Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just got back from a surprise vacation to New Orleans with my girlfriend only to find MIA hatchling #2... This especiall sucks because my newest MIA is one my dad hand picked out from the clutch to keep for his own...

Everyone is double (well triple) caged right now... just don't understand how they got out of their plastic shoebox with snap lid...

thanks

The gaps around the lid are too large. Reinforce them with tape, ASAP.

I can completely understand your dilemma. Let me tell you my story from my very first clutch (which hatched starting June 21st). They weren't corn snakes, but the thought remains the same:

8 hatchlings. one died due to pulling it's innards out with the umbilicus.

Of the seven remaining I put them all in my newly purchased hatchling rack. A few hours later I went back into that room only to find one missing. Luckily it had fallen right into an empty trash can and boy did it look up at me with indignation. I contacted the manufacturer of the rack and found that there was an intentional gap along the back (?) for heat tape. I taped cardboard to the back so as to make a more snug fit. The next time I checked one that had been named by my stepson was missing. From the snug-est cage on the rack. That one came slithering up to me later in the day. So far, two escapes, two recaptures.

After so many problems with my very expensive and now useless hatchling rack, I just put the lids on the sterilites knowing they would be safe and secure. The next day I went to feed the little buggers, and two out of seven were gone! Dang it all! Even the sterilite lids weren't enough to keep them in. Got some deli cups (from the deli... YUMMY potato salad, seafood salad, etc), ate the contents, had hubby punch holes, and put the remaining five hatchlings in deli cups in the hatchling rack sterilites. NO escapes.

Luckily my step-daughter found one of the two escapees, and I was sort of fed up with their escape-abilities, and broke, so I wholesaled five of the six remaining snakes to a nearbye petstore.

A week later, hubby was out watering the garden (mind you, it's 115 degrees out at that moment), and notices the last missing hatchling crawling in the crabgrass. YAY... all of the MIA hatchlings finally caught.

My plan is with my next clutch, due to hatch at any time, I'll get some glad plastic storage containers and have hubby punch holes. I'll put those into the hatchling rack for double caging. Next year I hope to build my own rack system and hope it is secure enough for all my hatchlings.

to make a long story short I got my hatchlings back, and I'm hoping you get yours back also.
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~Sasheena