Reptile & Amphibian Forums

(this is sort of in reply to a couple posts down...)

I've been herping for about fifteen years now. In the past, I've successfully recovered both of two escapees (separate incidents). Just a couple of nights ago, after a round of cage cleanings I forgot to "seal" the doors on my mexican black king's cage. She's in a Vision cage, and she's only a couple of months old - so she is still quite small enough to slip between the two glass doors; which are mounted in a sliding track that leaves a slight gap bewteen the two panes of glass. Until she gets too big to slip through that gap I'm stuffing some folded newspaper in there to block the space (works quite well too).

I got her cage all cleaned and re-setup the other night, then put her back and closed up shop. The only thing I had to do was wash out her water bowl and replace it with fresh water. In the few minutes I was gone to the sink she made her hasty escape.

As I went to put her water bowl back I figured I would take her out for a few - surprise, surprise, she was already out. She hadn't gone far though. She was sitting on the top of my burm's cage, which is just under her's. It took me a few minutes to find her because she's so small, and she was way in back where it's somewhat out of the way to notice.

Now I know - Kingsnakes are to be watched, watched, watched, and then watched closely.

Argh..., looks like I've rambled a bit. Sorry about that.

- Mark

My '02 female included, who, by the way, after somehow escaping her enclosure for the second time a li'l over a month ago is still gone without a trace. This is the second time she mysteriously escaped, first time she was gone for 3 months and luckily got hungry and was caught in one of my feeder mouse tanks stuffing her face. But my point, this is the 3rd Mexi Black of different age/size that I know of to have escaped lately...are Mexi Blacks just more prone to get out or is this just pure coincidence?
Glad you found her though, wish myself and MissHiss good luck in finding our escapees.
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

Hmmm...it makes me wonder? My mexi black is a classroom snake. He's an adult and has made numerous escapes since he was a hatchling. The latest was to disappear over a four day school break. When I discovered him missing, I said to my assistant, "Let's keep an eye open for him and hope that the custodian doesn't find him and have a coronary." With that I opened our walk-in closet where we store materials and flipped on the light. I couldn't believe my eyes--there he was curled up on a tote bag right next to his feeding box! It's beyond me how he got himself under the door, but he did. Mine is very curious. He's not afraid of my children at all, and cruises the tank and tongue flicks when they are watching him. Perhaps this curious nature accounts for them wanting to see the world?

I guess that's a possibility...
I bought my pair of '02 Mexi Blacks at a show in january of this year. the femae was a spitfire right from the get-go, the male much more calm and didn't mind being handled after his initial posturing. to this day the female is by far the nastiest tempered snake I own...I mean she's really HORRIBlE, she's the one snake my husband and myself refer to as 'the [bleep]'. the male however, is much much calmer, still doesn't mind being handled, will even come to your hand to be taken out instead of trying to eat you alive. they're both perfectly healthy and both very beautiful, and as far as I know the male has never even made an attempt to escape.
'the [bleep]' is still out, which worries me because it is starting to get very cold here now. We have 3 cats, one of them in an excellent mouser but every time I think he may have found her it's turned out to be nothing or a dust bunny or lost cat toy or something. she's been gone a little over a month this time, so I'm not giving up hope yet as she was out 3 months last time without a trace, same this time, absolutely no trace of her so far. But I've been checking my mouse cages much more often, every time I hear a squeek from that room I run to see if she's there, like she was last time. I did however have an enexplained death in one of my breeder tanks last night, a good sized female, too big for that snake to eat, was dead in the corner of the tank, but it didn't look like she had been constricted as she was curled in a ball. also no blood or wounds of any kind so I don't think it was her. I guess I'll just keep looking and hoping.

Ps sorry my typing is so terrible but my keyboard is crapping out on me and half the keys aren't working properly.
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

I had that happen to me also. The day I got my kingsnake, someone in my family wanted to look at it but they didn't close it all the way. It got out while I was at a STOMP concert, and when I came back it was not in the cage. I saw my cat staring at a pillow, which was odd, but then I found my snake under the pillow. Thankfully my cat did not touch the snake as far as I could tell, and my cat was also not hurt.
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~Banana~