Shipping

Do you feel shipping chinchillas is safe? What is your experience with shipping chinchillas good or bad. Have you ever lost one from shipping?

Never lost one - have shipped in several hundred over the years from different breeders, all ages. First shipment was in 2003, last shipment was April 2011.

I've actually been surprised, some shipments have been held up over 18 hours or more and I've never had a death.

The last shipment the loaders were terrified to touch them so after leaving them under the engine/loading bay of the plane for over an hour, they finally poked them onto a luggage cart with a broom handle, then asked me to come into the back and get them. I was sure I'd have some trauma in that batch but everyone was fine. They were in the crates on that shipment for about 16 hours.

That's not normal, usually everyone is excited to see them and shipping/picking them up is a breeze.

I've shipped and had chins shipped to me with no problems, including a shipment into the US from Denmark. I've never lost a chin either way. I think a lot of it is what are the chins exposed to normally? Temperment, etc. as well. It is important to check the weather every stop along the way as well.

well i have no experiance but i think that they could over heat dehydreat starve tress out or depending on the box chew put but thats just my oppinopn

I have had chinchillas shipped to me and not had a problem. Travel of any kind can be stressful on an animal, chins flown to me have come to me in a lot better condition than any chinchilla I've had railroaded to me.

You don't ship chinchillas in boxes. They have to be in airline approved shipping crates/carriers. They aren't able to chew out of the carriers. If the flight is going to be extended, the shipper is required to provide food and water that can be given to the animals at stop overs. There is no way a chinchilla will starve to death or dehydrate on a plane flight.

Chinchillas are known to be temperature sensitive and the airports will only ship animals in a temperature controlled compartment. Animals could overheat or freeze to death in the compartment of an airplane that wasn't temperature controlled. The reason people don't ship in the summer is because of the time spent outside of the plane when the animals are moved to another plane during the trip. THAT time is critical and if it is hot is when you run the risk of overheating.

I agree with Tab, after having received two shipments cross country, I believe shipping them is a lot less stressful than railroading them would have been.

It's safe and they usually do extremely well and don't have any issues at all. The only problem is that it's expensive and a real pain in the neck to ship. If you live in a large city, it's not so bad...but if you live a long distance from a larger airport, you have to drive to pick them up. They stopped flying chins out of the Tucson airport. which means I have to drive two hours to Phoenix to ship them. I don't like doing it... Often they manage to send the chins to Atlanta. It's always Atlanta...or they send them to a completely wrong place.

I do ship and receive and have never lost one either. I do have a minimum order amount and charge gas and travel fees too because the airport is not close to me either.

I've received chins from the west coast and had no issues. I have also been at the airport with a breeder when sending or receiving and haven't had issues.

I have shipped and had chins shipped in many times and only one death. She was an old overweight chin and Probably should not have been shipped anyway..The others she came with were fine. Then years agoi had a bunch shipped in from chins.com and they were misplaced somewhere on the tarmac and it was two hours before they found them but believe it or not they were all totally fine!

I have received 3 shipments of chins from the west coast and 1 international shipment from Copenhagen Denmark all this year. All the chins arrived fine in good condition. The stress level on them appears to be about the same as driving them back and forth to a one day show. They go off feed for usually 2-3 days, but are back to eating normally within 5 days. Be aware that every airline has their own rules and requirements, even for domestic flights some require health certificates and some don't. International flights require more paperwork and health inspections. The biggest hassle I ran into was international shipments have to come into international hub airports, which for me ended up being a 7 hour drive to Denver airport. It's a good idea to check with all the airline carriers that will take chinchillas to compare shipping costs and requirements since they're all different. Overall, shipping chins on flights is safe for the chins, but can be some what of a headache for us with rules and regulations compliance.

I would trust the airline company over someone I hadn't personally met before railroading my chins. At least there is some accountability if the chin were lost/dead, you could get refund especially if you insure the chinchilla. If something were to happen in a railroad situation, I don't think you have much recourse. I also think it is less stressful and safer to ship than a long railroad.