Last night's and this mornings adventue

[Boarder4l154]

So I went home last night after work, and remembered it was feeding day. I got a mouse from my colony {ha, its just one pregnant female now} and gave it to Ror cuz hes a brat and will only take live... anyways, I go back down to the kitchen and start defrosting a mouse for my female who'll eat anything put in front of her. All I usually have to do is open up the cage dangle the mouse for a second, and bam.... this time no bam. So I do the zombie dance for maybe five minutes and still nothing... Thats when I opened the cage and expected it to find I had an escapee. My heart sank, and I started sweating bullets in .00001 seconds. I looked around at the disaster area that was my room where my snakes are and dredded going through everything. I turned everything in my room upside down 5 times over... my bed, dresser, piles and piles of clothes, everything. It seemed hopeless cuz I could imagine loosing 100 snakes in this mess and not find one. It was a snake paradise... I was up till 3am last night searching for her, but to no avail. I left the f/t mouse in her cage with the lid cracked in case she was close enough to smell dinner.

Woke up this morning, cage still empty, mouse still there. The search continued to into the other rooms of the house... yes, my door was open when she got out.... so I moved the bed and furniture in 3 other rooms to no avail. By this time the whole house looked like a tornado had gone through and I still had yet to find my snake. I was about to put flour all over the place, "scent" the walls with mice and leave hides with f/t mice in them in hopes that I could catch her. I decided to check the hallway closet for the 100th time... and when i moved our fire safe, there she was, under the safe just chillin. And I do mean chillin... she was sooo cold, when I picked her up she wrapped her whole body around my arm to get some warmth... at least she still had her strength. after that it was back into the tub where she gobbled up a freshly prepared f/t. and I was off to work with the worst excuse for being late ever.... maybe I should have said my dog was lost instead of my snake? the looks I got from my boss ALMOST made it all worth it. No not really, I almost had a heartattack... Thanks for listening to my rant, everythings cool now.

p.s. I duct taped her cage shut for a quick fix while I'm at work, I'll be running by office depot for some clips on my way home, hopefully she won't ever have a repeat performance

[Adam_Wysocki]

Good catch Brad!!! .... Keep her nice and warm for a while.

-adam

[cassandra]

God, /big hugs...I hopehopehope Cleo never escapes...your description of Escaped Snake Panic (ESP! another snake owner syndrome!) had my heart going...glad you found her safe, if cold, and sound. Poor thing!

[$nake$]

Oh my! That would be terrible If any one of my snakes escaped on me! I just can't imagine it
But it is very good that you found her and she's still alive.
P.S. did she ever eat?

[Boarder4l154]

Thanks for the support guys.... In hindsight my room is actually somewhat cleaner now that I had to throw everything around looking for Ms. Houdini. And yes, she did end up eating... I wasn't sure if she would or not after her adventure, but there were no signs of it this morning. However one of the first times I fed her after I got her she managed to not only not eat the f/t mouse, but hid it under her substrate so I thought she had eaten. It took me a week to find it... well smell it, and I still have nightmares of that smell.

[joepythons]

I am glad you found her .I still have a corn snake escapee in our home or outside .It will be 3yrs this spring.I've never found any signs of her not being alive(no body).

[iceman25]

Glad to hear that you managed to find her!

[Chad Schwinn]

Brad,



I'm with you on the sweating bullets and "snake's paradise". I have a moderately sized collection that is housed in my basement. I purchased some new tubs for a rack I had been using for a year or so and cleaned them out and housed the snakes. (The old tubs had too many holes in them causing bad sheds even with large water bowls).
So I come downstairs the next morning... one empty cage. Apparently the little indent on the top of one tub (where the lid clips) was a little deeper than all the rest of my old and new tubs and it caused a larger gap in the rack. Snake is out, female primed for breeding in Nov. (Wah wah waaaaaahhhhhh). My basement is filled with dozens of the large Rubbermaid Storage totes housing old collectibles and Holiday decorations and so forth... and half of the basement is actually a crawl space with a dirt floor and tons of pipe and lumber and "assorted stuff" from the previous owners, it is an old farmhouse of course.
I searched at least 2-3 hours a day for a solid week, I left out hides, left out aquariums with mice... checked all of the warm and dark spots under the racks and nothing. After a month and no signs (nothing knocked of the shelves, in sheds laying about, feces... I figure she holed up in a crack or crevice somewhere and got too cold, or perished. Fast-forward to August of the following year, yes 9 months later. My wife and I bring the potted plants that will not survive over winter and put them in the basement as it stays at least 68 degrees due to the snakes, and it rarely gets that low for more than a day even in Jan.
I walk past the potted plants and see a BP head sticking out... it was her, a little thin with some shed stuck to her. I warmed her up and gave her two large water bowls and she ate the next day... I actually bred her last year and she produced 6 good eggs... So, in essence I just wanted to share my happy "lost snake story" with you and your "lost snake story". And by the way... I now only use that tub for storing chemicals in the garage...


Take Care!

[Boarder4l154]

Wow Chad, quite a story. How old/big was the lost female? I think I remember reading stories of snakes being lost for years in houses and then being found ok, other than a little thinner and maybe some shed like your girl

I think its amazing how snakes can survive for so long in not the best environments. I was kind of worried about how long mine would last without shes still pretty slender and small.

[Chad Schwinn]

Brad,


She was over four years old and over 1800 grams when she escaped. She was about 1250 grams when I found her, and skinny. I know she was routing around and she may have caught a vole or a few mice as we have cornfields around, but I am pretty sure she did not get out of the basement, or to any significant meals.

Take Care,