Why 30 Reptiles Died During Shipping - the Bad Side of Unboxings

more positive videos on the way shortly... until then, do you have any stories of animals being shipped to or from you? speaking of, I've reopened the intake kits, so if you're looking to rehome you can get in line at emeraldscales.com/rehome

an idea, when someone is preparing to ship you an animal, along with the packing instructions maybe make a demonstration video?

As a former Fedex driver and Loader I can tell you that the "package handlers" don't care what's inside the box. Too often I've seen boxes absolutely crushed or thrown with no regard. I would not send any animal through that

I am SOOOO paranoid about this. Thankfully i live in a small country so if i am going to get a reptile, i can drive to get them myself

Bless you Alex, you talk about real shit even if it's uncomfortable or sad.

I had some tortoises shipped to me and the fed ex driver handed the box to me upside down. I was so worried they had been like that the whole time. The box was clearly a live animal box with HUGE green arrows but she did not even look/care.

I'm wondering about maybe carbon monoxide being an issue?

Thanks for making this, I think this is a really important video to exist.

Ik I had a time where FedEx just left the package outside in the freezing cold and didn't even ring the door bell (Wasn't from emerald scales)

Out of your 700 animals shipped on average there is a .004% or 4 thousandths percent chance of a animals dying during shipping

Hey man just wanna say thank you for looking out for the less cuddly pets out there 💯

Have them send you a video that is time stamped in some way. In front of the computer with something on the computer screen with today's date on the article.

The mystery deaths could be because they couldn't handle stress or because the package was mistreated. Most likely the second one

Don’t buy animals online. Adopt them. There’s no reason why animals need to be shipped. This is abuse. They aren’t products. They are living beings who should not be shipped and treated like mail..

I am so glad you have such care for animals ♥️

wtf i dont understand why you don't have required signature???

You could ask a picture with a journal in the back where we can se the date, it can also be with their lock screen of their phone if we can read the date

Can you please do more diy videos of a red eared slider tank, and tips on caring for them. Although i can not afford to build him a pond, i want to know cheapest way to accommodate him. I DO NOT TRUST rehoming him.

The shipping kit on your website costs like $185, so i dont understand why people pay this amount of money if they dont care about the (already sick?) animal... or did those people just did it by themselves and didnt use the right stuff to put in the pacakge? (sorry dont know how to say this exactly..... i’m from the Netherlands so English isnt my main language)

Though I've never ordered any reptiles, I've ordered many arachnids (the only way unfortunately, you can't legally sell them in my state) and luckily they have all been packaged really nicely and all arrived healthy. The only exception is my emperor scorpion, who came in cold and lethargic covered in cold substrate (possible heat pad fluke?), but is thankfully now very healthy! Their packaging is really similar to reptiles, it seems. My biggest fear is unboxing one to find it in a bad condition, I think my heart would break. 😥 It's absolutely amazing that it's possible to send these beautiful creatures to people all over the world, though I definitely worry, because there's so much that can go wrong, even with everything set up perfectly. It's that unknown time during shipping that worries me, because you never know what happens to the box behind the scenes. But ultimately, I do support shipping done right and carefully, like you do!

oh my gosh my gecko is getting shipped, literally right now, i’m getting him in the morning and now i’m worried

Moral of the story: Only get into this if you hate animals and only love earning small amounts of money for a ton of labour

Sadge Sadge Sadge Sadge Sadge

@GoHerping I am moving to AZ from IN in a few months (driving). Do you have any pointers for traveling?

What if you made a "how to pack ur animal" video that you can send to ppl so that you can make it very clear. Also free advertising for your packing set :P

This isnt a vertebrate animal, but I have had tarantulas sent to me that I have purchased. One seller, I think the only thing they did 'wrong' was not noticing my tarantula was in premolt when they shipped it, so it did loose some legs as it didnt have adequate room to molt. It has since grown those legs back and is doing great though.

Idea for when you get pictures from the prospect sender: Ask that they take a picture of the animal next to something specific that most people have in their home but don't necessarily take pictures with their animals next too. Like for a leopard gecko, request they take a pic of it next to a $5 bill or a library card. For a ball python, request they take the pic next to a 2 liter of soda. For a frog, request a pic next to a pair of headphones. Something specific. Just a thought.

