You might need to use a heat pack or cold pack inside your package. This decision depends on the type of animal you’re shipping and the daytime high temperature at your location and at the destination.

These are guidelines. Be aware of the temperature requirements and safe temperature range for the species you are shipping. If you have questions about a specific species or weather condition, consult ShipYourAquatics in-office staff for more detailed guidelines and parameters.

It is the responsibility of the shipper to adequately package shipments for all temperature extremes and handling conditions. DO NOT OVERUSE HEAT PACKS!

6 Critical Points for Heat Pack Use

1. Heat packs should never come into direct contact with the animal bag/container. 

2. There should always be crumpled newspaper or other packaging material between the heat pack and animal bag/container.

3. Heat pack should never be placed under an animal bag/container, as it will result in high likelihood of DOA.

4. Heat pack should be taped securely to underside of the styrofoam lid. DO NOT cover the red stripe with tape! 

5. Failure to comply with the above points will INVALIDATE Live Arrival Insurance.

6. Lastly, we do not recommend heat pack use in any box smaller than the 12x9x6. If you need a heat pack with your shipment, you should use the 12x9x6 box or larger. 

These guidelines are according to the daytime HIGH temps. Shipping outside of these temperature guidelines nullifies any SYA Live Arrival Insurance. If your daytime high temps straddle two categories, please contact us directly for heat pack instructions that remain within insurance parameters, qualifications and guidelines. Heat pack use in warm weather can KILL AQUATICS!

Corals and tropical fish

Below 40°F: Don’t ship. Wait for warmer weather.

40-70°F: Use a heat pack per our directions.

70-80°F: DO NOT use heat pack or a cold pack

80-90°F: Use a cold pack per our directions.

90-95°F: Ship to a "FedEx Ship Center" facility (NOT a FedEx Office, Pak Mail, Mail Boxes Etc. or other satellite/franchise location). Your shipment will arrive early in the morning and be kept inside until the recipient picks it up. Search for a Fedex staffed facility near you. Read the IMPORTANT NOTE below.*

Over 95°F: Don’t ship. Wait for cooler weather.

Cold water fish

Below 30°F: Don’t ship. Wait for warmer weather.

30-55°F: Use a heat pack per our directions.

55-70°F: DO NOT use a heat pack or cold pack.

70-80°F: Use a cold pack per our directions. 

80-85°F: Ship to a "FedEx Ship Center" facility (NOT a FedEx Office, Pak Mail, Mail Boxes Etc. or other satellite/franchise location). Your shipment will arrive early in the morning and be kept inside until the recipient picks it up. Search for a Fedex staffed facility near you. Read the IMPORTANT NOTE below.*

Over 85°F: Don’t ship. Wait for cooler weather.

Axolotls

Below 30°F: Don’t ship. Wait for warmer weather.

30-50°F: Use a heat pack per our directions.

50-70°F: DO NOT use a heat pack or cold pack.

70-90°F: Use a cold pack per our directions. 

80-90°F: Ship to a "FedEx Ship Center" facility (NOT a FedEx Office, Pak Mail, Mail Boxes Etc. or other satellite/franchise location). Your shipment will arrive early in the morning and be kept inside until the recipient picks it up. Search for a Fedex staffed facility near you. Read the IMPORTANT NOTE below.*

Over 90°F: Don’t ship. Wait for cooler weather.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: When the daytime high temperature at your destination is approaching the limit of "too warm to ship" but isn't quite there yet, you should not ship to typical residential or business locations. Any time spent on a delivery truck during the heat of the day can be detrimental to the health of your livestock. However, you can ship to a "FedEx Ship Center" facility (NOT a FedEx Office, Pak Mail, Mail Boxes Etc. or other satellite/franchise location). Your shipment will arrive early in the morning and be kept inside until the recepient picks it up.

Tip for when you're ordering your shippng label: If you want to have your package held for pickup at a FedEx facility, be sure to enter "FedEx Ship Center" in the Organization field and "HOLD AT FACILITY" in the second address field. 

