Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, that Peachy escaped thread got me thinking and laughing about some reptile escapes over the years...

I had an absolutely insanely violent spectacled caiman as a teen some 20 years ago. I mean he would leap across his enclosure at the glass if you came within sight. He ate like a monitor and was around 2' or so within 6 mos. Of course he got out. For a 2' caiman (he had some girth too) you would think he wouldnt be hard to find...wrong. Wow I tore my parents house up looking for that thing. I searched for hours and hours. Four days later my dad nearly stepped on him getting out of bed. That was followed very shortly with my dad nearly stepping me while I was in bed.

Buddy of mine lost his boa in a trailer he was living in. Darn thing went into the heat ducts. It looked hopeless. In a spark of genius he got an idea...he tied a live baby chick to a fishing pole and let it go into the ducts. Click click click click cheep cheeeeeep...pause....click click click cheeep cheeep click click...pause...BAM THUMP THUMP CHEEEEEEP...silence. Then he reeled him in for the win.

Ahhh here's a good one...when a friend and I were around 12 we both collected a couple of local garters. We set up a little aquarium, etc. Well he left on vacation and left me his to take care of. They immediately wrapped all around eachother. I suspected I was watching some hot reptile lovin but wasnt sure. Well a few weeks later my mom wakes me up screaming. Apparently the lid on my aquarium was not intended to keep dozens of very small live born garter snakes in. They were everywhere, I found those stupid things for 2 weeks.

Man my parents hated reptiles.

Tom

That's some pretty good stories! I'm glad we found our peach throat... I was nervous to look under something and get spooked by him. Sounds like you had a fun childhood Des

That was great. Gotta love the parents of kid animal keepers. When I was 11 a mentor of mine gave me 2 one week old black rats snakes that he had hatched out for a friend. Well, months later one got out. We couldn't find it at all and we figured since they come from MD if it got out then lucky him. Well, my 80 year old grandma started yelling at me to get this fake snake off of the kitchen floor. So I go in and she has the "fake snake" picked up with her cane. I yell, "there he is", and put him back in his new cage with his brother. A couple of months later his brother eats him. I still have the one and he is 16 years old now
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Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
32 rats
50 mice
54 chickens
2 beardies
1 black rat snake
~100 hissers
1 giant milipede

Escaped reptiles show just how irresponsible a keeper's methods of housing are.

Escaped reptiles are the reason that there are so many trying to push restrictive reptile ownership legislation on keepers.

Escaped reptiles are at risk to hazards in the household, so their lives/health may be in jeopardy.

.....if you think those three issues are funny, you really need to sit and think about how your methods of keeping animals could possibly harm this hobby.

You are absolutley right. Thats why I have only hade one escapes when I was 11 years old.

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Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
32 rats
50 mice
54 chickens
2 beardies
1 black rat snake
~100 hissers
1 giant milipede

Relax mr. reptile rights fighter...mistakes happen to all of us and the results can be humorous, no less with reptile keeping than anything else. My dog got out of my yard once too, oh my.

Your charges of escape causing excessive legislation is short sighted...politics, sensational media and nanny state garbage causes excessive legislation. Not to mention intentional releases or improper handling results in the majority of neg press and subsequent restrictions, not escapes.

If you care so much for the welfare of reptiles stop keeping them as 'pets'. Doing so is unnatural and done purely for your own selfish entertainment (or economic gain).

Of course escapes are a mistake and every attempt should be made to minimize them. But they happen and personally I have found many of such stories humorous.

If you dont, I dont care...make another serious thread since this board just doesnt have enough of those.

holy **** buddy,
people make mistakes and you learn from them.
period.
and sometimes when you look back on things they may seem a little funny.
so take the armadillo lizard out of your ***
and find the good in things
jerk

sorry i got mad in my last forum reply.
u didnt deserve it.

Of course escapes are not funny! Many things aren't funny when they happen but are very funny when you look back on them.

Problem is, we are human and we make mistakes. If everyone was perfect(or even one of us), this would be a really really really really boring place.

I think the key is to learn from that mistake. If an animals keeps continuing to escape the same way, yes there is a problem and irresponsibilty. Fact is, maybe something got over looked, or an honest mistake happened. Fix it, and prevent it in the future.

Dare to lighten up a little bit. They are just trying to find humor in an unfortunate event.

....I just voiced my OPINION on how funny I think reptile escapes are...If I were to have an animal escape and found it unharmed, I would not be humored...I would be thankful and examine the way I keep my animals because escapes represent insufficient caging...I apologize for not finding humor in unfortunate events. Just not my cup of tea I guess....sorry to offend.

...it is great that people can find humor in things that I can't...and it is weak when people have to resort to some sort of personal attack because a different view was presented....sorry wisconsin, no lizard lodged anywhere around here....you get angry pretty easy don't you?...lmao...lighten up a bit.

Last spring I bought my son a baby ball python. I'll make this story short. Due to my negligence, after enjoying feeding it with my son and also, being a monitor person, enjoying having something my son and I could interact with together, it got loose. Improper caging. Both my son and myself were extremely distraught. I tore the house apart, even the heat ducts in the basement, to no avail. 2 weeks later my wife spied it slithering across the back yard. At first we were relieved. It was severely dehydrated, scraped and battered. Who knows what kind of hell it endured. I put it back in the cage after escape proofing it. The next day it was dead. My son cried his eyes out and I myself shed a tear or two. The snake is buried in my back yard right in the spot where my wife found it. Heres what makes this such a "Funny Escape Story"; On my way to the pet store to get another one phrase drove it home "Disposable Animals" Pretty funny huh.

I am so glad that this forum is mostly men because it could get really ugly. Hiss hiss, meow!! Love you guys

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Shannon in Reno
1 savannah monitor (Pombe-means "beer" in Swahili)
6 dogs
1 cat
32 rats
50 mice
54 chickens
2 beardies
1 black rat snake
~100 hissers
1 giant milipede