Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My new baby milk managed to escape her tank last night. I thought it was completely secure - bought extra clamps and glued rubber tubing all around the rim. My little "houdini" still made it out however. Any tricks on finding her or luring her out of wherever she may be hiding. I'm staying home from work to try to find her. I have ferrets downstairs and am terrified that she is going to make her way down there and get killed! :/

My milk escaped twice (after the first time I THOUGHT we had fixed the gaps in the enclosure only to find he escaped a second time from an even smaller gap). Both times I found him at night, when he was more active. Searched every room with the lights off using a flashlight (second time was different, but I'll get to that).

But since you are staying home from work, might as well utilize the daylight. First search the room he was housed in, he may just be a few feet away. Search everywhere... and I means EVERYWHERE. Even little gaps you think he couldn't possibly get into. Look inside drawers, in the inner workings of beds and couches. Look behind and under furniture, and among tangles of electrical cords. Think "where would I hide if I was his size?"

Do a thorough search of every room. Then take a break. Then start searching all over again. They can move from hiding place to hiding place.

There's also little "traps" you can make - like leaving flour on the floor edges near the walls (though my dog licked it all up before I could utilize it! ). When the snake crawls through it he'll leave tracks and can lead you to his hiding place. There's also a coke bottle trap involving a pinkie, but I'll let someone who has used it tell you about it.

First time I found my escapee in a closet about 20 ft from his cage at about 2 am, snuggled up among halloween decorations on the floor (kinda fitting). Second time, he found me... I was watching a movie at about 11 pm with the lights turned off (was waiting till after midnight to start looking). My milk suddenly appeared in the hall, coming up the stairs from the basement (the basement door had been closed the night he got out, so they can fit under the tiny gaps), and slithered across the floor. So yes they can get downstairs very quickly, I'm sorry to say. You might want to put towels under the doors of unsearched rooms to try to limit his movement.

My vision cage now has weather stripping in EVERY little gap in the sliding doors, AND a lock... though the lock might be over kill... but I'm not risking it . I never thought my chubby little snake could get through such small gaps, but boy can they surprise you!

Anyways, don't give up and good luck!
-----
-----------------------------------
1.0 sinaloan milksnake
1.0 western hognose
1.0 colombian boa

I found her! She was curled up just 2 feet from her aquarium! I'm going to look for a new lid tonight. In the meantime, I am stacking several very heavy books on top of her current lid. The only way I can figure that she managed to escape is that she was strong enough to push the lid up even with the 4 clamps I put on and slide out. I greatly underestimated her strength!!! Phew.....

.
-----
-----------------------------------
1.0 sinaloan milksnake
1.0 western hognose
1.0 colombian boa

maybe a water bowl but there is traps like snake guards which the snake gets stuck on glue but witha little pam the snake is safe try lookin under stuff in dark places
i hope this helped
zach