Help!

[lanalizard]

my 8 month old snow corns heat lamp made a hole in the top of the plastic screen! now he is escaped!!!
what do i do?

[Classic]

Sorry.
lol!

[Zoe]

- Look in dark and warm areas surrounding the tank and work your way outward in concentric circles. Look under every crack and in every crevasse - a mirror and flash light help very much.

- Didn't find him? No big deal, there are a million places a snake that size can hide. You need to close the door to the room (he's probably still in that room unless it's been a few days since the escape) and make sure all cats or dogs are out of the room. Inside the room, put a head pad on the floor with a hidebox on top of it, and a mouse/rat in front of the hidebox door (preferably NOT on the heatpad. hot mice rot fast) . Leave it there for a few days, he'll get hungry and one of his expiditions he'll come across the mouse, eat it, and decide that the warm hide is the perfect place to chill and digest.

- You can also sprinkly flour or corn starch on the floor to see if he's moving around.

Here are some more links that might help:
http://www.robinsfyi.com/animals/herps/lookingforyoursnake.htm
http://www.anapsid.org/escapedsnake.html

Last of all, DONT WORRY!! Worrying is completely pointless, it won't help you find him faster.

Zoe

[Alan311]

Humm well try to look under stuff because when my snakes get out they dont go far and are always under stuff

[Zoe]

Places I have found escapes snakes:

In the bathroom
In the garbage
On top of my bookcase
Under my bookcase
Under the rad.
In my school bag.

Just to show you that they can go pretty much every and anywhere.

[Steve]

Both my spotted pythons have escaped 2 or 3 times, i found them each time in an 'ad bag' bag within 5 feet of the enclosure. So after the first time i started checking in the bags but still wouldn't find them. But every time so far i'll be sitiing in the living room and notice the bag move 2 or 3 days later and i find them. I've heard of people putting a food item in a paper bag which is on top of a heat pad(make sure it doesn't get too hot). The reason you use a paper bag is so you can hear the snake inside of it and go scoop it up.
Good luck...it will surely turn up when you least expect it

[JeffT]

Why would you have a heat lamp on a plastic lid?

[lanalizard]

why would i have a heat lamp on a plastic lid? because im stupid that is why..it never burned before so i figured it was okay...HOWEVER, i had risen the wattage and forgot to change the cage over and yes jeff its all my fault

[Zoe]

dont beat yourself up. while it was avoidable, it was also an easily made mistake. its very easy to overlook such things when you've never had a problem before.

i think the problem is pretty obvious, no sense in pointing out that enough heat will melt plastic.

zoe

[Lisa]

Maybe we should have a FAQ on what to do when you have an escaped snake. saves the endless repeating.

[yankeefoxtrot]

seems to me it could have all been avoided by gettin a cheep metal screen lid. But what i have dont is set a heat pad on low and put a hide over it and wait a night. i have had good luck with that.

ps. i agree with the new "escaped snake" FAQ, heh

Lucas out

[Zoe]

HOW TO: Find an escaped snake

There are a number of reasons a snake can escape: a weak enclosure, a hole, a lose lid, forgetting to close the lid to name but a few. It's best to try and avoid escapes in the first place by making sure you have a sturdy cage, a tight-fitting and locking lid, and making sure to always close the lid or door.
Though it's always a scary experience, escapes happen to the best of us, and it's usually no big deal unless the snake is dangerous (for example a 15 foot burm, or a venomous snake).

Now, hopefully you've noticed not longer after the escape that the snake (or lizard) is no longer in its cage. The first thing to do is close the door to the room the cage is in and remove all kids and house pets. The snake probably hasn't left the room, and headed directly for warm and dark areas, which is where you want to start looking.
Look in dark and warm areas surrounding the tank and work your way outward in concentric circles. Get a mirror and flashlight so you can see into the smallest, darkest areas. Look under every crack and in every crevasse, you'd be surprised where a snake might go (in the garbage, on top of or under bookcases or desks, under the radiator, curtain rod, behind the enclosure, in a bed or a purse or bag etc). Don't forget to look UP, too! Check cushions for holes in the seams.

