How to organize Pet Transport service: Moving with our Turtle

In 2018 we had an opportunity to move from Barcelona to Amsterdam. One of us was offered a great job and we decided to leave Barcelona behind and explore different places.

As we have aquatic turtle our next thinking was how to organize the pet transport service and move our turtle to Amsterdam with us.

We had no idea about transporting a turtle anywhere as we always kept her in her aquarium.

We started to investigate and see if it is even possible. Unfortunately, we could not find any information about transporting turtles and we don’t even think that it has been done before.

For this reason, we decided to write this article for you so if this ever happens to you, you know what steps to follow.

1. Search on the Internet – for a pet transport service

Trust us, we tried very hard and kept searching and searching but nothing to be found on the internet.

Yes, there were many articles about transporting cats and dogs or even rabbits but turtle, not really.

We decided to change our strategy and take another step.

2. Call flight companies – for a pet transport ser

Our next step was to call all possible flight companies and ask about their policy and conditions for pet transport service.

We talked to many, we also read my disclosures and pet transporting guidelines of each company to find out that nobody knows if we can transport our turtle.

At the end we did find out the following:

• KLM flight company doesn’t accept turtles in their flights
• Ryanair doesn’t accept turtles in their flights
• Transavia doesn’t accept turtles in their flight
• Vueling ACCEPT turtles, also rabbits, cats and dogs
• The price for transporting turtle with Vueling was 25 EUR with the same regulations as a small cat or dog under 8kg
• You need to have a special pet transportation cage where the animal can stay during the whole flight

When we knew that there is an actual flight company which will transport our turtle we focus on the next step.

3. Talk to your Vet – for a pet transport serv

The next step was to talk with our Vet for exotic animals. We wanted to know if there are some specific regulations we need for transporting turtle from Barcelona to Amsterdam. 

She was not aware of any regulations to bring such a pet to the Netherlands. She suggested checking with our Embassy in Amsterdam if they can provide more info.

4. Check with your Embassy – for a pet transport service

When we contacted the Spanish Embassy in Amsterdam, they informed us that they don´t have any information about transporting animals. They recommended contacting the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to get further details.

5. Get Pet Passport

Many cats or dog owners already know that they need a pet passport to be able to travel with an animal. In our case, it was the same.

For transporting a turtle we needed an official Chip and International passport for exotic animals.

So we went back to our Vet and asked for Chip and Pet Passport and after some weeks we were able to get both of the documents.

Now we were officially registered owners.

6. Get Ready to transport your Pet

We were ready to transport our turtle to Amsterdam. We had everything needed, the flight company was aware, we purchased a transport cage, we had a passport and chip and official registration that the turtle is ours.

The reactions of our friends and family were different, but most people were just making fun of us that we want to bring a turtle to Amsterdam.

Anyway, we were happy that we were able to take our turtle with us as we consider Burgis (our turtle´s name) as a part of the family.

We hope that we were able to help you with some information on how you can organize a pet transport service and don´t get crazy!

We know more about the transport of exotic animals in general so next time we don´t have to search for all the information.

Do you have any other tips?

Please feel free to comment below or send us an email with your tips or feedback, we will be happy to answer.

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