Working at a local pet store, we receive reptiles that at first glance seem very dead, but with the proper measures, can be revived back to life. Lizards especially go into a hibernation type mode and seem dead. I personally have brought back leopard geckos simply with some warmth and slight compression.

Idk if someone has suggested it or if you do this already but why not make a video on how to properly package an animal for shipping and add a link to it where you have the instructions for intakes

Maybe a small percentage of animals can't handle the stress of shipping. Maybe The stress causes a heart attack when there was already an existing undiagnosed heart problem. An otherwise healthy human can die from an undetected blood clot. Nothing alive is exempt from the possibility of a sudden, unexpected death. We can (and should) do everything in our power prevent disease, trauma and death, and still on rare occasions it won't make any difference.

FedEx sucks here They never knock or ring the doorbell They gave a package of ours to a 7 year old because she was in our doorway- luckily enough she’s my sister They left a dresser leaning on our door, it almost fell on my moms foot and were super lucky it wasn’t one of the kids or me- because we don’t have as fast reflexes as her. I’ve had no issues with US postal yet So yeah that gecko could have easily been hurt but it depends on where you are. I live in Cali.

Maybe it's possible to add some kind of open top tube with colored water glued inside the box to be able to check if the box was thrown around while in shipping ?

is it okay for a leapord Gecko when first getting it to not eat it has ate 2 crickets and has also eaten calcium

you should consider making a video on your website on how to do the intake boxing for further clarity!!

Just have them send you a video stating a script and saying what exact animal they are giving you including name

u should make an instructional video to post on the website and send a link to the video in the emails too

My friends husband used to work at fedex and he has videos of employees literally throwing boxes across the warehouse. So blunt trauma could very easily be the reason for that leopard gecko’s death.

Nooo

When I got my first and so far only snake a ball python I got him from bhb cuz that is one of the highest rated in my area there were both good and bad. I had already done so much research about eht I would need for him; hides, heating, substrate, food, etc. As soon as I ordered him they call to make sure that someone would be there to receive him told me what he was eating and how often he ate or at least was offered food all that stuff which was good. They didn't tell me until after he shipped what I should put him in, like enclosure size, which would have been bad if I didn't already know and wouldn't give me a real answer on how big he was. When I got him he was slightly underweight not to the point that I was worried about him dying but enough to know that they lied to me about how often the specific snake they sent me was eating. For the first month and a half I couldn't get him to eat. Even a live mouse which I offered to him weekly and took care of after he never ate it. I will say that some of that was probably my fault cuz I was freaking out about my new baby snake starving himself when he was already underweight. Either way over all the snake had no immediately serious problems and he is happy and healthy now .

do you send lizerds to ireland

I can just imagine the pain that owner felt shipping there baby away, giving them hat one last bath, feeding them one last time, loving them one last time before they send them away.. that one last little look they get from them.. it breaks my heart 😭❤

Great video, really informative and such an important topic.

You mentioned you hate USPS, but... you know FedEx and UPS use USPS to ship to certain locations, right?

Thank you. It’s incredible how you take responsibility for your mistakes; it doesn’t happen anywhere near as often as it should. I’d never thought much about the pet industry before, but Petco has officially lost what little business I gave it.

I have to say, it made me so extremely happy to hear that it’s even welcomed or allowed to ask for updates about animals sent in. I have wanted to ask since but I didn’t think it was allowed!

It’s sad that some people just don’t care about handling packages properly. Someone paid for it and another did it’s absolute best so that it would arrive nice and healthy but it only took that one person to ruin it all for everyone.

illegal selling/trade of animals from the wild like taken from their habitat and shipped across the world :(

Can anyone here tell me how to check for Impaction and how to help it too

This is heartbreaking, it seems like most of your customers really don't care about their animal, I had assumed it wasnt about getting the animals off their hands but more about getting the animal to you for their betterment of their lives :( the fact less than 5% ask for updates is so sad

it hurts me when i see one die

Ily

Important video 💚

This is an insane business model. I guess 99% of your income comes from youtube

watching this while i’m waiting on receiving an african fat tail is really helping

