going to be moving from northern Ohio to southern Florida sometime this year. I've been thinking about different methods of traveling with my BTS, but I figure I'd ask some people who know more than I do and may have some experience with this. Mailing him makes me nervous and isn't a very good option. I'll be in a uhaul type moving truck. I was thinking some sort of plastic container big enough for him, and during hotel stays bring him inside with a heating mat?

Thanks in advance.

[Dood]

Not sure what season you'll be travelling at but a cooler will hold heat just as well as cold if that's what your worried about. The insulation also muffles sounds to help reduce stress from noise.

[splashy07]

Reptile specialty shops ship everywhere, even to other countries! If there is one in your vicinity it would be worth checking out. Anything can (and does!!!) happen on the road. I have been travelling back and forth to Florida from Long island since my family moved there in 1980, and you name it, it's happened. 12 hour traffic jams, ice storms, snow storms, hurricanes, breakdowns....The last thing you need to worry about if any of these situations present themselves is travelling with a reptile. Believe me, been there!

[Dakota]

I moved from Tennessee to South Florida. The day of the big move, I put them in their own large shoe box. Shoe boxes already have holes in them, so I just put Aspen in them and taped the tops down so they couldn't escape. I only checked them once or twice during the move. Being in the dark box, it seemed they thought it was night and slept. None of them really moved much while in the box. Let them ride in your vehicle, rather then the U-haul. I made a move to South Florida with them, a move back to Tennessee with them, and another move back to South Florida.

BTW, what general area of southern Florida are you moving to? If you don't mind me asking, of course.

[Dood]

Reptile specialty shops ship everywhere, even to other countries! If there is one in your vicinity it would be worth checking out. Anything can (and does!!!) happen on the road. I have been travelling back and forth to Florida from Long island since my family moved there in 1980, and you name it, it's happened. 12 hour traffic jams, ice storms, snow storms, hurricanes, breakdowns....The last thing you need to worry about if any of these situations present themselves is travelling with a reptile. Believe me, been there!

Ummm... The shipping service can be stuck in those situations right along side you

At least if my animals are with me I know how take care of them and they are not in the care of some random delivery person who may or may not know a thing about their needs and who has no vested interest in them.

Since you are driving yourself and not flying, I'd take him with you.

Just my 2 cents

[DonkeyHands]

Thanks everyone. I think I will put him in a cooler or shoebox and keep him in the uhaul cabin with me, or in the car I'll be towing and check on him at every rest stop to see if he is doing okay or periodically give him water if he needs any.

BTW, what general area of southern Florida are you moving to? If you don't mind me asking, of course.

Technically southwest Florida. Fort Myers area.

[splashy07]

The shop I deal with would be flying above you...
Under normal circumstances I would avoid shipping, but a drive like that in a rented
vehicle is another story. Best of luck with your move, I will be doing the same when I retire,
but there is no way I could make the drive with all 33 of my reptiles!

[Dakota]

Hey, I'm in Cape Coral! Nice to see local people on here. Maybe we can meet up and talk skinks sometime.

[Susann]

With shipping you need to make sure someone is at the other end the following morning to receive the box, open it up, make sure skink is OK, and get them into a temporary home until you get there with the tank. It needs to be someone who is fine taking care of him in case you are delayed beyond what you expect.

If you take him with you he needs to be in the part of a vehicle that is temperature controlled, i.e. not in the trailer part of the U-Haul nor in the towed car. (With windows rolled up and no heater/cooler fan blowing, you know how cold/hot a vehicle can get.)

You need to not feed him for four days to a week prior to the move, and make sure he has pooped before the trip. This way he doesn't have food in his system that needs to digest in case his temps aren't warm enough during the trip. Undigested food in the system could cause huge problems.

Depending on how long the trip takes/is expected to take, and preparing for the unexpected, you should have a heat source with you; either an electric heat pad that you can place under a part of his container (not the whole thing --he still needs to be able to get away from the heat if necessary) or the emergency/shipping heat packs that are activated by air. You should maybe have a pillowcase handy as well so you can place him inside your shirt in a worst case cold scenario.

If the trip takes more than 24 hrs, offer him a drink of water (once every 24 hrs or so). Unless/until you have a heat source hot enough for him to digest food and that he can get to, and away from, on his own, I would not feed him.

