My snakes are ESCAPE ARTISTS! (story inside)

[xFenrir]

So you might've seen about the story of my Red Tail that decided to Houdini out of her tub and go for a stroll while I was away for the night. It appears she's been conspiring with my Ball Python, because my boyfriend woke me up at 7:30am to show me Loki's tail disappearing under our bedside table! How she did it is a tad of a mystery still, but I think I got the most probable theory: her infared bulb blew out a few days ago so we've been using our back-up bulb, which is white and really annoying when you're trying to sleep. To counteract this, I put a folded up sheet around the front and sides of her tank at night to "dim" the light. It kept falling down last night, so I tucked the edges into the screen top. She can't lift the top, but since the sheet was keeping it up a TINY bit, she could finally wedge her head in between the tank and the top and slowly wiggle her way out! This also means one of two things: she crawled across us on the bed (her tank is at the foot of the bed), not waking us, and fell off the side to get to the floor (also not waking us) OR just fell right onto the floor from the start. Imagining either scenario makes me laugh, snakes are so darn pathetically cute when they fall (and don't get hurt!)

A healthy reminder that just because YOU think your snake can't do it, doesn't mean they won't prove you wrong.

[Xotik]

A healthy reminder that just because YOU think your snake can't do it, doesn't mean they won't prove you wrong.

More than once I've been amazed to find one of my snakes on TOP of her tank, not IN it.

That's awesome, and pretty adorable.

[xFenrir]

More than once I've been amazed to find one of my snakes on TOP of her tank, not IN it.

That's awesome, and pretty adorable.

She was very upset with us for catching her in her bid for freedom; I took her out later that morning and she balled up and huffed at me until I put her back. It seems she's holding a grudge. Although she thought she was big and bad, it just made me go "Aww!" and babytalk her.

[snakesonaplane]

Haha, cute. I was told the same thing by the lady that sold me mine: "oh, just use 4 metal clips for each corner of your tank, that ought to be enough to keep her from escaping". Well, I have horrible insomnia, and luckily woke up at 3am one night to find my ball halfway out of one corner of my tank, with all four metal clips in place. After a series of "hell naw"s, I bought an extra four metal clips to keep her in place. I now have a lot of respect for the fact that balls are constrictors for a reason: they're just long, slithering bodies of muscle. I'm afraid that once she gets larger, I'll have to secure the tank with bricks

[Kinra]

I'm glad you found her, I made the mistake of assuming my snakes couldn't get out of the gap in my rack when I first built it. My butter decided to prove me wrong one night about 2 months after I first put her in it and escaped for a week. >_<

[xFenrir]

I'm afraid that once she gets larger, I'll have to secure the tank with bricks

THAT might not even work; my RTB (who's, granted, a lot bigger, but the size-to-impeding-weight ratio is about the same) got out of her tub that was secured with cinderblocks on top. I was impressed.

[snakesonaplane]

THAT might not even work; my RTB (who's, granted, a lot bigger, but the size-to-impeding-weight ratio is about the same) got out of her tub that was secured with cinderblocks on top. I was impressed.

CINDERBLOCKS? Your snakes are just full of rebellious spirit, lol. What other alternatives are there, then? Surely I won't have to resort to sleeping on top of the tank?

[xFenrir]

I'm glad you found her, I made the mistake of assuming my snakes couldn't get out of the gap in my rack when I first built it. My butter decided to prove me wrong one night about 2 months after I first put her in it and escaped for a week. >_<

I've been lucky so far, every escapee has either been caught in the act or came out of hiding on their own within the first 30 minutes. We might have never found her if we hadn't seen her, we have mice in our apartment (thanks to the lovely neighbors throwing garbage outside the building), so she probably would've followed their scent into the walls and then we would've probably never seen her again. D:

[xFenrir]

CINDERBLOCKS? Your snakes are just full of rebellious spirit, lol. What other alternatives are there, then? Surely I won't have to resort to sleeping on top of the tank?

Maybe those high-tech laser security systems to set off an alarm when one of them pulls a jailbreak?

(As I type this, Loki is nosing around and staring at the top of her tank. But I'm onto her plans now!)

[snakesonaplane]

Haha, those would be a bit out of my budget. I'll probably end up upgrading to 30 metal clips instead

A properly named snake you have, after the god of mischief. Maybe that's why she's such a devious mastermind