Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this is a bit off topic since there is a conda board now, but I don't think it gets as much traffic as this board.

My female green anaconda escaped last night. My roomate doesn't care for her, so I keep her in my bathroom nexted to the tub. I keep her in a 55 gallon aquarium and I must have left the clips unlocked. Most of the time if I let her roam around the room she climbs back into the cage when she gets cold, only in this case the lid settled back onto the cage.

I keep the door to my room locked at night, so I can figure how she would have gotten out, the gap under the door in only about a half inch and she's over 6' now. The only opening I can find is the toilet which worries me because it's a water source, and I'm afraid she might have climbed down the drain while the lid was up.

Has anyone else ever had a problem like this and what advise do you guys have? Please help.

I didn't realize there is a lost herp forum, so I'm going to post there as well.

Check under the beds, behind cabinets and bookshelves, up over stuff and behind stuff.. they can get in some pretty weird spots.. if there is absolutely no way he can get out, then he is deffinately in there somewhere!
I highly doubt a 6' 'conda would or even could fit down a toilet water pipe..

Now you say he/she/it usually goes back to its cage for heat but it was closed? leave a rat on top of the open cage overnight, even during the day.

bunch'o'stuff you can do, just don't give up.. they are also usually found in the easily overlooked spots...
let us know!
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo

Sorry to hear about this...just for the record though...a six ft. anaconda WILL definately use the toilet plumbing as a means of escape!(I hope you don't live in an apartment complex!!!)I personally witnessed a 5.5 ft. retic do exactly this...it took me 12 hrs. to catch the little @%*#$! he had gone all the way through the pipe,to the septic tank,turned around,and,came back,and,would poke his head out,look around,and,then retreat at the slightest movement! *lol* luckily it was a closed,isolated sewer system!!!...hope you find your snake without frontpage publicity!!!*ackkk*

Thats not what I want to hear. I live in a house, but with comunity sewage, so I hope she doesn't find her way to the sewer. I've heard stories of other snakes coming up other toilet in a house but now I'm worried about what i should do there. Should I leave all the other house toilets open? Should I leave mine open or closed, if she's still in the room I don't want her to go down it, but I'f she's down it, I want her to come back. In any case, I'm in the process of tearing my room apart right now.

I would leave them open,but,it's a tough call really,for exactly the reasons you mentioned...I hope it's hiding in a nice warm,dark area of your house instead ...your chances of catching him/her if it found sanctuary in the plumbing,are very slim,I hate to tell you.

ok well here is my experience with Boas and bathrooms ....

i useto let my boas soak in the tub well one day i was checkingin every 15 mins or so and i did make sure the toilet was secured so she did go there well i proceeded to go EVERYWHERE but what i do fo a living .. i build cabinets . i pulled the toilet up ran a plumber s snake down two stories and opened up the cleanout under the house nothing. well afte a extensive 8 hr search cleaning out EVEY closet & room inthe house .. the attic etc i decidedto look again in the bathroom thats where i found my 9 1/2 ' BCI all snuggly tucked UNDER the cabinet if you have a bathroom cabinet i suggest you get down on the floor and carfully run you hand between the toekick and the bottom of the cabinet most all cabinets have a smalle gap here about 1" in size this is where the front toe kick is attached to the cabinets side walls , this intern creates a space of about 3-4 inches depending on the cabinet. while you may not think a 6 foot annie may get in that 1" space you may be pleasantly surprised to find that she is more then likely there and laughing at you in your paniked state. you will have to either use a light and mirror to see in there or phisically remove the toekick board to visually inspect this great HIDE spot . let me know if shes hanging outthere if you have a cabinet in your bathroom.

As to the toilet thing it would be highly unlikely but allthough not totallu impossible for her to have went down it . Most all newer toilets have very tight flush tubes and are usally blocked by a terd buster for lack of terms that cause solid matter to be dipesered / broken up.
hope this was of some help and not to be mean a good lesson learned what not to do .. lol i learned mine the hard way and now so have you good luck on the search
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

I don't have a cabinet in this bathroom and I've already looked behind and under the open storage unit we have. I've also a very old toilet, original from when the house was built in 1910's, so I suspect there is no turd buster of any kind. I'm begining to dispare because I've torn apart everything in my room I think she could be behind or under and she didn't turn up. I've also torn the cover off the radiator and now I have to take it downstairs and fix it.