For any prolonged trip, more than an hour or so, I use a container that is big enough for them to lay along either short end of the container, and unless it's at the peak of summer, I open and wrap up a heat pack and place it in one of the short ends, so they have a place to warm up and a place to get away from the heat. I fill the entire container with burrowing material, whether it be a large pillowcase, paper towels, or substrate. If I include a heat pack I always make sure it's a container with air holes for ventilation. If it's really cold or if I know the AC will blowing really hard throughout the car, I wrap something (sweater, towel, blanket) around the container to make sure really cold air doesn't blow into the container.
If you're worried about a heat pack heating a small container too much you can always have the pack outside and just place an edge/corner of the container on top of it.

Good luck!

[CWyatt]

I moved mine from Fla to Ma and just in Nov from Ma to Ca. It was a 5 day drive and 1 nite spent in hotel where the reptiles were brought in without heat mats. The room temp was enough. They were all transported in sterilite containers. My BTS is adult so he was placed in a container next size up from a shoe box. I used a solder iron to melt holes all around and put his aspen bedding in deep enough for burrowing. They traveled in my jeep covered with a light blanket. No worse for the wear. Good luck.

[DonkeyHands]

Hey, I'm in Cape Coral! Nice to see local people on here. Maybe we can meet up and talk skinks sometime.

For sure man

[DonkeyHands]

With shipping you need to make sure someone is at the other end the following morning to receive the box, open it up, make sure skink is OK, and get them into a temporary home until you get there with the tank. It needs to be someone who is fine taking care of him in case you are delayed beyond what you expect.

If you take him with you he needs to be in the part of a vehicle that is temperature controlled, i.e. not in the trailer part of the U-Haul nor in the towed car. (With windows rolled up and no heater/cooler fan blowing, you know how cold/hot a vehicle can get.)

You need to not feed him for four days to a week prior to the move, and make sure he has pooped before the trip. This way he doesn't have food in his system that needs to digest in case his temps aren't warm enough during the trip. Undigested food in the system could cause huge problems.

Depending on how long the trip takes/is expected to take, and preparing for the unexpected, you should have a heat source with you; either an electric heat pad that you can place under a part of his container (not the whole thing --he still needs to be able to get away from the heat if necessary) or the emergency/shipping heat packs that are activated by air. You should maybe have a pillowcase handy as well so you can place him inside your shirt in a worst case cold scenario.

If the trip takes more than 24 hrs, offer him a drink of water (once every 24 hrs or so). Unless/until you have a heat source hot enough for him to digest food and that he can get to, and away from, on his own, I would not feed him.

For any prolonged trip, more than an hour or so, I use a container that is big enough for them to lay along either short end of the container, and unless it's at the peak of summer, I open and wrap up a heat pack and place it in one of the short ends, so they have a place to warm up and a place to get away from the heat. I fill the entire container with burrowing material, whether it be a large pillowcase, paper towels, or substrate. If I include a heat pack I always make sure it's a container with air holes for ventilation. If it's really cold or if I know the AC will blowing really hard throughout the car, I wrap something (sweater, towel, blanket) around the container to make sure really cold air doesn't blow into the container.
If you're worried about a heat pack heating a small container too much you can always have the pack outside and just place an edge/corner of the container on top of it.

Good luck!

Thank you so much, this is exactly the information I was looking for!

[DonkeyHands]

So...a follow up question. It turns out that I'm just going to be moving in my car, no uhaul and sooner than I was expecting. I'm going to have to bring his terrarium, too (36x18x12). Can I put him in there with substrate and bring him inside any motel I may stay at in a smaller container, or is that a bad idea for any reason?

[Susann]

I really can't see any negatives from letting him stay in his tank as long as you've removed anything that could fall over on him. If he's not normally a big burrower, I might put in something like a kitchen towel or two on top of the substrate --something easy for him to crawl in under to feel safe, but equally easy to peak out of if he feels like knowing what's going on. This way you could also easily grab the same towels to go into the smaller container with him when you're over-nighting.

[DonkeyHands]

I really can't see any negatives from letting him stay in his tank as long as you've removed anything that could fall over on him. If he's not normally a big burrower, I might put in something like a kitchen towel or two on top of the substrate --something easy for him to crawl in under to feel safe, but equally easy to peak out of if he feels like knowing what's going on. This way you could also easily grab the same towels to go into the smaller container with him when you're over-nighting.

He does burrow a lot, but the towel idea is good either way. Thanks!