Lost and Found

On another thread I posted someone warned me that if my little Riley could get all the way up too the lid, he could probably get out too. . .too late :bang:

We went away for two days and came back to an empty tank - which of course had my husband standing on a chair whining like a little girl My mother-in-law had no intention of going anywhere near the cage, so she had no idea how long he'd been out. We looked all day yesterday and no Riley. I didn't actually have much hope of finding him given the size of the house vs. the size of the snake. . .

Right before we went to bed I gave one more look to the tank and my husband saw his tail sticking out from under the tank. He'd crawlen under the tank between the tank bottom and the sticky heating pad. Our 55 gallon tank weighs about 100lbs and Riley had really gotten himself stuck to the heat source, so I ended up having to pull him out forcefully, being as gentle as I could.

As you can imagine, it did not make me the most favorite person in the world to Riley. . .

I filled all, even the littlest, holes in the tank lid and hinge with black electrical tape (sticky side away from the snake) and anchored the flaps down with 18 gauge wire. Will the electrical tape hold or do you think he'll figure out how to get it off? Can you think of any other way he might have worked his way out?

Also, two or three of his scales were pulled by the sticky on the heating pad. No blood or anything. Will this hurt him? As I said, I'm not his most favorite person right now, so I don't want to disturb him if I don't have to but I also don't want to risk his health.

I'd appreciate any input you can give me. :shrugs:

i wouldn't worry about the scales. One time my little brother got my african house snake out while i was a school and he let her crawl into one of his toy trucks. Well he realized where she was going and he yanked her out. She lost some scales, but she was fine. We just let her be. When the scales came back they were blackish instead of brown, but i don't think it upset Slithery too much. :shrugs: I don't really know about the cage problem. My cornsnake, Jack, is too lazy to try to escape so i haven't had your problem. Good luck though

for the missing scales you could just rub some antibiotic loation on it and then keep him on paper towles unti they heal.

Thanks! :cheers: