Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in a real need of some advice. My girlfriend's candy cane ( just over a year old) escaped out of its cage. What makes this worse is that this is the second corn she has owned that has gotten out. What makes it even more worse is that I brought up the idea of putting it in its new set up and it escaped out of it. So what can I do to lure it? I thought about getting shoe boxes, cutting small holes in it, and putting a cotton ball in it with "Mouse maker" on the cotton ball. Can anyone think of a better way? Any advice will be hugely appreciated!

Severa
-----
3.2 leopards( 3 tremper albinos,1 high yellow, 1 tang)1.0 African fattail,0.1 pink toe tarantula,1.0 jungle/diamond carpet python,1.0 albino sonoran gopher,2 eastern painted turtles,0.1 sun conure, leo eggs incubating with one eastern box turtle egg,55 gallon brackish tank, and one ten gallon freshwater, and two chihuahuas......and thats all!

With all the snakeproof enclosures on the market today why do snakes escape?Human error.Im sure you have looked in all the obvious places?under fridge,water heater,etc,etc,.It will be a miracle if you ever find it.As for the mouse maker on cotton balls?That just sounds like a bad idea.I lost a 10 foot burmese once for 3 weeks.My brother came over and didnt secure the clasps on the cage i made.I woke one night thinking a burglar was in my house breaking things in my kitchen.I found my burmese that nite and he was a bit nippy but i was sure glad to find him.Some of the guys at my herp club use a water bowl near a heat source,put duct tape down sticky side up around the bowl.It makes a mess on the snake but it comes off with the next shed.Good luck...Paul.

>>With all the snakeproof enclosures on the market today why do snakes escape?Human error.

Well hubby and I bought a nice ten gallon reptile enclosure, locking lid, etc. We bought the most beautiful kingsnake. A hatchling about 4 months old. Fed her one pinkie. The next time we looked inside the still sealed cage, she was gone. We finally determined that the cage had a hole for a cord, and she must have slipped through. Human error? You bet, we didn't realize a reptile cage would not be secure. Never found her.

Forgot to secure the lid on our Pyro's cage once, and boom, she waas gone. Next day I found her on top of the mouse rack.

Forgot to secure the lid on our aberrant banded cal king, he crawled into bed with us.

Bought a snake rack for some hatchlings. Big mistake and big waste of money as the guy is supposedly bankrupt so we are stuck with it. Lost several hatchlings, and the guy said we had to put heat tape in the back to secure the cages. So I taped some cardboard (heat tape is NOT necessary in AZ in the middle of the summer) on the bottom... Two more hatchlings escaped. Luckily I found all the escapees (one outside in the grass a week later). The larger juvie sized bins in the rack we thought were quite secure, until we came home and found one of our yearling kings on the floor in the master bath, and the other in the kitchen.

Yup, lots of human error, but also defective snake cages that are supposed to be secure.

I've set traps, but only ever found snakes as accidentally as they escaped!

Oh, and the cotton ball... what if the snake swallows it?
-----
~Sasheena

>>I am in a real need of some advice. My girlfriend's candy cane ( just over a year old) escaped out of its cage. What makes this worse is that this is the second corn she has owned that has gotten out. What makes it even more worse is that I brought up the idea of putting it in its new set up and it escaped out of it. So what can I do to lure it? I thought about getting shoe boxes, cutting small holes in it, and putting a cotton ball in it with "Mouse maker" on the cotton ball. Can anyone think of a better way? Any advice will be hugely appreciated!
>>
>>Severa
>>-----
>>3.2 leopards( 3 tremper albinos,1 high yellow, 1 tang)1.0 African fattail,0.1 pink toe tarantula,1.0 jungle/diamond carpet python,1.0 albino sonoran gopher,2 eastern painted turtles,0.1 sun conure, leo eggs incubating with one eastern box turtle egg,55 gallon brackish tank, and one ten gallon freshwater, and two chihuahuas......and thats all!

My recommendation: start searching. I know some people say that you can never find a snake by looking for it, but the times I've had my corns escape (due to human error - not mine, and non-secure caging), I found them by looking.

Places I've found escaped snakes, to give you some ideas:
- In the closet, in a box of photos on the top shelf (yes, it was a hatchling, must have climbed up the coats)
- In an open bag of pretzels sitting on the floor
- Under a TV stand (reaches the floor on 3 sides, but the back side has a 2" gap - the snake crawled under there)
- Under a video cabinet
- In the closet, in the corner
- Under another tape rack, this time just outside the room from where he escaped.

That's all I can think of right now. With the exception of the last one, all were found in the same room they escaped from. Also, I found most relatively fast, the most time being the one that was found in the box of photos, I think he was missing for a day or so.

I think it's likely they escape and find a spot and stay there for a while, so look soon, and he'll probably not be all that far from his cage.

Some tips:
Snakes tend to follow the wall if the come up on one. Look in dark places, warm places.
If you have hard floors (not carpet) you can try sprinkling a little flour in the doorway, so if it crosses the doorway you might see tracks.
You can try placing plastic grocery bags around the room, along the walls. A snake crawling over them will make them crinkle.
You might want to try making a 'trap', where there's a funnel coming from the wall into a soda bottle or something. The snake will follow the wall, into the funnel, into the bottle. Not to sure how to set that up.
Pinkie in a bottle - place a pinkie inside a soda bottle, hopefully the snake is hungry, will crawl into the bottle, eat the pinkie, and stay in the bottle until you find it.
Darkness - he'll probably stay hidden if the lights are bright.

Good luck - and get a more secure cage
-----
-audri
Webpage/Pics

I agree to keep looking, but I have only found one when I kept looking. The soda bottle thing has worked before. I have also used a shoe box with a hole cut in it sitting on a heating pad. This trick works best when it is cold. I found the best thing to catch escaped snakes when my last on escaped. Its called a cat. Boy it was not pretty.

good luck