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I am sooooo sick.... I can't stop crying

S

Squeaker

My--YoYo
Hi,

I hope that there is someone out there that can tell me what to do. I have had my "Yolanda" (cornsnake) for 4 years now and she is my best buddy. She is soooo healthy and strong, always been friendly and a good eater. She will sit on me for hours. I have been really sick for the last three weeks with a pinched nerve and arthritis in my neck so I have been in a lot of pain. While sitting in my chair this morning, I noticed that she had pooed. I went in and got a paper towel, scooped it up and went to the trash and dumped it. I am on major meds for the pain and am still hurting. I dumped the poop, turned around and told my hubby that I was hurting and going back to bed and went into the other room, forgetting that I had opened the top of Yoyo's tank. I came out an hour later and of course, the first thing I noticed was her lid was off and sure enough, she is GONE. I have been crying for hours and have literally torn this place apart, looking for her. She is 4 1/2' long and if you put your forfinger and thumb together, she is about that big around. Where in the good Lords name could she have gone and me not be able to see her. I am so upset I am throwing up. What if she starves? What if I can't find her? My place is 2,000 sq. ft. and she could be anywhere because most it it is an open layout. What am I to do? I am so worried about her. Of course, being so upset, I am hurting twice as bad. I just don't know what to do. I feel so stupid and so neglegent. I have taken such good care of her and she has been such a happy girl. What if she gets outside? There are so many places she could go. I feel so stupid. I am just sick about this. If there is any way that you know that I can get her back, I would appreciate it. I don't want anything happening to her. Thanks.
 
I would start by staking her out at night. Go back to her room and check every 30 minutes to an hour or so- flip on the lights and watch for movement. Also, search the same areas over and over and over. She's a big snake- it's going to be hard for her to hide from you forever. Check up high, too- shelves, drawers, clothes hampers- everywhere. You'll find her- that's my guess.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that.

First of all do you have other animals like a dog or cats?

if so see if there is some way you can sequester them for a while. They will be the ones most likely to cause your snake harm.

Secondly you probably don't have to worry about your snake starving. Most snakes can go for long periods without food. I wouldn't worry about that for 3 or 4 months.

Do you have carpet or wood/tile floors? If you have wood/tile you can sprinkle some flour across door thresholds to tell you if your snake moves from room to room.

Snakes are going to like somewhere that is warm, dark and snug where they can feel secure. I would suggest buying some glad tupperware disposable containers from the grocery store and cutting a hole in the side and put a lid on them. Make sure they are big enough for your snake. Place these along wall edges and cover with a sheet of paper taped to the outside. Also place these near "warm" locations (near fridges, dishwashers). Take your temperature gauge and find good spots that are 80-85 degrees. place a container there.


If you get desperate after a couple weeks you can get a little more drastic.

Modify one of your containers. Open up the lid and tape a small plastic square over the hole in the side. Tape just the top edge, kinda like a doggie door flap. Make sure you can poke your finger from the outside to the inside, but you can't poke your finger from the inside to the outside. This will trap your snake inside. Then thaw a mouse that you would feed and place it in that container. Leave it near a wall in a warm location.
 
So sorry to hear this, I hope you do find Yolanda soon. You could try a pop-bottle trap with a thawed mouse inside. Cut the top off a pop bottle , invert it so it makes a funnel into the body of the body (with the mouse inside), then tape the top on.
 
When you say you looked everywhere, double check. We had an escape during the summer and looked everywhere, behind the fridge, oven and so forth. We ended up finding her in the sofa. She had found a small opening in the bottom and made herself at home. So check EVERYWHERE and good luck. If you have no other pets I would try leaving a mouse out, see if her hunger will draw her out.
 
Look under warm spots and what not.. Fridge, look in unsuspecting places like a vaccuum cleaner * thanks Stephen, I doubt I would have thought of that..*.. All kinds of places..



Regards.. Tim of T and J
 
So far, no luck..... I am happy to know that she is way too big to get through any of the registers, into the heating. That makes me happy. It is funny how people look at me so strangely to see me so upset over a "snake". Isn't it funny how people can't relate to them as to being part of a family, just like a dog or cat. I am feeling so empty without her. My son has called me several times to see if she has appeared. He has 7 snakes and with the one of his that got away, they found her two weeks later on the ledge of the window on the other side of the house. Funny thing was, the ledge was up in a little window by the ceiling. They were amazed because they could never figure how she got up there, even if she got to the top of the mirror on the dresser. It seemed like the distance from the top of the mirror, to the ledge of the window, way way higher then she was, long. Who knows. My stomach is in knots and every noise I hear, I go on a hunt. My son said to quit looking and when she is darned good and ready, she will come out. I just can't help it. I will look til she is found. Hugs to you all
 
I have had two escapees and both have been found under the fridge. This is a little risky but can be a last resort. You can buy glue traps from just about anywhere. If you put one or two down, you need to be checking them regularly. If you do find her on one of the traps, it may look bad at first BUT there is a quick painless easy way to get her off. Vegetable oil will get them off with two or three minutes. It may take a few scales with it but after two sheds you will be good to go. Again remember that this is a last resort. Just thought I would throw it out there.
 
