Ahhhh... My snake escaped:(

[Jim Smith]

I still don't know how she pulled this off. She's a sub-adult Ghost Honduran milk snake about 3+ feet long and has some good size to her. She lives in an high quality snake cage with no holes large enough for her to escape out of. The last time I actually saw her was two days ago when I took her out to handle her and I know that I locked the cage when I returned her to her cage. Yet, somehow she managed to escape. That gives her two days to find a nice warm spot to play hide and seek with me. If you saw how much "stuff" I have in my man cave, you see what a daunting job this is going to be. I've literally torn my room apart looking for her; all to no avail. It's possible that she crawled out into the house, but there are so many places to hide in my room, I can't imagine she would bother leaving the room. The only two things I know now is

1. She's not in her cage. and
2. I can pretty much tell you where is isn't hiding in my room.

Any hints from others out there that have experienced the disappearing snake act with their reptiles?

[CK SandBoas]

Check any tight, dark and warm spaces.....check by the washer and dryer.....check by the refrigerator.........if you have a basement, tear that apart, because they can and will travel downstairs (speaking from recent experience on that one, lol)

[EL Ziggy]

Good luck Jim, I hope you find her soon.

[sharthun]

Wow Jim! Good luck! Sneaky serpents!

[Kera]

They can most definitely get to the basement. Check beds, under mattresses, under blankets and sheets, in dressers if the drawers were left slightly open, check in dressers anyway, etc. best of luck

[KORBIN5895]

Put a live mouse in a fine mesh cage and place a Gide with a warm spot close.

[Jim Smith]

Korbin5895,

I have a thawed mouse out tonight with a couple of hides covered by a shirt, but I will replace that with a live mouse tomorrow. Thanks for the good idea.

[sharthun]

Keep us posted Jim. ;)

[Starbuck]

Put a live mouse in a fine mesh cage and place a Gide with a warm spot close.

good advice. This is what i did when my carpet escaped....


but beware!! Now i have a pet rat :P (and my carpet was in a completely different room!)

[CosmicOwl]

Are you SURE she isn't in the cage? This sounds silly, but sometimes you really can miss the snake if you don't pull the bedding out and sift though it.

[Jim Smith]

CosmicOwl,

Fair enough question, but unfortunately, yes I am sure she's not in the cage. I took all of her hides and her water bowl out of the cage and combed my fingers through the bedding several times and she's not there. I will keep everyone posted on my progress, but I'm afraid it's going to be a long process to find her. Thanks and please keep the ideas coming.

[Mikoh4792]

What kind of cage are you using?

[CosmicOwl]

CosmicOwl,

Fair enough question, but unfortunately, yes I am sure she's not in the cage. I took all of her hides and her water bowl out of the cage and combed my fingers through the bedding several times and she's not there. I will keep everyone posted on my progress, but I'm afraid it's going to be a long process to find her. Thanks and please keep the ideas coming.

I wasn't trying to insult your intelligence or anything. I just remember when my corn snake was small, I thought he had escaped. Sometimes it's hard to find a snake in a few inches of bedding.

[Sharlynn93]

my lavender corn went missing for a month...we searched everywhere! she showed up on her own in the middle of the living room one evening...good luck!

[Jim Smith]

CosmicOwl,

Believe me, I took no offence and your question was very valid. I've been through that once before with this same snake when she was small. There was a bit of bedding under the edge of her water dish and she had found a way to crawl under the water dish and hide. They can be very tricky. This time, I actually went back and checked in her cage 3 or 4 times, each time combing through the bedding just in case I somehow missed her. That said, she's a pretty good sized snake now and it would be pretty difficult for her to hide in her cage like she did when she was small. Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and well wishes. On a positive note, my wife is being super cool about the whole situation. She even helped look and has agreed to return the snake to her cage if it shows up when I'm not home.

[Primal Rage]

Jim,
I'm very sorry to hear about Spirit. The stress of a missing animal is agonizing. She will likely go for cover first. Was her enclosure near a bathroom or laundry room? I would check areas like those first. Even in cabinets under sinks!

If you were a little closer I would volunteer to come over and help look for her! Please keep us posted and good luck!-Patrick

[Jim Smith]

Patrick,

Thank you the very generous offer, but I'm fairly certain that she'll show up when and where we least expect it. There is one other place I will be checking this afternoon and that's under the two cabinets I have the cages on. They are large and fairly heavy (150ish lbs each) and I have to move all my cages off of the cabinets to move them. I'll post an update when I find her.

[Kera]

Good luck, again. keep us updated

[BIGT FROM F.B.]