Another reason I'm afraid she went down the toilet is that normaly if I'm letting her roam around the bathroom she knocks stuff over. Normaly I would find the toilet paper, shampoo, mouthwas, shaving cream, etc. on the ground because she climb over everything trying to get out. In this case there is nothing out of place, so she may have gone strait down the toilet without exploring at all.

What now? All I think I can really do now is wait. Everyone cross you fingers for me.

ok with that out of the way heres a few things to know if you can pull the toilet you will find the actual waste line is going to be either two sizes a 3" or a 4" waste line if its a old house its probably cast iron, now with this said is it possible to get under the house ? if you can look around for your waste line coming through the floor somewhere , when located you should probably find a clean-out at the point the drain stack exits the floor this may be a old " sludge poy" if you have cast iron pipes this would be the size of a coffee can or so and would have a clean out in it depending on the time era of the house it would then have either a "S-trap" leaving that . What you could do to see if she is in the line is go to a hardware store and purchase a cheap plumbers snake of 25' length , this you could run from the toilet in question and find out if theres anything in the pipes, you can also do the removal of the trap and then goto that toilet and flush a large wad of TP down the toilet when doing this you will need to be under the house and have someone doing the flushing for you now you will also need to be prepaired to get wet as with the trap open water will go everywhere . what this will do is let you know of the volume of water/TP coming down the pipes. Now if you have more then one bathroom you will need to repeat this step at both locations.

Your other drains IE: sinks & tubs will tie into this same drain line or possibly a different drain that would all come to the same location under the house. while the tubs usally use a 2" drain and would normally tie into the main waste line with a angled connection which would make it hard for the snake to to turn and follow into that drain due to the angle of the pipe tieing into the main drain.It would be possible for it however to turn and gointo another toilet drain line due to the size of that pipe....

If she did go into the plumbing there may be a slim chance that she would still be in them depending on location her entrance point in the house , and configuration of the pipes when they were routed in construction. one last thought while i was typing would be to buy some ping pong balls and place them into the toilet line (NOT THE TOILET) and then flush them these would not break down like TP would and would more then likely no get past the snake if he/she is still in the pipes . other then that the last option as bad as it would seem would to have the septic tank pumped .. lol and then do a " visual inspection of the tank"

now since you stated this is a older home does the bathroom in question have a closet ? if so look in the closet and check to see if the tub has been repaired at one point which would mean there would be a patch or possible opening in the wall located behind the controls for the tub/shower this could also be a possible location that he/she may have gone due to its dark and possibly warm area my same BCI has been here and one this once aswell lol i was lucky asi had a older home with slatted floor boards in it and was able with a light to see her thru the cracks in which case i promptyl got out my cordless 18V saw and started cutting out the floor under the tub and then she went ip the wall between the wall studs .. i then went into my bedroom got my hammer and proceeded to knock out a section between the studs and then wrestled her out and back to her cage

i hope this outcome is a good one , if the annie was to show up anywhere within range of your place and people knowyou have her it would make for one more bullet why to ban reptiles
best of luck on the search
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

Thank you for all the advice, it must have taken a while to write such a long message. Unfortunatly most of your suggestions are not feasable in this house. I actualy have several roomates as I've recently graduated from college but not found a job yet. We live in a BIG house and I live on the third floor in what used to be the servents quarters back in the 20's. The plubing in my bathroom has never been repaired and there is no access to the pipe from my bathroom.

I thought about opening the trap and flushing some of the pipes, but this house actualy has two clean outs and they are both in the basement, not outside, because of this if we flush them the waste water will get in the basement carpet and wall. You also mentioned having to repeat this for both toilets. This house actualy has 6 bathrooms, and I doubt I could get all the roomates, and the landlord to let me dismantle the bathrooms.

