07/06/2024
Good morning, friends, I just wanted to take a minute to have a chat about how we can all make life a bit easier for each other. When you find a critter, you think you want for your farm, what are the factors you consider before purchasing them, price, genetics, location, temperament etc.
So, say you have found the perfect critter you can make the price work but it will need transportation and you will not be able to do it, so here is where we come in.
First and foremost, I want to say please ask questions I am happy to give a quote anytime just send me the pickup and drop off cities and what you want to move age and breed so I will have an idea of the size.
I am also super happy to tell you about our methods and give advice based on my experiences.
So, you have picked a critter you got a transport quote checked out the company their website social media whatever looked at the pet transport review page you think you want to move forward your excited about your new critter! So now what do you do?
1. Contact the breeder express you wish to purchase and use transport
1. Make sure they are comfortable with the approximate date and understand that there are many factors that can change it by as much as a few weeks I will list them at the end of this post
2. Make sure they know the animal will need to visit a vet and obtain traveling papers and that this is time sensitive, depending on the state theyβre going to. They may require blood test that take a couple weeks and the paperwork expires after certain amount of time so it needs to be done much closer to the actual pick up date. And that they are willing to do that.
3. Make sure your transporter has the phone number to the Breeder so that they can communicate and coordinate the pick-up and any information the veterinarian may require
4. And last, but certainly not least that they are willing to send enough food with the animal that it can eat on transport. Itβs very important to not change their diet at the same time that they are riding in a trailer across the country
2. Now that youβve had that conversation if itβs been more than 24 hours since you spoke to the Transporter, itβs important to get back to them and make sure that they have the space available on the dates that you discussed prior to purchasing the animal. And then as soon as you do purchase the animal come right back and arrange a transport and confirm that you are on their calendar for my company that means getting a contract signing the contract and then paying a deposit.
1. Please actually read the contract and confirm with them anything that you donβt understand.
2.Please make sure you understand where updates about delays will be posted and feel free to check back with them as much as possible. Pickup date is far in the future.
3, Try to remember that we are all people might be in the middle of a situation that is stressful
So reasons that your date is approximate,
1. When booking out you have to start somewhere so the first date is a complete guess by that I mean, you look at the list of people you are doing and you think oh I could fit you in here.
2. and then if they book you go and try to fit more people in to make that trip work, for my company we have six spaces in our trailer so if you book one, I still have five more to book so it may change your pick up date if I have to pick stuff up before you and it could change your drop off date because Iβll be picking up and dropping off before your drop off. I do my best to stay as close to the line as possible but door-to-door transport that does change things.
3. what weβre transporting changes things if we have bottle babies thatβs a few times a day we have to stop and warm up bottles and feed them if we have those and milk thatβs at least twice a day that we take at least an hour to milk And everybody stall has to be cleaned out occasionally depending on how long theyβre going to be in the trailer if thereβs grown dogs, they have to be walked, etc. all things that we can try to plan for.
4. Things we cannot plan for are traffic, weather, and mechanical breakdowns and I know that sounds crazy but we drive 200,000 miles a year so thatβs 200,000 miles a year that our vehicle and our trailer have put on them so breakdowns happen quite regularly generally we can take care of them very quickly and theyβre not a big deal and occasionally we cannot turn into big deal. Every time something goes wrong that we cannot fix ourselves. We have to find a mechanic thatβs willing to work on our vehicle immediately and they have to find whatever part they need to find and at the same time we still have to care for the animals that are in the trailer.
5. Then there are things we try to plan for we need an oil change every week, the fuel filters have to be changed every two weeks, the air filter has to be taken out cleaned dried oiled and replaced every two weeks, we change the brake pads on the truck and trailer every month, grease everything weekly, besides the other fluids that get changed regularly. A normal vehicle gets driven average 1000 a month, ours is pulling a trailer 16,500 a month so you can image how fast the tires go