AWOL Snake was Found!

[pretends2bnormal]

Back in December, I bought a fantastic gray banded kingsnake. Super docile and not at all a problematic feeder (unlike what I've heard some people say). We had Ash for about 1 shed and 3 meals before we went in to check him and found him completely missing in mid-January. Pretty shocking since we had kept and grown out a corn snake in the exact same bin with no escapes that had started at half his weight (6g vs the king's 12g). We honestly still don't know how he got out. Holes were less than half his head size, no gaps along the top of the bin (very tight shelf on that diy rack), and the bin was not pushed too far back or left open at all.

Pic:


Anyway, he went missing on January 11th weighing only 12 grams. By March when our looking and food/water enticing with flour lines at doorways failed, we were pretty sure he either escaped the house or had died (dehydration, not starvation). He was very small and I had thought lack of water would have done him in honestly.

Today, we were working on cleaning up our game room to swap things around and set up a reptile room there and found a shed while vacuuming. We thought it was odd. It was too small for most of our snakes, and the ones it wasn't too small for had been fed earlier today and had never been in that room. Nor had any trash bags broken open for it to just be an old shed... it had to be our missing snake!

Sure enough, about 1 foot from there when we picked up this leather cube side table, we found a very very skinny but ALIVE Ash. Picked him up, set him up in a lidded bin with holes a fourth as big (aka TINY, smallest drill bit in the set we have) and binder clipped the non latching sides together. He is NOT escaping us again.

Here he is today, getting a well deserved and much needed drink:


We went ahead and offered him the smallest pinky we had, so he's got that in his belly in the above pic. His head is unfortunately very noticeable from his neck which isn't good proportions for a king. And looks quite skinny overall. Don't have a good shot of that head and I'm letting him settle and digest now.

I think he'll pull through as long as he doesnt regurge this first meal. He's still acting quite normally, took the food straight off the tongs, and went to take a big drink.

For anyone else that loses a snake, especially a small one, they really do have a way to surprise you long past when you think they can be found alive.

Ours even had a nearly perfect shed after months being missing (head part was torn off of the body, but otherwise completely intact). I thank our several fishtanks bringing up ambient household humidity. (Most rooms read 40-50% with hygrometers despite being in North Texas)

I'll post updates as he recovers from his months of hiding in our house.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Bogertophis]

That's WONDERFUL news, wow! Especially for him, it doesn't look as though he caught any food during his camp out.

Many years ago, I had a hatchling albino california king get loose from a store-bought terrarium with a sliding screen lid. Turns out the lid had just enough
room with the locking pin in place to allow that tiny king to escape thru the track next to the screen slider. Fortunately I found her that same day, hiding in
a boot in my closet, silly thing.

With some rest & food, hopefully Ash will be just fine. Sure is a pretty little thing!

[RickyNY]

Holy cow! You found him right on time, a little longer and you would have found a dead snake.
I'm happy for you.

[Rodop]

Oh geez! Good thing you found him inside! I think there was another story on here recently where someones' cornsnake or kingsnake got out and they found them outside, in a mower of all things!
Anyways...
Is the current bin he is in temporary? As in, he'll be living in it for the next month or so before being moved to something else? Or is it hard to judge for right now?
And as someone who is interested in owning more snakes in the future, is your Fort-Knox-of-a-setup something you would suggest for baby kingsnakes/milksnakes?

[Reinz]

What a great story, congrats!

[pretends2bnormal]

It looks like a really small bin, but it's actually a 12 or 16 qt bin (I forget which). I would definitely suggest a latching bin with very tiny (but tons) of air holes for any baby colubrid (corn, king, milk, etc.) The binder clips might be overkill, but I'm not taking chances with this guy. Probably not a bad idea for <25g kings or milks and certainly won't hurt anything.

He will probably stay in that bin until he gets to probably 30 or 40 grams. (Or big enough I'm confident he can't escape out of a divided T8's vents or between sliding glass) I haven't weighed obviously, but i suspect he is 6-9 grams right now from the 12 he escaped with. I might upgrade him to a 28qt before the T8, but it's in use for another snake right now. Depends how my reptile room conversion project goes how soon it might be honestly... we'll see....

I honestly think he got into the vent under the A/C where the returns are for the last 2 to 3 months of winter and brumated until maybe a month ago. It looks like he was looking for a way out the door to outside 3 feet from where we found him. Very lucky that we found him today before he escaped or died..

We're so happy.



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[pretends2bnormal]

Grabbed a few pics since I can't stop checking he hasn't disappeared again.

A better pic of him since he was exploring the bin.



And what my bin securing job resulted in.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Bogertophis]

I totally "second" the binder clips! I always used them when I brumated colubrids in plastic containers, as they have enough flexibility to allow
determined snakes to squeeze through...and the snakes either escape, or get very injured trying.

[pretends2bnormal]

My preferred bin is the 32 at bin you can sorta see behind that one. It's got 6 latches, 2 per long side and one on each end. Plus a foam gasket and quite rigid lid. No concern of escapes there at all as long as the air holes are small enough diameter. It's a sterilite that I've only seen at 2 or 3 local Targets (out of 6 or 7 I've been down the bin isle in).

Here's an old picture of one of them. (Not the bin Ash escaped from)


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Craiga 01453]

What an awesome story to start my morning!!!