We also live in a city with city sewage, so there is no septic system to have pumped, if she's that far out, she would be right down in the sewer and I'll never get her back. None her is going to report her to the police, so unless she gets into the sewer and comes up in another house, that's not a consern. Again thanks for all your advice, I'm afraid I'm just stuck though and I can still do is wait.

Try to tie a piece of string to the tail of a dead rat, then flush it and maybe if the snake is down there it would smell it and go for it!

I think baiting with a rat could be a good idea, but I don't think thaat string and flush method will work for a couple of reasons. Reason one is that I don't dant want to flush anything because it could wash her farther along the pipe. Second I don't think that even if she did grab it I would be able to pull her back through the pipe once she was wrapped aroung it. Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'll try something else with a rat. Perhaps I'll put a prekill in the cage tonight, or maybe and can pick up a live rat and put it in a cage or something to attract her.

you still think a snake of this girth, about the size of a 1 litter bottle of soda, can fit through the water pipe the size of a lemon/lime ? I highly doubt it.

With the 5.5' retic, I would put money on it. I had an 8 footer that would fit in there too. and the thing was meaner and seemed stronger than my 16 foot burms!!

as I mentioned, regarding the other story about the 9 1/2' bci, they would be in an easily avoidable spot you would normally overlook...

another thing is they're most likely hiding in a dark, preferrebly warm spot and will probably become active at night.

thanks
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo

I was considering that as well, but she's not quite that big around yet, closer to the the girth of a beer bottle, maybe just slightly less. I do think it would be a very tight fit, but i'm quickly running out of alternatives.

About the difference in girth between the two,as for your approximation about pipe size,I guess yours could be different,but,I've seen it happen with my own eyes...personally I don't doubt the possibility for one second...just my take on it,hopefully we won't find out if it would,(or,did fit)but, never underestimate a snake!...that's how this started in the first place! I'd love to be wrong on this one!!!

however, that wouldn't be the first, or probably second, or even third thing she would do...
here..
did you know that when introducing a snake (mostly neo's-juvi's) to a new enclosure, if the waterbowl is located in the center, or not along an edge, it's possible that snake will never find that water and die of dehdration!? funny and freaky sounding but true , that's why it is recommended to put the water along a wall, or better yet, a corner.

Point is, the snake's natural reaction is to wander the edges of the space looking for a way out. She could circle the room 1,000 times and not know the difference. Another urge is to hide, and preferrebly in a dark and warm place.

I believe the last thing she would do is to deliberately squeeze through the pipes. ..then again they don't have much of a brain/much thought process going on up there!! and you're right too, pipes come in different sizes.

So it is possible, but I highly doubt she would do it.

TIP- I have lots of little things laying around on all shelves and window sills and all... wherever she passes, she will knock these things down, see?! this way, it is usually very easy for me to find them.

let us know!
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo

HI!Sorry about your snake!I had a 6ft.boa get out at night and she went under my bedroom door suprising cause I don't know how she squeezed under I said no way!BUt I found her in a hall closet right by my bedroom in a old 20 gallon tank that had extra cage treesa dn stuff the first time I looked I passed right over her then I just had a feeling in my gut that she was in there so a little later I went back after tearing my room apart and freaking out I did find her in that closet just wheree I said.Man was I ever glad.I hope you have such luck!Keep looking don't give up cause she will show up mine was waiting for me.=D

Hi- I had a 12 foot retic crawl out of the bathtub and wedge himself into a small hole in the ceiling. I saw him there the next day- he was wedged to tight- I went to the vet's the next day to get a sedative to give him- then in theory I was going to pull him out backwards. However when I got home- he was gone.... he got through about a 2 inch hole in the wall- nearly lost my marriage over the incident. Found him 2 weeks later (trying all the tricks recommended) in the wall between the outside and the insulation next to the hot water pipes. I had crawled up the outside of house and started to dismantle my house board by board (it was either that or loose the husband...) and was amazed - only 3 boards (after the siding came down) there he was- all wrapped around the pipes. Gave him the sedative from the vet- about 30 minutes later- he was limp and he came out - very happy to be held!!! I don't think you snake is that far away- just far away to the next warm place he can find.... Cynthia