Dont loose hope...

Southern Wolf

I don't bite..... HARD!!!
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If you have had a snake escape in the past.... dont loose all hope. You might just be surprised at who show's up one day. :yesnod:

**Im sitting here scratching my head**

Tonight Im sitting at my computer talking on the phone. The computer is now in the room that my reptiles used to be in. My cat was in the room with me and she's not scared of ANYTHING. If it moves... it's lunch!

So tonight Im sitting here and I hear a light sounding **thump** and she's backing away from the HVAC vent. That is VERY odd behavior for her... so I kinda look over at the vent. Her ears are kinda back... and now she has my curosity up. I look down at the vent.... I think I see a head.

I cant be seeing a head.... It's been a very long time since I had a snake escape. I cant be seeing a head. I go get a flashlight and tell the guy Im talking to.... "Hey I gotta go... something aint right!"

I'm still thinking... that cant be a head. I've been running the heat for months after the last escape. There is no way anything could survive down there.

I get the light and shine down the vent. IT'S A HEAD LOOKING BACK AT ME!!!!

Holy :censored:!!!!!!

I bend down to lift the vent cover and it retreats..... crap :angry:

So now Im thinking... do I blindly shove my hand into the vent (which in turn bends back towards me so I cant see anything) and risk shredding my hand.... OR

Yep... I followed 'plan B'.

I left the vent cover off and stepped back towards the door of the room (about 10 feet away). It wasn't long and a head started to poke out.... then a neck. Then she started looking around... then she started coming out..... and out...... and out..... and out.

:eek: How big is she :eek:

About 2 foot later she is completely out of the vent. I'm sure the AC being on helped facilitate her timely exit of the vent. Once she was completely out I took a box and covered the vent hole. She was NOT getting back in there.

She went in behind something and once I got the vent covered I moved it out of the way. I figured I was gonna get tagged for sure, but she never did. She was a bit cold, but she wasn't starved by no means. She had grown while she was chilling in the vent system. I dont know what she was eating... but she got a nice juicy mouse tonight and she is now chillin in a tub with fresh water and familiar surroundings.

I dont remember exactly when... but sometime last year... I had a normal corn escape. At the time I was scratching my head trying to figure out how she could have gotten out of the rack system. Now Im scratching my head trying to figure out how she survived. She had gotten so big she couldn't get back out of the vent covers.

So if you have a snake escape.... don't loose hope. You never know who will show up when you least expect it.
 
I'm so freaked by snakes,my whole heating system would be ripped out.I still don't think I'ld be convinced there weren't any more snakes....crazy.

I would imagine the stench if the snake didn't make it would be unreal.
 
She got wind that you were giving up the breeding game for bigger display enclosures and wanted to stay around.... lol
 
Years ago I had produced a nice little pair of dot dash cal kings I was holding back for breeding. When they were a month old, the female escaped.
At that time the snake room was a converted garage, and there was a small hole in the door facing where a hatchling colubrid could get outside.
After a week or so I figured that was what had happened.

Eight months later I had a group of hatchling bearded dragons in a 10 gallon tank one morning while I cleaned their tub. The tank was sitting on a 5 gallon bucket, with a basking light over it.
When I went to get the beardies I saw her, sitting on the bucket under the aquarium getting some heat from the basking light.

The most amazing thing was she had spent the winter loose in the snake room, but was noticeably larger than her brother who had been getting fed a couple times a week the whole time.
There were no rodents in the snake room, and it's safe to say if she had gotten outside there's no chance she would have just happened to find her way back in through that hole.
I have no idea what she had been eating, especially through the winter, but it has always made me wonder if our methods of keeping snakes are not as great as we'd like to think they are.

That 8 month escape is the longest I've gone and ended up finding it. I do still on occasion look around outside in the summer hoping to find a radiated ratsnake I lost about 12 years ago.
 
She was gone for over 6 months. Like you Clay... imagine my shock to see her again.
 
Haha, that's awesome! Everytime I lose a snake, I tear the house apart for hours and hours and it always seems like when I do find it, it's no more than 5-feet from where it got out.
 
I know the larger snakes can go a very long time with out food,is that the same for the smaller snakes?

Maybe ya had some mice coming in that hole Clay.No chance of a couple baby beardies becoming a dinner?
 
A lot of people have mice during the winter months without even knowing it. House mice make themselves comfortable and aren't afraid to let you know they are there..they set up shop and expect to stay forever. Field/deer/white-footed mice however pretty much just want to keep to themselves and 80% of the time you don't know they are there - come spring they move back outdoors.
 
I know the larger snakes can go a very long time with out food,is that the same for the smaller snakes?

Maybe ya had some mice coming in that hole Clay.No chance of a couple baby beardies becoming a dinner?

Corns have a higher matabolism than the boids.... so she has been feeding on something :shrug01:
 
I once had a Nelson's milk escape, and found it in the same room 5 months later, hanging out in my exoterra dart frog enclosure. Did it open the glass doors, or unlock the screen to get in, then close it behind itself? That was a very tight enclosure, as it had to contain fruit flies. It was not a large enclosure, and the snake was 2 feet long. Also amazing that a cb milksnake knew not to eat the darts, even though they aren't poisonous in captivity. Makes you think!
 
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