I agree that air shipping, if you can afford it, and deal with all of the requirements and restrictions, would be an excellent 'way to go'; however, I have only had live animals shipped twice-both times with Delta-and both times, they messed up big time, endangering the animals-so am not sure I would try it again. They left a dog crate(purchased by me on the seller's instructions, shipped to her so that they could be properly housed on the trip)of baby miniature African pigs, on the tarmack in Dallas; they were supposed to arrive here at 11 PM, but when I went to the Delta freight terminal--no pigs! After frantic searching, they were found in Dallas, where the freight agent was instructed to at least give them some water(they had a 'cup'). I had to drive back into town to the terminal at 6 the next morning...on the seller's instructions, armed with a thermos of diluted apple juice, with which I filled their cup immediately, on the freight dock-you talk about a thirsty bunch of babies! They all survived, but with no thanks to Delta--the seller, who shipped regularly out of Atlanta with Delta, jumped on them with both feet-they refunded the freight charges, to me, with a letter of apology. Then, several years ago, a friend and I had two Southern flying squirrels flown from Houston-when we picked up the box, properly addressed to us, and labeled as 'live animals', it was MACHINERY!!- and NO ONE knew what happened to the little animals. Again, frantic searching turned them up, and we ended up picking them up in the baggage office at the main airline location....again, both survived(along with three goldfish who came with them in a bag-@ 7 years later, one of those goldfish STILL lives in my horses' water tank!-but again, no thanks to Delta.....!
Margo