Reptile & Amphibian Forums

we moved this weekend. the move went swell. no problems at all. i didn't have my reptile furniture set up, so i just set my tanks up in the floor (2 20L and a 10). sometime on sunday my 3 year old pulled the clamps off my milksnake's tank and now he's gone. i have a hide in a box with a small heat pad placed on a wall in one room. but i have no idea where he is. tonight when it gets quiet and dark, i'll bait the box with pinkies.

any suggestions?
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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

look....look again...look again...look at night...look along walls...in corners...everywhere..good luck...muilks are the one snake you don't wnt to lose...they will hide the best...
milks....eaterns...the only snakes I never found when lost...

think as he would....they go down and hide in tight messy places...

...good luck.....
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........JY

Watch the cats (I see you have three). Twice I've had hatchlings escape and both times they were found by my cat. One time I got to the hatchling in time, the other time I didn't. It was a baby everglades rat and subsequently got fed to my kingsnake. It's amazing how sensitive cats are to sound (I guess?).

As soon as it was discovered missing if it was caught soon enough, it is a good idea to tightly pack the gap under the door with clothing or a towel, etc..., so you can at LEAST contain it in the same room it escaped from.

If you have hard floors, you can sprinkle flour all along the perimeter of the baseboard so the snake's tracks are visible when it is crawling, then you can often follow them to exactly where it is hiding, or at least the general direction and area.

As the other poster mentioned, if the cats give ANY attention whatsoever to a certain area, THAT is probably where the snake is!. Cat's are like snake "radar"..LOL!

Many people I know have had their cat's find their snakes, but that is only providing the cat's don't eat them shortly after finding them. Cat's love to play with, then kill small snakes.

good luck finding it before the cat's do!!!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

I've had two hatchlings escape in the past, and both times I was able to find both within 10 days or less. Both were found by my cat. As the others have said, watch your cats behavior. You have three cats, so that just tripled your chances. Steve

thank you all. i had hoped i could watch the cat AKA 'snake radars', but they haven't been interested in any particular spot. at the moment, one cat is snoring under my desk at my feet. the other is stretched out behind me napping. they're always in the room i'm in and don't gravitate toward any one spot. (the 3rd cat is my husband's outdoor cat).

last night, i constructed a trap for him. a simple cardboard box with one hole large enough for him to get through. on the inside of the hole i taped a flap that would open as he went in and close tight so he couldn't get back out. on the inside, i had his log hide and a pinkie mouse. underneath i attached a small heating pad. then i put it in the front room where he escaped from against the wall.

he escaped in the front room. the only furniture in there was the three reptile tanks, two end tables that sit flat on the ground, my china cabinet (that has foot high legs) and an entertainment center with the tv, vcr, dvd player and a wii attached. the only hiding place in that room is the entertainment center. i've looked under it, inside the vcr, and all around the electrical cords. no loki.

walking off that room is my girls' room. they have a 6 drawer dresser. one drawer was open so i emptied it. no loki. i've unmade the beds. no loki. i emptied the toy box. no loki. i emptied two unpacked boxes. no loki. and i checked in the closet, between all the clothes, in shoes. still no loki.

going toward the back of the house from the front room is an empty hall. hardwood floor. one tiny box, checked. and my secretary desk, checked. two rooms exit off the hallway. an office and the master bedroom. office... we checked under bookcases, behind books, under the recliner (flipped it upside down). emptied boxes. no loki. master bedroom... i've checked closets, clothes, clothes hamper, under dressers, unmade the bed, emptied boxes, looked in shoes. no loki. (also checked the bathroom off there).

here's where the problem starts....
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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

the bathroom that exits off the office... there was a floor vent we hadn't replaced yet. not the horizontal slats like we used to seeing, but the curly cue decorative kind. with huge holes. he's not in the bathroom, but he could be in the vent. there's a lot of dust in the bottom of it that hasn't been disturbed, so i'm not sure. i've closed the vent, in case he's still in the house.

going back to the hall.. at the opposite end from where he escaped is a dining room. has a dining table and a bag of laundry i hadn't gotten to yet. he /could/ be in the laundry bag i guess. i haven't checked it good. off the dining room is the laundry room. with a hot water heater that is covered in insulation. i pulled on the insulation. tried to look, but don't want to pull it all the way off. there's a gap in the floor there where they added linoleum onto wood. he could be in the floor. there's also a hole where the water flushes from the washing machine. i've tried my best to check under the washer and dryer, but it's hard to see and i have no idea how to flip them upside down, or even if there're 'guts' underneath for him to crawl into.

