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This was bound to happen sooner or later...

S

simple_minded

New member
I've read a lotta posts about people losing their snakes, I guess I just never thought it would happen to me.

This morning I checked in my hatchling's tank, and she was nice and curled up in her hide. Then when I came home... she was nowhere to be found. I turned over all the bedding.. nothing. I have her in a reptile viv with a slide on screen lid and I even "locked" it with a paper clip so there's really no way she could've gotten out...

Anyways.. I just got her last saturday. She's pretty young, maybe a foot long. And I haven't fed her yet(was gonna feed her today... but then she escaped).

I'm kinda worried because she's going off on an empty belly. Also, I'm gonna try to bait her with some food. Do you think I should use live or f/t pinkies? I dunno if the sound/movement of a live pinkie might attract her more? But then it's kinda cruel if she doesn't come out and the pinkie's just left there to die slowly...

Ahhh I'm so frustrated right now! I'm going to go look for her again for the 100th time...
 
use a dead pinkie, and do the 2 liter pop bottle trick and put the mouse in there. Also put a heatlamp over the bottle. You can also place flour or sugar on the floor so you can see if it slithered through (it will leave a track). Another trick is to lay plastc bags around the room, and if it slithers over them, it will make a crinkeling noise.

Good Luck!
 
Encase you were wondering, the pop bottle trick is:

cut the top quater off the 2l bottle, put the pinky inside, put the top back on, but turn it round the other way (so the neck is facing inwards) and tape or clip it on. the idea is that the snake slithers in, eats the pinky, and cant fit back out. i think the neck might be too big any way, so he/she will probably still be able to slither back out any way, but she/he will probably be too full to try!

also try slitting the pinky's back so it bleeds, and cover the bottle with black paper or somethin, so its nice and dark! (the idea of slitting it is so that it lets off more smell)
 
don't worry, i lost my zigzag snow once as a young one, he was gone for nearly two months! ( big house) one day i saw him just cruising along the floor,and scooped him up...
ate real well that nite!
 
I just lost my first hatchling the other day. I ended up baiting with a f/t pinky in each room and he ate the pinky in one of the guest rooms. Afterward he headed to the closet to hide in the dark under some luggage. We found him there. It doesn't take much for them to smell a mouse, even a small one. Don't give up. I found him in two days. He's now back in his enclosure which is taped clipped and has books on top! He's not getting out again!
 
I would suggest using many clips on the cage next time. I have 6 metal clips on my 5 1/2 gallon for my hatchling. I can't even lift it off, so I know she can't. I believe it is better to have too many, than not enough and then having to try and find the snake, especially since I live in a college dorm.
 
Still no sign of her...

Right now I have a warm hide on the floor in my room with a pinkie near it where she got out and I've set up bottle traps with pinkies in the bathrooms and the guest room. I can't leave water on the ground 'cause the dogs'll make a huge mess, so I'm just going to leave the door to my shower open.

But my house is pretty cold right now, so I'm worried that she won't want to eat. I'm gonna try to turn on the heat tomorrow and see if she's going to go hide near one of the heaters.

I know there's no use worrying... she either shows up or she doesn't. I've searched every single nook and croony of my house at least 5 times and I'm beginning to realize just how easy it would be for her to disappear into the walls or into a pipe somewhere. This is really quite upsetting...
 
My house was cool too, I wouldn't worry about it. The air conditioner is on constantly right now so it doesn't seem to matter. I didn't have a warm pad either, just the pinky in a container and he still ate it cold. Mine went as far as another room across the hall from the snake room. I'm not sure if he went into a floor vent either and then came back out. My air and heating vents are in the floor. I have that covered in the snake room with screen now.
 
my snake escaped three days ago but just realised today, luckily i had a pinky in the freezer, so i mede the bottle trap, the smell of the pinky must of attracted him, coz he came straight out from were he was hiding, he back in his old tank now so i can fix the one he escaped from.
 
forgot to mention, i live in britain, so imagine how cold his three nights of freedom were! just gotta search for that poo now, coz i fed him last week and he didnt poo in the tank, so there is snake poo in my bedroom somewhere. . .:sidestep:
 
Since you are sure he could not escape, did you check inside any piece of decoration he might have in his viv? Cause I had a corn once scaring me to death hiding in a fake rock out of view........
 
thanks for the replies guys. It's been more than 48 hrs.. still nothing. I'm just wondering.. how long can I leave the pinkies out for? they haven't started to stink yet, thank god, but I don't have an infinite number of pinkies to keep supplying my traps.

I hope she comes out soon to look for food or water. I've actually lost newborn baby garters in my house before, and they eventually all turned up. But for one of them it was too late, and it died within an hour after I found it. I hope that wont be the same case here...
 
I changed the pinkies daily. I don't think they are good after a day in my opinion. It's worth the small cost of a pinky a day to find it to me.
 
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