Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...stories of how someone's pet snake escaped it's cage? Some stories are about "monsters terrorizing communities" or snake found in neighbor's apartment, or simply people on these forums and elsewhere telling stories of escapees that show up months later. Some people talk about multiple escapes by the SAME snake! I just don't understand why this is happening! I mean, cage clips cost less than $2, you can't tell me you can afford the cage, snake, and equipment, but can't afford the clips that will keep your pet from escaping! It's bad for our hobby to see all these stories in the news of escaped snakes.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer

I have to agree with you on that!. It doesn't really show too much in the "husbandry skills" department. I can't stress enough to folks, that snakes are natural born escape artists with NO EQUAL!!.....I sold a baby Honduran to a pet shop a recently, and the dude that worked there put it in an aquarium that allowed the snake to escape from the poorly fitted lid just an hour or so after being purchased!.....the employee got the okay over the phone from the owner to write me a check,....so the owner didn't even get a chance to see the hatchling that she had purchased!LOL

Fortunately, a week or so later she saw the snake in the overflow holes in the bathroom sink of the restroom. So she turned off the light and waited a while,.....and the snake came out just enough for her to quickly snatch it up out of the sink......she(and the snake) were very lucky that day!, as you know, many snakes escape never to be seen again!

In my forty years of dealing with snakes, I too have lost a few, but only a small hand-full when you figure the many countless hundreds of snakes I've owned and bred.

Like many other things that people do,.....I find that "common"
sense,...... really doesn't seem to be all that common!LOL

I tell people,...."If you think there's even a REMOTE chance that the snake MIGHT be able escape from something you've housed it in,............then it probably WILL!!!"

here's another all-time favorite of mine.

Snakes are like water!,...........they'll ALWAYS find the leak!

I think most people have to have this happen repeatedly before it really "sinks in" that they are just THAT GOOD at escaping enclosures!

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I think it is really hard to believe that you think screen top clips are gonna keep in most snakes. I gotta say. Darn, half the snakes I can think of that have escaped escaped past clips. I have seen snakes lift weighted tops that left them scarred. I have a couple of ratsnakes that I think can lift encyclopedia sets if they thought a girl was on the other side.
I have had customers lose snakes that have been in enclosures for months without leaving once. I have had/known snakes that are multiple excapees. Once they figure how to get out they will work at it til their noses are raw and they have literally exhausted every possibility. So, I think it is a bit harsh to take a bunch of newbies to task for losing pets. They don't have years of experience and yet you expect them to.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

I don't expect ANYONE to be an expert from the start. But knowing to secure the cage of a snake is simply common sense. Now, if one escaped because someone forgot to put the clips on, or forgot to lock the door on the cage, I can understand that. We all make mistakes and forget to second check all cages. But I'm not talking about cases like that. I own 15 snakes and not ONE has ever escaped. I've also never had one rub it's nose raw from trying; I think if you provide the proper conditions and enough hides then they don't feel the need to try, or at least that's what I've seen from my experience. And I'm not calling you a lier, but I find it hard to believe that if cage clips are used properly, that a snake can get out...I make sure all clips are holding the lid down very firmly, and they simply don't allow any gaps. I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all or anything, I just find it very frustrating to see articles and posts all the time about escaped snakes when most escapes can be avoided by clips, or even taping the lid on.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
1.0 colombian boa (Poseidon)
0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
0.1 Boxer

I own 15 snakes and not ONE has ever escaped. I've also never had one rub it's nose raw from trying; I think if you provide the proper conditions and enough hides then they don't feel the need to try, or at least that's what I've seen from my experience.

>>>How long have you owned your snakes? Have you had breeding age males? Have you owned more active snakes like Ratsnakes, Cribos? I see you have a variety but how long have you had them? And what age did you start? I see a lot of new owners forgetting once....and sometimes they never see the animal again. So there is a monster wandering the neighborhood.

And I'm not calling you a lier, but I find it hard to believe that if cage clips are used properly, that a snake can get out...I make sure all clips are holding the lid down very firmly, and they simply don't allow any gaps. I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all or anything, I just find it very frustrating to see articles and posts all the time about escaped snakes when most escapes can be avoided by clips, or even taping the lid on.

I should send you a couple of my adult ratsnakes. Two of them can get out of anything but a rack. Especially if there are girls close by.

And the worse time about that sort of escapee is that he can be in the same enclosure for months or years and then suddenly get a wild hair and try every means to escape.

My adult SST pried hard enough on the sliding door of his enclosure that he popped out screws that blocked the tracks and opened the doors. Again, looking for girls in the fall.

And yes, I have had snakes escape clipped lidded tanks. I work in a pet store, we get in baby snakes all the time and displaying in Kritter Keepers all the time is a lousy way to display them. I put weather stripping in the gap and still had baby Kings escape. I have had adult BPs bow up screen tops between clips. The only 100% way I have found for some snakes is two clips on the long sides and one on each end. A little extreme.