When the daytime high temperature at your location is approaching the highest range of safe shipping temperatures, live shipments must be dropped off at a FedEx counter very late in the day, after 5 p.m. You will not beat the heat if you give your package to a FedEx driver at 1 p.m. and it spends the afternoon making the rounds in a hot truck. A hot weather shipment will be covered under our ShipYourAquatics Insurance policy only if the parameters mentioned here (post 5 p.m. drop off, shipping to FedEx staffed facility, hold for pickup) are followed.

Search for a Fedex staffed facility near you. 

ShipYourAquatics.com offers 40- and 72-hour heat packs. 40-hour heat packs are most often used for aquatic shipping. Aqauatics must be shipped Priority Overnight, and the 40-hour heat pack is appropriate. Heat packs of less than 40 hour duration do NOT meet the SYA Shipping Standards.

To ship live aquatics, do not use the 12- or 24-hour packs available at your local BigBox store or ski shop. Those packs are hand warmers, not shipping tools. The 12-24 hour packs don’t provide the necessary heat nor duration for a successful live shipment. 12 and 24 hour hand warmers also peak at a much higher temperature than shipping heat packs (180F), endangering the life of your live shipment. Hand warmers do NOT meet the SYA Shipping Standards. Heat packs of less than 40 hour duration do NOT meet the SYA Shipping Standards.

Heat packs work through a chemical reaction between the contents of the heat pack and oxygen in the surrounding air. Oxygen flow is regulated through the perforated red line. Never cover the red line with tape or anything else.

Pre-start your heat pack two hours before shipping. Shake it up well, and place it in a folded towel so it can generate a quick, solid heat. The heat pack will not heat up properly if you leave it in open air.

The heat pack must be well started before you tape it to the underside of the top insulation panel and seal your box. Remember not to tape over the perforated red line. The red line should face the interior of the box.

Note: Do not overuse heat packs! Use only one heat pack per box unless you are using our largest box, the 30"x16"x10", where two heat packs can be used if needed. Two heat packs in a box 16x16x8 or smaller will cause the box to get too hot and can kill the animal.

We have seen shipments where folks have put multiple heat packs in box, using the "if one is good, two is better!" philosophy. This has resulted in the loss of the animals.

In a small or medium sized box, multiple heat packs will increase the ambient temp of the box into very dangerous territory. Check out the chart below for the temps that a single heat pack puts out. More is absolutely not better, just much, much hotter. Hand warmers in particular peak at 180F!

The purpose of a heat pack is NOT to warm or heat the box, it is to prevent it from getting cold. You want a temperate box, NOT a hot box!

If the temperatures are near the lower end of the SYA guidelines then doubling the insulation and/or having the shipment held at a FedEx facility will minimize the chances for a DOA.

DOAs are often caused by improper use of heat packs during the winter. Using too many heat packs in a box can cause the inside of the box to overheat. Be aware that heat packs use oxygen and using more than needed may consume all the oxygen in the box and have fatal consequences for the animal. Following these guidelines will increase your chances of having successful shipments.

6 Critical Points for Heat Pack Use

1. Heat packs should never come into direct contact with the animal bag/container. 

2. There should always be crumpled newspaper or other packaging material between the heat pack and animal bag/container.

3. Heat pack should never be placed under an animal bag/container, as it will result in high likelihood of DOA.

4. Heat pack should be taped securely to underside of the styrofoam lid. DO NOT cover the red stripe with tape!

5. Failure to comply with the above points will INVALIDATE Live Arrival Insurance.

6. Lastly, we do not recommend heat pack use in any box smaller than the 12x9x6. If you need a heat pack with your shipment, you should use the 12x9x6 box or larger. 

Note: New heat packs are soft and feel like loose powder. Used heat packs are hard. If your heat pack is hard, it has been compromised. Use a different one.

Here is a chart of heat pack surface temperatures for the various heat pack sizes:

PLEASE NOTE – The following non-compliance of heat-pack usage will INVALIDATE any Live-Arrival Insurance purchased:

Using hand-warmers, foot-warmers, or any heat pack with a less-than 40 hour duration purchased in the big-box stores.

Using more than one heat pack in any box smaller than our #5 size. The #5 box may include up to TWO heat packs.

Failure to provide specific ventilation (four quarter-inch holes, two at each end of the box).

Placing the heat pack at the bottom of the shipping box and/or in direct contact with the animal or the container the animal is in.

