For those of you who have received herps from the U.S.

[CDN-Cresties]

Hi, I have never bought an animal online or had an animal shipped to me. Im looking at a crested gecko from the U.S. I was just wondering what do I need to know in terms of getting it over the border and so on. Thanks for all your help. :thumbsup:

[clint545]

I've inquired with a few U.S. breeders and to ship to Canada they usually have a minimum purchase amount before they will ship.
I'm sure there's other's here with better tips and such:)

[bighillreptiles]

have it shiped to the closes town in the states to you and drive down and pick it up ay a ups station

[CamHanna]

I've gotten one shipment from the US. The seller took care of all the paper work all I had to do was pick the snakes up at the airport and pay some tax. I had a decent sized order so the shipping and such wasn't too much on an animal by animal basis, but it was still about $250.

Legally, I believe you must have some kind of export paperwork from the US. It's not enough to just claim the reptiles at the Canadian border. But I can't claim to be an expert here. Practically, it's seems easy enough to just smuggle them from the US to Canada, not something I would really reccomend though.

[Ptindy]

Rhacodactylus are not part of CITES so I think you can get them shipped near the border and pick em up. If you want to be able to get across for sure, ask the breeder for a receipt and admit to the border what you have and they will just make you pay duty.

Mike

[Katt]

Plenty of crestie people in Canada, why not buy Canadian?

[CDN-Cresties]

The market in the U.S. has more variety and more hi end morphs. Also, the one I seen caught my eye. :)

[CDN-Cresties]

One more thing, should I be concerned with weather conditions? I think I may do what Paul and Mike have suggested.

[Jeff_Favelle]

One more thing, should I be concerned with weather conditions?

Depends on how good the shipper is. I shipped 7 boxes on this last Saturday and Sunday, and 5 of them went to places where it was minus 15 Celsius or LESS. No problems. But then again, I've seen people kill COLUBRIDS at 5 degrees. Depends on the shipper.

[K1LOS]

I work at the airport, so i can tell you that on all the boeing planes, and many others, there is a baggage storage area that is kept the same temperature as the passengers are. This "Pit" is where any declared live animals would be placed for the flight. They are also rushed indoors pretty quickly after the flight as well. Shipping by air with in canada shouldn't be too bad.

In your case however, most likely the animals would be coming in on an RJ in which the temperature of the pit is not regualted ( i don't think), you should check with the airline on that one. Good Luck

Geoff

[chas*e]

Make sure the reptile is packed with heat pads and shipped on a reliable airline..Delta Dash or ACanada....ask the company who you are buying the reptile off of about "arrive alive" guarrenty

[DragnDrop]

Just for the record, I had a shipment of frogs (I know, not geckos, but...) shipped from Florida in August. The frogs arrived almost frozen solid. I was at the airport when they arrived, so there wasn't any delay in picking them up. For some reason they weren't put in the heated cargo section but nobody knew why not.
Just shows you can get frozen animals at any time of year.
I also had geckos and frogs shipped from California in the summer, and the (very experienced) breeder put heat packs in since they were destined for Canada, and we all know it's a frozen wasteland here, right? And this was even though I'd sent him the weather forecast for that current week. Don't assume your shipper will believe you, he just might know better.

[latazyo]

no matter what local weather conditions are at either place, if there's no heated cargo bin the air temp is about the same at several thousand feet up, and that's VERY VERY cold

IMO animals must be packaged in styrofoam boxes, no exceptions