Generally speaking I assign ship dates within a few weeks of your order being placed, unless you are ordering from the "Available Now" section of my website. Those will ship on the listed date unless we have discussed alternate arrangements. Once I have assigned a ship date to your order, you will be contacted for confirmation that this date will work for you. Then 1-2 weeks prior to your order being shipped, you will be contacted via email again with any updates and or questions I may have regarding delays or substitutions. At that point, you order will be planned to ship on the agreed upon date. Please remember that these are live animals and everything doesn't always go as planned. On shipping day, if your order ships, you will receive an email confirmation of both the fulfillment of the order and a tracking number. These usually go our between 1-6PM PST on the actual shipping date. Please check your junk mail and "other" folders as these emails often seem to end up there.