I Have An Escape Artist!!!!

I got my corn snake, Adnama, just over 3 months ago, February 13th, and have had no problems w/ her (I think it's a girl; the tail tapers quickly). She's friendly, a great eater, chill, and no escape attempts that I noticed. I handle her all the time, except just after she eats. Than I was awakened on Monday morning to the next door neighbor mentioning he'd found a corn snake in his apartment... Any guesses who that was? Yup, Adnama. I have no clue how she got out, the aquarium was locked up tight, no tears, no cracks, no breaks, no loose parts, no weak parts, nothing... She does climb along the sides, and I kinda think my brother might have left her free because he felt bad about her doing this, but I don't see how, because I speifically got locks that I felt would keep a snake in and a 6 year old out. I mean, I can barely get in! So, I'm not really sure what to do about it... I can't get a more secure cage, I mean, there isn't anything WRONG with this one. I dunno. My plan is to keep her very well fed so she's not getting into hunting and escaping mode, and hopefully once she grows a little more, she's about 13-14" right now, and her widest part is about an inch, give or take a little. Any other suggestions? She got pretty lucky this time, she got past two dogs and 4 cats escape into the neighbor's apartment, and got lucky that it was a snake savvy and friendly neighbor. To make matters worse, she tried to bite the neighbor. She NEVER strikes! He was good about my cranky escape artist though, thankfully.

Can you post a picture of your tank? If you have a sliding lid tank you have to make sure you here a click as the tabs go over the lid. I know there's small gaps in the back so you can stick a probe thermometer in but they are normally not big enough for a corn to get through if closed all the way. If you have a tank that you have the lid clamped on make sure there's no where you can push the lid up at all. We have a corn that stayed at the top of her tank (around the lip), i worried about her escaping so i put a few extra clips.

As far as trying to bite the neighbor goes she was probably really scared. Make sure you let her settle back in for a few days before you try to feed her again, i'm sure she's very stressed from her big journey.

Oops.... I actually fed her again on Monday evening, she was due for a feeding and I was afraid she would try to get out again if I didn't feed her, she was two days over her schedule already because I went away for the weekend... She ate fine though, and she went to the bathroom on my hand when I took her out tonight, so she digested it just fine I guess... She managed to get three apartments over overnight, I dunno how she did it. I'm just glad it ended well and not in disaster.

I'll post pics up of her tank as soon as I get my camera back. It's a 20 tall Aquarium w/ a snap on lid with locks at either end but not on the front or back. The mesh is welded at each individual corner, so you can't slide it around at all, it's not coming apart anywhere, the lid doesn't bend up or out anywhere... He does hang at the top and climb the sides occassionally, but I discourage that because my cats try to climb up on top of the tank and poke at him. I could get some more snap locks to put around it I guess, maybe that will help.

Yeah that's probably it. If you can lift it up even a cm at any point you need more clips lol. You wouldn't think they were that strong but they can be. I put one clip on each end and two clips on the front and two on the back... and it's not necessarily that he's hungry, they just want to get out and see the world lol...then they get scared of it :P I'm really glad you found him unharmed.

So am I! I still can't believe that she got so far so fast, and past all of our cats and dogs! At least the neighbor didn't freak out, he said he came out of the shower and saw it in his hallway, he thought his son was playing a trick on him w/ a rubber snake until it moved lol. Boy was she angry when I went over to collect her too, if she had arms she would have been sitting there pouting with her arms crossed I think lol. That's a lot less than what I thought, I guess that might be possible somewhere along the cage, I'll definitely get more clips for the front and back.

OK, I now have two clips at the front, two in back, and one at either end. So far so good