Attaching the heat pack facing the wrong way or covering the red stripe with tape.

Soak in water for a minimum of 15 minutes, until fully saturated.

Put the cold pack in your freezer, plastic side down, overnight. It should be fully frozen.

Pack your animal, but don’t place the cold pack until you’re ready for pickup or dropoff. This keeps the cold pack frozen longer.

When you’re ready to seal the package, wrap the cold pack in newspaper to absorb condensation. Tape the pack to the underside of the top insulation panel. Make sure there is packing material (usually crumpled newspaper) between the cold pack and the container the animal is in.

No dry ice! Using this site, you may NOT ship a package containing dry ice.

Phase 24 Packs (brand name of some Ph24 packs is Cryopak) are very versatile phase-change material packs that can be used in different ways depending on what you need them to do.

Ph24 packs try to stabilize the shipment at temps between 68°F to 75°F (or approx 24°C, hence the name Phase24). At 72°F, the pack is in a gel-like state (think slushy texture), but when it is below 72°F, it becomes solid and opaque white, and when warmed above 72°F, it becomes clear and liquid.

Over time, a Ph24 will work to regain and maintain its gel-like state at 72°F. When used warm, a Ph24 will try to release heat to get back down to 72°F, and when used in its solid state, it will try to absorb heat to get back up to 72°F. When used at room temperature or in its gel-like state, it will help reduce temperature changes within your box and helps to keep the internal temperature of your shipment closer to 72° than without it. 

 Using a Phase 24 pack when shipping from warm to cold:

They can act as a buffer when used in conjunction with a heat pack, such as for shipments where temps are too warm for normal heat pack use at the origin but you still need a heat pack on the receiving end. While this is a tricky situation, as long as you use a bigger box (~12x9x6 or larger) and your temps are not too hot, placing a solid Ph24 in between the heat pack and the animal will allow the Ph24 to absorb much of the heat on your end where you do not want active heating, while still allowing the heat pack to fulfill its purpose on the receiving end.

●    You can chill a Ph24 by popping it in the fridge (not the freezer) until it becomes solid and opaque.

Using a Phase 24 pack when shipping from cold to warm:

They can be used warm (clear and liquid) to act as a warming element for when you're shipping from cooler temps to hotter temps where the use of a heat pack on the receiving end would be too dangerous.

●   To warm a Ph24, place it in a bowl of warm (not boiling) water until it becomes liquid and clear

Using a Phase 24 pack as a stabilizer:

When used at room temp (~72°F) and the Ph24 is in its slushy form, you can include it by itself in your shipment to generally help keep the temps in the box stable--since reptiles are cold blooded, they absorb any heat change in the box. The pack will then act as an extra thermal mass (basically an extra 'body') so that any heat change can be absorbed across multiple 'bodies' rather than just the reptile by itself.

Tips and Tricks:

●   Once your Ph24 is solid or liquid, depending, that is enough - there is no benefit to making it “colder” or “hotter” and you risk damaging the pack with extreme temperatures.

●   Ph24 packs are quite safe and can be placed anywhere in the box, but should be secured in place in the box wherever you put them - you can even put them below, on top of, or right next to the animal or its container.

●   Multiple packs can be used in a single shipment, and they are generally more effective when used in multiples in larger boxes.

●   Over time and as the Ph24 changes phases, small microtears can happen in the plastic as the solid state packs can have hard and  sharp edges - seal your pack in a zip top baggie before putting them in your box to avoid any leaks in transit! 

Pros and Cons of Phase 24 packs:

PROS:

●   Safe for use with all shipments.

●   Helps maintain steady, stable internal temperatures.

●   No shelf-life or expiration date.

●   They are reusable.

●   They can make the difference between being able to ship or not when dealing with trickier temps. ● They are really hard to mess up.

CONS:

●   They work best if more than one is used. The more used, the more stable the temps. If you only have a few on hand, using a smaller box will help keep the pack more effective.

●   They are not a fix-all and can only help to a limit; more extreme temperatures may simply be too hard to mitigate.

●   They are roughly the size and weight of a 72-hour heat pack and will add weight to your shipment. 

Reach out with any questions or concerns!