Quote from: silverbox on May 04, 2012, 04:19:59 PM

Quote from: Satori on April 22, 2012, 09:26:52 PM

ProTip: Platypi hatch from eggs, which are much easier to ship. The eggs take 10 days to hatch.

Sure you could label it some other species and pay for whatever Super Awesome Ultra Deluxe Shipping they have.

My friend loves this idea.

Does the egg need oxygen? or to be a certain temperature? or to have near sea level pressure on it?

Welp, I didn't mean to convey the idea that I'm a Platypus Egg Expert or anything.

As I understand it, eggs don't need oxygen because there's a little air bubble in them at one end. If you think about chicken eggs, you'll get what I mean.

They absolutely need to be kept warm, which is probably the biggest concern. Particularly if you're having them shipped Air, which is the fastest. They'll be at high altitudes and low pressure.

And keeping them free from jostling is going to be important. Label them Fragile, obviously. Someone I was reading online had been shipping chicken eggs using egg carton holders, on the top and the bottom, and with a lot of bubble wrap and styrofoam and tape around that assembly. Evidently they'd been shipped just fine. Of course, he was talking about a percentage of the eggs that made it and lived; keep that in mind in terms of your friend's case with attempting just a single egg. No idea how he managed with the warmth factor, but I doubt he was sending chicken eggs trans-continental over the oceans. It was probably within the same country, reducing both the time in transit and the duration at high altitudes.

I'd think those prolonged chemical warming packs that campers use might be good, but somehow I doubt they'd last for two or three days.

Your friend has a lot of research to do on this before proceeding. I don't have all the answers. I would also think that if your friend isn't willing to do the online research needed first, they probably lack the interest and involvement that's needed to take care of the platypus once it arrives anyway. It would involve quite a lot of forethought, as I'd mentioned before. Any word on how they'd deal with the fact that males are poisonous, in a country where a trip to the vet - or the emergency room if necessary - simply wouldn't be an option for them? Or the unfamiliar germs and virii problem?

Be well,

- Satori