Instead of glue traps, I would go with masking tape... It's a little safer for the snake- just use vegetable oil to get that off- and there's little danger of ripping scales with masking tape.
 
Thanks for the information. I am watching carefully for her but so far, nothing. I am a reluctant to use any kind of tape to get her. I am so afraid of hurting her, that way. I DID get some boxes and put them by the register to see if she will crawl in them. I will try in a couple of days to put a mouse in there because by then, she should be getting hungry. I miss her so darned much. She was really a big part of my day, since I am retired and home most of the time. I'm so sad.
 
Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! I hope you find her.

And hey, don't feel bad about forgetting the lid. It happens to the best of us. *hugs*
 
I hope your critter turns up for you... You can try double sided tape.. I sort of worked for me once with an escapee.. I knew the animal was around, so I set out out some double sided tape so it stayed in place, she left us a her first and last known shed on the tape.. that was three years ago, and I still have the tape and shed as a reminder for myself to be careful when securing the lids down...

Regards.. Tim of T and J
 
She is too big to fit under a door so I wouldn't worry about her getting outside. I think she is too big for masking tape to hold her back as well. I am confident she will turn up sooner or later, a little hungry but no worse for the wear. I would reccomend putting a trail of toothpicks across all the doorways so if she travels at night you can zero in on her location. Also double check everything that leaves your home (bags,laundry,ect ect) and definitly check any clothes before you put them into the washing machine. Good luck and like I said I believe she turn up soon, she is too big to hide for long.
 
Check all desk or bureau drawers. You swold be amazed at some of the cracks a snake cn get into. I had one of my snakes disappear into a opening in my desk while I was playing with him. He is about as big around as my index finger, but he got into a crack that I couldn't shove my pinkie finger into.

hope you find your friend soon.
 
I've scanned through this thread and it looks like a lot of the most common ways to 'catch' a lost snake have been mentioned.

My snake escaped in my basement a couple years ago and it took a couple months to find him. I tried luring him with food but it didn't work and was frankly just a waste of mice. Instead of food, I would set out a water bowl around where your snake initially escaped so that she has access to water.

The thing I learned from my own experience that stood out to me the most is that snakes don't usually go more than about a fifteen foot radius from where they escape from. That seemed ludicrous to me at first but when we did find him, sure enough, he had crawled probably about seven feet away and hid there--my family and I had spent <i>a lot</i> of time--months--searching the entire house when he had barely moved a couple feet.

Granted, mine got lost in the basement and there weren't many heat sources around to encourage him to crawl very far away. Set up a safe heat source around her cage and put a hiding box on top of it. She will be looking for good places to hide; I can't say for sure if it's better to have a familiar hiding box, but I've heard it is so it's worth a shot.

You should probably focus your search around her cage. I know I'm just repeating people, but make sure you check any heat sources that she may be attracted to--but don't limit yourself. My snake could have found a warm place to hide but he was curled up, freezing cold, in the best hiding place he could find in an attempt to feel secure rather than in an attempt to get warm.

I personally wouldn't try the tape thing, but at the time my snake escaped, I was tempted to put flour on our hardwood floors, especially around the base of doors, so I could track where he was. Instead of dealing with the mess we just covered all the cracks at the bottom of the doors with towels to assure that he couldn't change rooms. He's a big snake and likely wouldn't fit underneath a door, but snakes can do some pretty amazing things.

I hope she turns up soon and I certainly hope that you feel better, physically and emotionally. It must be very hard for you. Don't get discouraged, she'll turn up. :)
 
Thanks so much, Mindfreak and everyone else. As you hopefully have read, after a week, she was found coming back in the house through the doggie door on the porch. Tell me, she doesn't know where she belongs. She is back in her Viv, in blue and getting ready to shed, any time. Then she will be ready for a big meal. Thank you to everyone for all your advice. I am HAPPY again. Hugs to you all.
 
omg i just read the start of your thread and i was panicing for you!!!!

i wouldnt know what to do if mine got out. have 3 cats in the house so my snake wouldnt stand a chance :(

so glad you found it! go sit down with a beer and chill (as much as you can with the pain)

fish
 
Squeaker said:
Thanks so much, Mindfreak and everyone else. As you hopefully have read, after a week, she was found coming back in the house through the doggie door on the porch. Tell me, she doesn't know where she belongs. She is back in her Viv, in blue and getting ready to shed, any time. Then she will be ready for a big meal. Thank you to everyone for all your advice. I am HAPPY again. Hugs to you all.
Click to expand...
Thank goodness! Coming through the doggie door has to be a new one!

I'm so pleased for you that she's back. Don't be too hard on yourself, all's well that ends well :)
 
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