Reptile & Amphibian Forums

SO glad to hear the truant Indigo is secured. Indiescan really cruise, and push their way into anyplace.

I had a boa constrictor that used to get out of a cage that just wasn't secure enough. It always went to the same drawer in my desk. After I moved the desk nto the basement, the snake escaped one more time. After a few days, I looked in the drawer, more as a little joke on myself than in earnest, but the boa was there. Maybe I should have tried sleeping in that drawer--don't know what I missed....

A friend (really--this is not a "someone I know has this rash" story) lost a breeder Honduran Milk. He looked around, but a few days later, when he started up the kitchen garbage disposal, chunks of Honduran Milksnake came writhing up into the sink water. That was bad. Now, if I ever lose a snake, I'll check the garbage disposal before I turn it on.

I had an adult cal king which escaped and was gone for 2 months. I left my front door open to go check the mail one day, and when I came back my king was halfway out the door and making a run for it! I had to literally chase him across the porch! Sneaky lil guy huh? Sometimes I think snakes are more clever than they would have you believe...

i just got back an 03 white oak rat this may that had escaped last august. he was coming up thru the planking of my deck one night and at first i thought he was a branch as he was pretty small, considerably smaller than his heldback siblings.......but he had made it thru a very tough, bitter winter here last year and is now doing fine though hates f/t.......

I had a boa that would push the lid off her cage at night, cruse around my bedroom for a while, and curl up on top of me. She was about 7ft. at the time. I kept putting bigger, and heavier stuff on the lid, but after a while I would just leave the lid off for her. She wasn't going anywhere.
T.
-----
"No tree would have branches foolish enough to argue amonst themseleves".

some of you may remember when this happened...I had a 15 yr old 5.5' cal. king that I had from a hatchling...it escaped, and found it's way INTO my male TX indigo cage.

There was a nice crevice in the indigo cage large enough for the Cal to get in, but not the indigo to get out.

Anyway...poor girl never made it out of the cage.

The only way I figured out the mystery was the outline of her body all thoughout the gut of the TX indigo.

NP
-----
"No tree would have branches foolish enough to argue amonst themseleves".

It's really not even a contest. Cal kings are not as heafty as eastern of FL kings...but still...it's really not a contest.

A large indigo is so much larger and more powerful.
It's like Tyson (in his younger days) vs. Sugar Ray Leonard

Sure...if they were both the same size, Leonard might win.
But they are NOT.

A mature adult indigo sucks down a mature adult kingsnake like no problem.

Fred A's indigo escaped when the front door was open. A couple days later Fred witnessed him coming back in. I forget the details, but pretty cool story.

I had a female indigo escape. She crawed onto a heat pad that was keeping her offspring warm, in small individual cages. Pretty easy snake to catch.

Doug T

Guys,

Hey!! Long time no read or write. Been truly busy. Saw this post and had a few minutes so I thought I would share with you fine folks my pathetic tale of woe and misery.......

A PATHETIC SNAKE STORY

by Fred Albury

Once upon a time there lived a snakekeeper/Indigo breeder named Fred Albury. He had a mid sized collection comprised of Eastern Indigos and Pituophis, as well as a few really choice boas. This is before he opened up his (then) business Aztec Reptiles.

One day,our hero found himself pressed for time, so he incorporated both cleaning his snakes cage in conjunction with feeding them at near the same time(Kids DONT try this at home)
Well, mid way through feeding them, his neighbor Rod comes by. Rods a bro and a close friend of Freds, who has seen much drama unfold in Freds life throughout the years. Well..Rod drops by and Fred proceeds to feed some of the snakes in front of him. Fred cleans his Eastern Indigos out first(The messiest) and Rods "Ohhhs..and Ahhsss over the Easterns. He wants one.

Then Fred puts them away, ashes hands and sits down to watch football(Go R*A*I*D*E*R*S*) Abou this time, right after Jerry Rice scores yet ANOTHER TD, Fred notices that the cage on the bottem of the rack containing one of his three *gravid* female eastern indigos is *EMPTY**!! Egahds!!

Whereupon Rod and Fred do what any Red blooded American male would do....they PANIC!! The apartment we then lived in was HEAVILY planted with ground cover that came almost up to your door, and there were tons of trees everywhere...very scenic!

Did I mention that there was a canyon about less than 150 feet away from the front door? One *chock* full o' hawks, rattlesnakes, kingsnakes, coyotes and assorted empty Old English 800 bottles?

Yup..PERFECT place to loose a snake. So, we went ouside and tore though all the iceplant, bushes, trees, parking lot...but to no avail!
Then we came back INSIDe the apartment, and completely ripped the place apart...COUCHEs were cut open, recliners dismantled, stoves pulled away from walls, boxes perused through, furniture moved around. But...after 2 hours of INTENSE searching..nothing.

Keep in mind the wifee had not yet arrived home yet with my daughter. She would be sooo pleased to learn of this recent tale of events.

SO.....ROD and I sat there, with the door open, depressed and feeling like total losers(You lose a Gravid red faced Eastern and you qualify in my book) We couldnt even feel the **RAIDER* love from them winning decisively over alesser team. Yup...we were rock bottem dead center....

As we got up to leave, he to go home and I to straighten up my house and face the enivitable "What the %*#@!* were you thinking Fred, you let it out?" from my then wife, we walked out the front door and I noticed a branch laying under the front window of the apartment. (I have horrible vision)
Funny..I thought to myself, THAT wasnt there before. I told bro Rod...and we went over to it, and it MOVED!!!It was my Gravid female eastern indigo, moveing along the wall headed right BACK into the apartment it had bailed from 4 hrs before.

**GLORY HALLELUJAH!!

We scooped it up...put it in its cage..I went to Home Depot and bought window locks for ALL the cages(A little paranoid is a good thing in my book)

And she had 12 healthy babies that year! God truly blessed me.
And the best part....the wife never even knew it happened

Sometimes you win....sometimes you lose

Take care all,

Fred Albury
Aztec Reptiles