ESCAPEE or HIDE LOG HORRORS?

First of all- look under everything. Anything sitting on the floor. Follow the walls. Look in the evening when babies are more likely to be active. Set tape traps using blue painters tape, set in coils, along the walls.

Sorry for your loss and the scare I'm sure your having of losing your first snake. Think of it as a learning experience/growing experience if you don't find her, but definitely don't give up. I read this suggestion somewhere once and maybe it will help you. Take a soda pop bottle and cut the top off insert a mouse into the bottle and invert the top of the bottle into the base of the bottle so the snake can crawl into the bottle tape this up so it does not separate and place along the edges of your wall and in dark places in the room you lost your snake in. Hope everything works out for you.

Another escape story

Well, at least this one had a happy ending.

On November 28, I finished feeding one of our male Okeetee's
and put the lid on his 70 gallon habitat.
This was an aquarium that I had a screen built for the top, with a piece of 1/4" glass and a 3' flourescent light on top of that.

We get up the next Morning and sometime during the night our snake jumped ship. He had to of pushed the lid up and escaped to who knows where. I tore this house up looking in every closet, room, shelf, under all the appliances, boxes etc.
This house is a huge single story ranch and we looked everywhere. We put down traps, flour, water, mice all to no avail.

I thought he went out the Dog door and with tempuratures dipping to around Ten degrees I quit looking after about a Month.
I was sick with dread never thinking I'd see him again. A beautiful 4.5' Okeetee.

Fast forward to February 8th, we were looking at one of our other snakes and my wife looks down and sees a head sticking out from under one of the other Vivs.
I picked him up and put him in a secure tub gave him some water, bedding, a hide and heat. He drank for about Five minutes, We waited a few hours and offered him a Fuzzy and he woofed it down so All seems well.

I guess the lesson here is never assuming the habitat is escape proof and these guys are strong. He was within 5' of where he originally escaped, One of my main concerns was him being able to find water. He must have been drinking from the Dogs water at night.
I've heard of them being able to go without food for almost a year but I'm not sure how often they need water.

Another lesson I learned was don't give up. A friend had a King
and he put it in the tub for a bath. The phone rang and when he got back the snake had gone down the drain.
it was a septic system so he never thought he'd see it again.
A Month later he sees the snake in his back yard so it had to have crawled up a roof vent onto the roof and down to the ground.

Sorry this is so long but I had to share the good news!
These guys are amazing animals.

I'm glad you found him!
I built a new background for our 90gal viv. Spent 3 weeks working on it and tonight was the night we put it in the viv. Spent an hour cleaning and re-arranging hides, etc. and boy, was it well worth the effort. Looked great. Noticed our snake was climbing up the artifical rocks, but the screen was pretty secure with two sets of clamps, two massive cans plus two potted plants. SO I thought....
Went out for 2 hrs, came home and went straight to the viv to check in.
No sign of Redneck. The snake was gone. Somehow, "Houdini II" has managed to get out of the tank. Pushed the screen up and off she went.
We have one of those 'horror' log hides, which is also our snakes fav. place. SO I rip it apart, as well as the rest of viv. Thankfully our living room is fairly clutterless, so I took the flashlight and started to look in every nook and cranny.....Deja vu.

Long story short, I found her in about 20min. Where? Half way up our 10' vaulted living room window sill.

Lets just say my masterpiece background is no longer in the viv. Until we Houdini proof this tank, likely with bricks since it doesn't seem we can secure this screen top, back to the boring old safe setup. I'm almost ready to chuck this whole tank out the window and fork out some more dough and get new 'snake proof' tank(s). And since I plan on investing in a black rat, I think option B is more likely

I'm happy to hear you found him so soon. 20 Minutes of panic isn't so bad.
Mine was gone over Two months. Now I'm short another Viv. I'm not sure
what kind to try.
I have the large Exo Terra's and never had an escape and I thought that a large aquarium was secure but these guys are amazing escape artists.

I'm thinking of a large Penn plax or vision

Zilla Critter Cage.

Our first corn went MIA after having her only a week. Brought her out for a minute, changed her water then put her back and closed the viv. Came back 5 minutes later and she was gone. Never saw her again...

I was clearly over-confident of the "security" of our 90gal. The screen seemed tight, especially with the clamps, cans and two plants. I've spent the morning reading up on DIY viv projects. I'm thinking I will thrift shop a dresser, re-finish it and create a large, custom viv. I'd rather drop a few hundred making something stellar then buying another basic setup. This way I can hopefully make two viv's with one stand so I have room for another snake ..Well see how this goes.... lol

Why not get a PVC enclosure? You could get one made for a corn for REALLY cheap! This is where I got my boa's PVC enclosure, completely escape proof and I love it! And the best part is you can stack enclosures...for when you need MOAR SNAKES!

A 3' x 2' x 1' is $235 + shipping, and I think you can even get cool LED lighting from him as well. Heating might be extra as well, but either way, COMPLETELY worth it and sooooo easy to clean. He'll do custom sizes as well if you think the 3 footer is too big. He's a great guy to deal with.

http://www.cornelsworld.com

I remember having my little pencil sized corn for a little over a week.. So I went to go hold my little guy and I couldn't find him!!! Being a new snake owner, I didn't really want to get bit because I thought, oh, he's under his aspen. So I took this cactus log I had and was digging around in the substrate. I had taken out everything and was starting to cry. I went running down stairs and back… Well… I found him… In that log I had been pushing everything around with… Needless to say, that log was taken out immediately!!!

