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Can I ship live animals with Pirate Ship?
Can I ship live animals with Pirate Ship?

Pirate Ship does not support shipping live animals like bees or day-old chicks, so you'll need to go to the Post Office or The UPS Store®

Updated over a week ago

Shipping Live Animals with USPS

While USPS allows for the shipment of certain live animals like bees and day-old chicks, Pirate Ship unfortunately doesn't offer the Special Handling services you need to ship them in accordance with USPS policy 😔

Properly shipping live animals like bees and day-old chicks

Due to their fragile nature, you must declare any shipments of bees and hatchlings as “Live Animals” prior to creating labels. This allows USPS to properly identify and flag these shipments for Special Handling. You’ll also need to be aware of certain guidelines and conditions, which include:

  • What service you use to ship (for example, a queen honey bee gets to enjoy the regal benefit of air-based services like Priority Mail, while her royal subject drones can only go via ground service 🐝)

  • Avoiding temperature extremes which could harm the animals, restricting shipping them to certain months of the year, and shipping only during certain periods of their life cycle (e.g., chicks must reach their destination within 72 hours of hatching - so you may want to opt for an overnight service like Priority Mail Express 🐣)

  • Special Handling fees that will apply

To ship live animals with USPS, you need to go to a Post Office

Sorry we can't help you out with this type of shipment 😢 But to make sure your animals remain safe, you'll need to go to your local Post Office to purchase the postage.

Shipping Live Animals with UPS

While UPS allows you to send certain types of live animals, you can't use Pirate Ship to purchase UPS labels for these shipments 🙈 Due to our contract with UPS, sending live animals through Pirate Ship will void any liability coverage and may get your account restricted.

Outside of Pirate Ship, here are the types of animals UPS accepts:

  • Amphibians (All) – Examples: frogs, salamanders, toads

  • Cephalopod (All) – Examples: squid, octopus, nautilus

  • Crustaceans (All) – Examples: crabs, crawfish, lobsters, shrimp

  • Fish (All)

  • Insects (Limited to beneficial insects only) – Examples: bees, butterflies, crickets, ladybugs

  • Mollusks (All) – Examples: clams, mussels, snails

  • Reptiles (Limited to the following): Lizards, such as chameleons, geckos, iguanas, monitors, and flying dragons

  • Turtles, such as freshwater turtles (excluding snapping turtles), land tortoises, and sea turtles

  • Worms (All)

NOTE: If you need to send one of the live animals listed above, we recommend creating an account with UPS and contacting them in regards to any special handling your shipment may require 👍

Also, UPS carrier liability does not cover shipments containing live animals, since UPS considers them perishable commodities. UPS says the following regarding not providing coverage for live animal shipments, which you can read here:

"Any package containing a live animal shall be considered a perishable commodity and will be accepted for transportation solely at the shipper´s risk for any damage or loss arising from the perishable nature of the item. UPS shall not be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages."

Additional Resources

Have any questions? Feel free to chat with our support crew for a helping hook 😎

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