I know it's more than likely to ship okay overall, but I think I'll be takin a drive if I get a new reptile :'¹ I like road trips anyway

can make podcast? Or no?🤠🤑🤠🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤕🤑🤠🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠🤑🤑🤠🤑🤠🤠🤑🤤🤕😐👹😸👻👿🤠😮🤤🤭🤤🤔😴🤫😬🤩☹️😨😁🙂😄🇧🇴👨👨🇦🇴🇦🇼🇧🇪🇦🇷🇦🇷😄🇦🇴🇦🇴

It'd be cool to hear in a video what these people said to put them into the blacklist

Sad

I've never had a problem with my live animal packages. Typically I pick them up at the post office rather than be delivered to my house. I am mostly getting birds this way. Actually have had better results with USPS than Fedex.

I see calsifer in the back

yooo. what is that on the rock in the tank behind him.i need ansers

Is there a reason you put the heatpack on top? (Heat rises so I always secure them to the bottom.) I'm in Canada, so we put heatpacks between the styrofoam & cardboard box, the heatpacks between boxes prevent the ones in the box from dying. (I haven't shipped as many animals, but I've had zero deaths so far.) Also: You can have FedEx require a signature and they won't leave the package unattended.

I'm sorry but this is why I unsubbed from you and many other reptile channels. It's sickening that you parade around with all these "unboxing" when we're dealing with live animals. There's no dignity in it. These are real animals, the feel pain and fear and the reality is we don't know what they're experiencing when they're travelling this way. They're not your toys or your play things (or your views, but clearly they are to you), these are real breathing animals that deserve respect and care. You can't account for what a delivery driver does or doesn't do, for how that package is handled, so why are you taking the risk at all? It just feels like this is another gimmick for you to receive views while pretending to be a good person when there's nothing good nor fair shipping animals out like this.

I wish many of you would stop buying reptiles you're awful humans. And stop shipping during the winter.

Have you heard about USPS putting restrictions on the shipping of reptiles and poultry?!?

great vid dawg. this needs to be the standard!!

What kind of snake should I buy a corn snake, a king snake, a Kenyan sand boa, a hog nose snake, or a ball python

Can i ship myself over to EmeraldScales?. .. I don't have a stove in my apartment and i haven't had pizza in months, which basically constitutes malnourishment! . Just need to borrow that stove yo.

Goddam!, Adventure Time is the shit bro, my 26yo ass watching that shit like it was Avengers Endgame.

Have them take a picture of the animal with like a newspaper or add or something with the date on it.

Wow amazing video that shows about new idea

goherping please make a crested gecko guide im planning to get one and i dont know what to do. please pleasae plaeqse palesae please plaese apapalsea plsea plseas ppplease please

Have you thought about making a video talking about popular breeders online and where there are reliably good, ethical, safe, and captive bred or adopted reptiles to purchase or adopt? It’s hard to find an information on a lot of the bigger sites that sell reptiles, like back water or underground.

I used to work as a package handler at UPS and honestly with the belt & how roughly people handle boxes/bags that hold the boxes, I’m surprised there’s not more shipping problems. These losses make me sad but I’m glad it’s only 1/100 for your outgoing!

hey GoHerping just wondering if you are going to do another review video, i sent in one on insta for my juvenile corn snake and was wondering if you could review it, so i know what to add or take out. also im a huge fan of you and always watch your videos. i even named my corn snake Gobi after yours.

why do you tax so hard for ur reptiles

Very important conversation to have, so sorry to hear abt all these hard deaths

I have always despised the very thought of shipping live animals. People are often just too careless for me to trust shipping animals. I worked in a pet shop in the live stock section ( Literally anything that is alive) when I was a teen. Most animals that are stocked in pet shops are not bred locally, typically. They have huge breeding facilities that stock pet shops. Hamsters, budgies, rabbits etc. Fish are often shipped in from Asia. There's so many times there would be dead animals from shipping, crappy couriers, accidents at the airports. More would die soon after arrival during quarantine, just due to the stress. Crappy couriers and airport accidents had the highest body counts.

When will you get more tortoises?