So, I am not thinking that there are a bunch of neglectful folks out there......sometimes forgettful, but that is human.
Snakes are made to get out of tight places. It is what they do. Heck, most pet owners lost their dogs running out the front door(with no obedience or reliable recall).....I don't think it is neglectful to have a snake get loose.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

I've been keeping snakes for over 10 years, and tonight I had my first escape!

I spent the weekend at my boyfriends house, I come home, open the door to my bedroom, and my giant albino black rat's cage door is standing wide open, no snake in sight.

That door has a strong locking latch on it, and that sucker pushed on that door so hard he actually broke the lock and pulled the latch out!!

I found him behind a cabinet in the floor by the wall, after a panic attack and lots of trashing the room, he was a bit cold , but is otherwise unharmed.

the cage is secure for tonight, tommorrow it's off to Lowe's to buy a few new locks!

So I guess my point is - Most of my other snakes live in glass enclosures with screen top lids, I don't use clips, I use weights on either side, and I've never had any attempt at a breakout.....but this snake managed to actually break a lock to get himself out!!!

I guess these things can happen to anyone, anytime

I have a few horses who are grand escape artists as well- we have special 6ft fencing with several electric strands and one still manages to get out now and then- although I never hear about rampaging, "man-eating" horses on the loose

iam not a big cage clip guy, if i use a tank ill take two pices of airhose and knot them so they fit tight on both sides of a tank, its not as bad looking as rocks or books. i do it on mice and rat cages also

I have been keeping and breeding snakes for over 30 years. I still have a snake escape on occasion, usually due to my stupidity (not closing a rack, birth in a cage with too big a gap on top, etc). If you keep snakes long enough, particularly if you have more than a few, eventually snakes get out of cages.

I was living in a rental house several years back and they were showing it to prospective new tenants while I was at work one day. The real estate agent was terrified of snakes, so she let the prospective tenants go into the snake room alone. They pulled out the drawers on my rack and didn't close them all the way. I came home to find 6 snakes on the prowl. I found all of them within a week.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Like Chris I've been keeping and breeding snakes for many years and have had a few get out on occasion. All caught very soon after escape, all but one totally my fault and I'm sure you can see the latest one as my fault as well but who woulda thunk it.

The latest (and greatest) escape:

On a feeding night I was going around a opening my cages to feed my rainbow Boas. I found one shedding so figured I'd wait an hour or so to feed it. Each and every cage door has a key lock and this particluar snake was in a boaphile 421 condo. 4 feet wide, two feet deep and 11 inches tall. The condo version has four doors and removable dividers so can be anywhere from one to four cages depending on how many dividers are installed. I only had one installed so each cage had two doors. I had opened the door, noticed she was mid shed, closed and LOCKED the door. My mistake was in not removing the key. Sometime while shedding I believe, she crawled across the lock in the right direction and managed to turn it, flop, down came the door. Escape and party time for her. I had left to get dinner with the family and when we got home I went back to feeding and found her door open. She had not gotten far, was only a few feet away tucked behind a tub in the adjacent rack.

So, long story short, I had one escape from a locked cage!!!

I never leave the key in all the way anymore. If I do leave a key in the lock, it's only part way inserted. I'm reasonably certain thay can't suck the key into the lock then turn it. I know at least one has the turn the lock thing figured out!!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
24.36 BRB
19.19 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Escaped rainbows are no big deal. A little over 20 years ago I had a young male Colombian Rainbow escape from its cage (I don't remember how). I looked all over and couldn't find him. I kept looking, day and night for a several weeks and finally decided he must have found a way out of the house. I figured he would die in the winter.

Fourteen months later I was opening my middle desk drawer in the same room and it got stuck. I figured it was stuck from above so I took out the drawer above out and looked....nothing stuck. So I took out the bottom drawer and looked up and there, coiled around the drawer spindle was my Rainbow Boa! I didn't recognize it at first because it had been over 1 year and I had really forgotten about the snake. I was dumbfounded. As far as I can tell, it had been living somewhere in my room which had an attached bathroom. I guess it had been crawling in to get water from the toilet or shower? Otherwise I can't imagine how it did it. And I knew it was the same snake as it had a diagnostic scar.

Here's a pic of that snake -

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

This last time was just few weeks ago.She is in a vision cage with sliding glass doors.I had recently cleaned all the cages and lubed the doors cause they get hard to open sometimes.Well I lubed them too well and one got bumped and the door slid open just a crack.My son found her climbing out of a recliner as he sat in it.If it had been someone afraid of snakes it would have been hilarious.BTW the first time she got loose was 4yrs ago and we found him outside up in the rafters of an old poleshed.
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