You're not even going to believe this, but I had a Ball Python do the same thing. Only difference is, it had the entire downstairs of the house to hide in.

An exterminator told me to get duct tape and lay strips of it sticky side up perpendicular to the walls and also completely across doorways. When the snake changes locations, it will get in the duct tape and become immobile. Then you can use olive oil to remove the tape. Worked like a charm. The only drawback to it was, it escaped in the winter and was out for 2 days. Almost too late when I caught him.

LOL!!! I discovered this trick at 10:30 at night and the only place left open that I found duct tape was the local Chevron. The cashier was like "oooookkkkaaaayyyy, someone comes in here after 10pm and buys all of the duct tape I have. I'm not even going to ask." I told him the story and he was glad he wasn't going to see a kidnapping on the local news!!!

[Jinxygirl]

My corn has escaped twice, the first time I went crazy and searched everywhere for her but had no luck finding her so I gave up searching and decided to just wait and see if she popped up on her own and sure enough she did. She was behind my big wardrobe which I wasn't able to move while I was looking for her. The second time she escaped she actually made it out of our bedroom and I didn't even try searching for her that time and then a few hours later I found her in the bathroom. We live in a 3 story house and I still ended up finding her both times, you will find yours but searching for them just gets stressful and if you keep quiet they will usually come out of hiding. Good luck!

[KORBIN5895]

You're not even going to believe this, but I had a Ball Python do the same thing. Only difference is, it had the entire downstairs of the house to hide in.

An exterminator told me to get duct tape and lay strips of it sticky side up perpendicular to the walls and also completely across doorways. When the snake changes locations, it will get in the duct tape and become immobile. Then you can use olive oil to remove the tape. Worked like a charm. The only drawback to it was, it escaped in the winter and was out for 2 days. Almost too late when I caught him.

LOL!!! I discovered this trick at 10:30 at night and the only place left open that I found duct tape was the local Chevron. The cashier was like "oooookkkkaaaayyyy, someone comes in here after 10pm and buys all of the duct tape I have. I'm not even going to ask." I told him the story and he was glad he wasn't going to see a kidnapping on the local news!!!

This may be the worst advice I have ever heard..... You can seriously hurt your snake this way.

[BIGT FROM F.B.]

Well, it got the job done and made my wife a lot more relaxed. Gotta do what ya' gotta' do sometimes.

[Shann]

Yeah I would never use tape of any kind to trap a loose snake. I've seen too many horrific injuries from tape...

Good luck searching!

[kelzerman]

Idk if you have any boxes around and if you already have not checked look in those.

[smy_749]

lost your snake !!!!! this is how to make a trap - CornSnakes.com Forums (http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78638)

[LarryS]

Sorry to hear this news Jim. Best of luck on a speedy return.

Any idea how the animal got out?

[SnakeyJay]

An exterminator told me to get duct tape and lay strips of it sticky side up perpendicular to the walls and also completely across doorways. When the snake changes locations, it will get in the duct tape and become immobile. Then you can use olive oil to remove the tape. Worked like a charm. The only drawback to it was, it escaped in the winter and was out for 2 days. Almost too late when I caught !!

Lmao- Worst advice I've ever seen unless you want to peel the skin from your snake!

[kelzerman]

Lmao- Worst advice I've ever seen unless you want to peel the skin from your snake!

Not only that I would also be afraid for suffocation. If that tape got around his head. Who the hell would recommend that?!

[Jim Smith]

I think that BIGT suggestion was very well intentioned, but if you consider the source where he got the recommendation, it was from an exterminator. My experience with exterminators are that they are trying to rid the house of any (pests) including snakes and any snake caught in his tape trap would very probably be dispatched by him as a pest. Thanks BIGT, I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to respond to my posting, but I think there are ways to find the snake that are much less likely to result in harming the snake. Thanks again everyone for your kind words, well wishes and suggestions, including BIGT.

[samoothie]

A snake of mine got loose a few months ago. Sadly, we found him dead outside of our garage about a week or two ago, completely clueless as to how he got outside. So check the perimeter of your house, he could really be anywhere.

[BIGT FROM F.B.]

:D:DI think that BIGT suggestion was very well intentioned, but if you consider the source where he got the recommendation, it was from an exterminator. My experience with exterminators are that they are trying to rid the house of any (pests) including snakes and any snake caught in his tape trap would very probably be dispatched by him as a pest. Thanks BIGT, I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to respond to my posting, but I think there are ways to find the snake that are much less likely to result in harming the snake. Thanks again everyone for your kind words, well wishes and suggestions, including BIGT.

Thanks man. Anytime. I've got your back on the next one.....