Escape and near-tragedy

[Caitlin]

Many thanks to all of you for being so kind and supportive. Miso is still hanging in there; she continues to be engaged and interested in what's going on around her, which is always a good sign, and she's able to get a slightly better grip with her tail.

So, a couple of notes on enclosures. While I will never again use an enclosure with overlapping glass sliding doors for my smaller snakes, I think they are fine for my larger/heavier bodied snakes - though a showcase-style lock is still needed, as snakes are good at pushing sliders open. For anyone considering a PVC with sliders, I would recommend using tempered glass for the doors and not plexiglass. Plexi is too flexible, and besides, over time it tends to develop scratches.

I have a couple of PVC enclosures with grommets set into the back to cover the holes drilled for inserting wires, as well as a couple of glass enclosures with very small holes in the lids for wires. For the PVC enclosures I am now siliconing the grommets in place in a closed position. For the lids on the glass enclosures I used modeling clay to block the holes. At this point I am just not willing to tempt fate by using tape anywhere, not even on the outside of enclosures. The modeling clay has been a useful alternative.

Finally, the snake gods seem to be trying to send me a message. As mentioned in my first post, Miso's escape was my first in many years of keeping. After her escape and accident, I immediately put my other Antaresia into tubs until I could re-evaluate their enclosures for safety. Like so many of us, I have always felt very confident when using the Sterilite gasket boxes with multiple clips. I believed they were escape-proof. Well...the photo below shows what I found a few hours after moving Ozzy, my male Children's Python, into a Sterilite gasket tub with SIX clips. I still have no freaking idea how he managed this, and I'm shocked because for years, I've felt so safe using Sterilite tubs. I am still figuring this one out, but thought I'd share.