Didn't find him? No big deal, there are a million places a snake can hide. You're probably fed up with search by now, and are out of places to look. The snake probably won't come out with all that comotion anyway. Inside the room, place a head pad on the floor with a hidebox or paper bag on top of it, and a mouse/rat in front of the hidebox door / paper bag(preferably NOT on the heatpad. hot mice rot fast). Paper bags are helpful because if you're close enough, you can hear the rustling and grab the snake right away. Leave it there for a few days (but check a few times a night), he'll get hungry and one of his expeditions he'll come across the mouse/rat, eat it, and decide that the warm hide is the perfect place to chill and digest.
Another idea similar to this is to take a relatively big cardboard box, poke some holes in it and cut a large (big enough for the snake) hole near the top. Place the food item in the box, and place the box near a heat pad. The snake, when hungry, will enter the box, eat the food and might be unable / unwilling to leave the box.

If you've got nothing to do that night, you can try crinkling up plastic bags and laying them in the room (near the walls is you best bet) and sit near the dark, quiet room, and wait. Snakes often travel along the wall at night - even diurnal snakes - and you will hear the snake if it does. Have a flashlight and handy, and as soon as you hear a bag rustling turn on the flashlight and take a look.

If you see the snake, DON'T jump after it! It will just slither away before you can catch it. Aproach it slowly, and you should be able to pick it up. If you can't catch at, at least you know the area is in and can place a box with a mouse/rat inside about where you saw the snake, leave, and come backin an hour or two to check.

Leave the snake's cage open, he may very well return there. You can also enter the room quietly in the middle of the night (or during the day if the reptile is diurnal) with a flash light; the snake might be out and about.

If you aren't sure the snake is still in that room (even you think he might be - it never hurts to do this!), sprinkle flour or corn startch across doorways, hallways etc to see if he's moving around the house.

----

Even though escapes are completely undesireable, you need to learn for the experience. How did the snake escape? Loose fitting lid? Hole in the cage? Forgot to close the cage? Remember that bricks or heavy books aren't suitable to hold down lids because all a snake needs is a little give, and they can force their way out. Tight bungee cords work well, but proper, locking lids work best. Once you know what the problem is, fix it! If your snake is escaping on a regular basis (ie more than once!) then there is something seriously wrong. Just because you found your snake every time it escaped, doesn't mean that the next time it escapes it won't find a hole in the wall, or an open window, or a cat or a bird.






Okay, what do you all think of that? Give me any suggestions/additions and I'll edit my post, then we can ask a mod to make a new thread in the HOWTO forum :) :)

Zoe

[Samba]

Zoe it's nearly perfect, aside a few typographical errors (hey we all do that anyways). One point though: The starch/flour solution won't work if the majority of the house is carpeted. I was wondering if anyone had a solution for that? In all my years of herp keeping I've only had one (or two?) animals escape, and my Tiger Salamander was one. (Boy, they don't look it, but they are smart!) I ended up finding him (who knows how he removed himself from a 10 gallon tank!?) underneath the dresser the tank was on. I didn't even know he was gone until I saw him waddling across the floor!

Good ideas though! You should make one for each gengre. (amphibians, lizards/geckos, snakes, turtles-*though I can't say I've ever heard of one escaping*etc.) =D

[reverendsterlin]

Trace, look under your other tanks in the room, that and the top of the closet are where I've found most of mine. Good luck hon. Luv, Rev

[lanalizard]

im not trace, im krissy

[Zoe]

Yeah, I make lots of typos. I'll go over it and fix it some day :)

I guess you could put some string across a doorway, it would get pushed aside if the snake went across it.

Zoe

[Lisa]

One trap I'd suggest is somthing like a bucket that the snake can't get out of, which is easy for a small snake. make a ramp so the snake can get in. take a pinkie and chop the nose off it. drag the pinkie up the ramp so the snake has a trail to follow and dump the pinkie in the bucket. wait.

[reverendsterlin]

oops sorry hon, I knew that by my records lol, bad rev, bad, bad rev.

[lanalizard]

lmao its okay rev..