the dining room also opens up into the kitchen and den area. in the den, we have a couch, loveseat, two recliners and a gas fireplace. would he have crawled up the fireplace? i've checked all the furniture. in the kitchen... there are holes under the fridge, the stove, and two holes in the cabinets on the floor that go behind the sink (? or somewhere). i've stuffed towels in them.

if my cats aren't alerting on anything, are they just lazy, stupid, or could he have escaped the house?

i've moved my pinkie baited trap into the master bedroom for today and tonight. tomorrow i'll move it to the office.
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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

Lost snakes tend to stay close to walls, baseboards and cover. As was suggested before put flour along these areas as the snake crawls through they will leave an imprint. Areas that have carpeting you can use several long strips of cardboard along walls putting the flour on the cardboard. Be sure to place some at each end of any furniture.

2 liter soda bottles can be made into very effective snake traps. Cut off the top about 1/2" below where it transitions from the sloping part to the cylindrical part. Turn the top around and insert it into the cylindrical part and tape in place. This will give you a funnel that leads into the bottle. Kind of like a fish trap. 2 of these end to end with the funnels facing away from each other placed along walls. Be sure to rub the funnel portion with rodent scent and place a food item inside. Cover with a sweatshirt sleeve, dish towel anything to provide "cover." Leave several of these around overnight and check each morning. Replace bait as necessary.
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BigT
There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. The ignorant can be taught, stupidity is beyond our control.
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1.2 P. d. deppei Mexican Pines
2.2 P. l. lineaticollis Linis or Lined Pines
1.2 P. m. lodingi Black Pines
0.3 P. c. sayi red bulls
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.....electric baseboards?...my eastern milk back at my parents home in like 1979 was seen by my father looking out at him from under the carpet ,under the baseboard heat in his bathroom....50 foot away from my room at the other end of house...he thought it was a piece of fuzz, till it flicked a tongue at him....he couldn't reach it from where he was setting at the momment..good thing...he doesn't do animals well....

....heat vents?....ductwork....?....
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........JY

i'm a woman. i have no idea. central heat and air? heat pump? idk. i know how to work the thermostat and i see floor vents. that's it. i'm assuming the floor vents connect to ducts?

when he got loose (sunday), the air was on. around 70 i think. yesterday (after we noticed him missing and i closed the vent), it started raining and got cold, so i flipped the heat on. it's around 72. i'm hoping since cold air was blowing out the vents, he didn't slip down there. or once he got away from his cushy heated tank and out into the cold house, he quickly (somewhere in the front rooms which have fewer holes in baseboards) found a hide.
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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

quick update... i've emptied that big laundry bag. no loki. now i'm re re searching everywhere.
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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

here's the most recent pic i have of him. he's a little over 3 feet long. you'd think that'd be pretty easy to find.

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1.0 Pueblan Milksnake (Urulokë)
0.1 Hypo Brooks Kingsnake (Mumuna)
1.1 Leopard Geckos (Leppy and Leo)
1.0 Miniature Schnauzer (Dooly)
2.1 Random House Cats (Jack, Tonka, Duchess)
0.2 Sticky Children
1.0 Patient Husband

"you'd think that'd be pretty easy to find"

Well, not necessarily..LOL!

Sometimes you can luck upon them immediately, and sometimes they can be gone forever, never to be seen again.....and ANYTHING in between. It just depends on too many variables.

I had a 5 foot Honduran escape many years ago, and about two months later I found her by pure accident coiled up in my baggy army shorts huge front pocket that were lying on my bedroom floor one morning.

Yes,...QUITE the surprise to say the least..LMAO!!..

Good luck!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

One consolation. Even the New York Zoo has escapes. At least your not looking for a cobra! Hope you find yours soon.

Dennis

I also heard about the Egyptian Cobra that escaped recently, and is believed to be somewhere in the reptile building........I HOPE!..

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

good luck! they truly are escape artists.... you already mentioned you looked there, but do pay attention to the books.... i once found my escaped zonata hiding behind my copy of Paradise Lost.... also when i was a kid i found my dead shrinky-dinked pet salamander in the floor heater vent...

Lots of duct tape sticky side up! Place it along the baseboards and in the meantime keep the lights off.Enter the room and turn lights on and do a quick scan.I've found several escapees by doing this!If you wake up at odd times of the night check out the snake room. Jeff