I know this isn’t really relevant to the video but I have a beardie who has pretty long nails and I’m really worried about it. I clip them as often as I can but they aren’t really growing past the quick and the quick is not receding so I have no idea what to do. If anyone has any ideas I would seriously appreciate it

You seem to be such a tender-hearted young man. Don't beat yourself up about the occasional accident. We've raised mini goats for well over a decade, and often bought kids from a man who had raised goats for 30 years. Once we went to pick up a new young, well-bred doeling. The man called us, apologetic, just before we left. The little goat was dead. He'd seen her that morning, out running around. Then he saw her at lunch time, again, out running around. By mid-afternoon she was dead, with no apparent symptoms or trauma. It could have been she had some type of asymptomatic pneumonia; the cause was never determined. Of course on the farm we've had many animal die; three that stand out were 1) my daughter's donkey from a rare neurological condition and 2) a female goat developed a chemical imbalance that the vet simply couldn't explain or correct and 3) a foster puppy that turned out to have an inoperable intestinal abnormality. Again, these were animals from species that have been studied a good deal, yet even so issues can go undetected. Again, consider how many "healthy" humans, even young people, die of sudden aneurysms or cardiac events. Certainly in such small animals such as lizards there may be an underlying, asymptomatic condition, imbalance, or weakness that only appears when the animal is shipped, OR as you say, an event (a radical temperature change, being dropped, or even exposure to some type of chemical vapor) that could undermine the animal's health. You do a good work in helping these reptiles find new homes, and shipping is just a necessary evil.

Here the couriers are specifically for the animals, so they go straight from breeder to new home

I would say if people are spending money to send you their animal that they do in fact care about it because if they didn’t they wouldn’t spend any money on it and would just let it die

How old was the confusing death leopard gecko? Possibly old?

I'm sorry but this is the first time I've heard that people just ship them by FedEx????? Granted, I am a first time owner (In the UK) so I'm probably just inexperienced, but the site I bought my Milk Snake from had a Reptile Courier who they hired every few weeks for a 'run' to deliver their animals... I just assumed that was the norm??? (Edit, forgot to mention) - I was given a specific time to collect him, plus they had my contact information in case I didn't answer the door or there were any issues

I really want a beardie but right now isn’t the time. A I just got a new puppy B I don’t have the right resources/I don’t feel ready and C current weather in New England. Honestly I’ll probably apply in a few years to adopt one from you. 10000% know now is not time time as much as I want one. I couldn’t do that to a little fella

"I hate the US postal service." Careful now. Saying that in current year makes you a republican.

Where did u learn your math 5 out of 250 is 98% successful that's 2 out of a hundred or 2% not 1% have died for no reason other than being shipped as u say!

I'm gonna to buy a jackson chameleon I've done over 2 weeks of research but if you have any suggestions plz tell me

You should make a video about WandaVision Why? No idea, just seems like it would be interesting

This is a good information for people who is going to be shipping a animal good video Alex

You should add a before and after or transformation for the reptiles on your website

I used to work for PetSmart and surprisingly the places we got reptiles from did a pretty good job with shipping. We got lots of animals in a single box but they were all in individual, secured and labeled deli cups. Lids on cups were usually taped and rubber banded down, I never saw an escaped animal. Boxes were lined with Styrofoam and usually had a bit of paper padding (there were so many cups though that there wasn't a ton of room for that.) Boxes were also shipped with terrifyingly well secured heat or cool packs. Not advocating you buy animals from big stores but I was always pretty surprised at how well they shipped.

Maintaining a blacklist is a great measure to be taking to help ensure the well-being of your animals. Well wishes. Love your honesty in these videos.

The flukes might be explained by pre-existing heart conditions. Especially if they were treated well before shipping since you wouldn’t really know.

My mom works for the usps bro-.

My baby 3 month old ball python was sent in the mail during the winter at 40 degrees, with no heating pack and the box was damaged, luckily he was a tank

Lep Gecko 1: "Dude, I swear, I was in my cage, then all of a sudden, everything went black" Lep Gecko 2: "Uh, sure, whatever you say" Lep Gecko 1: "No, really. I could hear muffled voices and couldn't move" Lep Gecko 2: "Alien abduction, right? Lep Gecko 1: "YES! I was on several space ships for hours and ended up here" Lep Gecko 2: "Look. Just stay on your side of the cage and don't talk to me anymore"

The "BLACK" list...😒🤔

Amazing video 😀😀