Wow.....well I left Crescents door open last night for about 15 minutes, I was so relieved when I found him still asleep in his log. WHEW ~

You dodged a bullet on that! Once, someone(no one confessed) decided to put my cage clips for my Ball python on the back of his tank… They were useless in that spot, it opened like a box! Thank goodness he hadn't decided to try to get out!

Slinky'sMommy said:

You dodged a bullet on that! Once, someone(no one confessed) decided to put my cage clips for my Ball python on the back of his tank… They were useless in that spot, it opened like a box! Thank goodness he hadn't decided to try to get out!

Click to expand...

Well you dodged the bullet too, I agree, I was lucky.

My baby garter got out of the 5 gallon version of the Zilla cage originally discussed.

I believe he wedged his head through the notches at the back that are for, what hanging a water bottle, or allowing for electrical cords? He managed to bend the plastic enough to get out, then tried to go back in (because he met the dog, possibly) and was stuck with his head in and and his body out. He'd thrashed and pooped, and was probably stuck for 10 or more minutes until I walked through the room and saw him. Fortunately he wasn't injured, and now, a month or so later, is eating well and about to shed.

I folded packing tape over both the notches, and he has not escaped since. Whew. I swear, the cat is just WAITING for him to escape.

~SM 0.0.1 Butler's garter (my "starter" snake, perhaps)

You might want to use aquarium silicone or hot glue over the notches. Tape is never permanently secure.

Thank you, Nanci, I will look for a more permanent solution than tape! I'm a zoo docent and handle snakes for educational programs, but this garter snake (Kyle) is the first snake I've ever taken care of at home.

The small slits could easily be filled with aquarium silicon, but my tank also has inch long notches like so: \______/ on either side, in the plastic tank edging, just to the right and left of the tiny "cord" slits. I'm not sure if Kyle "remembers" getting stuck, but he hasn't seemed to try getting out that way again, and in fact, now that he's used to his viv, he seems content. He's eating euro worms with no hesitation, doesn't even hide from us while eating anymore, and has climbed up my arm to come out a time or two. He loves window sills and hates the smooth plastic bin we keep handy in case he gets too wiggly to hold onto.

(Although he had milky eyes and has been hiding for the past several days, so we're not handling him now, waiting for shed - it's funny, but he really has a kind of "body language" that tells me if he's receptive to being handled or really not receptive at all. He's just darling).

~SM 0.0.1 Butler's garter snake

He remembers. Once they find an escape route, they never forget.

I've kept mine in regular fish tanks. Never really decided to go on and spend so much on a Zilla. Except the first time though. But even then I didn't like the top on it.

It's this one:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pet-Select-Deluxe-Screen-Cover-1-Ct-Fish-Aquatic-Pets/10324371

Never failed out on me at all. Never had an escapee with that top. It has different size clips and the clips get bolted on so only way to get the top off is to use a screwdriver..

Out of curiosity, what about just simply grabbing a branch from a tree and dropping it into the tank??

Just making sure it's not cedar though?

jayocampo88 said:

Out of curiosity, what about just simply grabbing a branch from a tree and dropping it into the tank??

Just making sure it's not cedar though?

Click to expand...

A) Not everyone can just pop outside to grab a tree branch (live in flats in cities etc etc).

B) You'd have to really sterilise the branch to make sure what you're bringing in isn't carrying any bugs or anything that could harm your snake.

B ii) On that note you may want to make sure the branch doesn't have any sharp breaks etc that can catch on the snake to harm it.

Whilst it's a great idea I feel it's only a great idea if you can make sure you can do it without putting the snake at any risk... and some people prefer the fake, easy to clean decos that aren't the dreaded log

Possible new "Hide Log of Horrors"....although this is more a tree, so "Hide Tree of Horrors?"

I wanted to get Starfire's (my new opal who will be coming in the mail to me on Aug 20th) cage all set up waaay ahead of time. I already have small frozen pinkies in the freezer (yes i know to wait a week before touching/feeding her).

I went to Petsmart and saw this cute little bonsai tree. Brought it home, and was looking it over....and I could see this nice lovely spot a baby corn could easily get itself stuck. The "tree of horrors" has been returned, but I thought you guys would like to see it (and my solution)

Here's the tree...looking all nifty and has built in hiding spot, looks all nice for a baby snake.



Only, when flipped upside down, something just doesn't look right. (this is up and inside the hide) Look by the white plug in the center of the photo.







From what I can tell, that pathway goes all of the way up into the tree, and therefore you'd basically need to destroy the whole decoration to get a potentially stuck snake out.

Here is how I resolved the issue (after returning the horror tree)

I found a similar one in the aquatics department. Now, there was a very large round opening at the base (and a small tiny hole). .25 cents at Micheals and some hot glue - problem solved (I closed off the hole with a wood disk and closed off the tiny tiny hole with plain hot glue). After the glue dried, I tried to pry it off - no way is the disk coming free.

New Tree:



Fixed Tree: