earlier this year (May) I had someone come in to my snakeroom while I was gone and look at my snakes. The idiot didn't close the cages completely and let out several snakes, including my male and female Rubber Boa as well as my 5 foot ravenous Eastern Kingsnake.

I found all the snakes over several days, except the female Rubber Boa. I kept looking around for weeks, checking in the morning, evening, at night, etc. to try and find her out crawling. Finally after a few weeks, I gave in to the inevitable assumption that she had been eaten by the female Kingsnake during their mutual free time.

As I was packing up to move in late July, I was moving some sweaterbox lids that I had stacked up on a shelf next to where the rack where I had the rubbers. Lo and behold, there was my female coiled beneath the stack of lids. She was a little thin, and thirsty, but otherwise unscathed. I'm glad she wasn't gravid this year!

What is amazing about it is that she could only have gotten onto this shelf directly from the rack she was in (she couldn't have climbed up from below). Therefore, I have pretty good reason to believe she was out of her cage and stayed on that one shelf just a few feet from her cage for over 2 months!

No wonder I couldn't find her - I had assumed she would have travelled more than 2 feet in 2 months!

So the lesson is, don't give up hope, and don't overestimate the distance she will have travelled. Hope your story ends as happily as mine did.
-----
Chris Harrison

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]