Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday night I lost my baby bloodred! I don't know why but somehow the cage top was left slightly ajar and he wriggled thru. I checked when I got home at about 9:30-10 PM and when I was getting ready for bed a few hours later he was gone. The tank was on my dresser and my room is a FREAKIN MAZE of hiding spots and it would just be impossible to check thru the whole room because it's packed so full of my stuff. I already have one of the 2 liter traps set up in my room with a pinky and a heat lamp over it(wondering if I should take away the heat lamp, I'm in Cali and in my room its about 75-80 in daytime and around 70 at night, and I'm wondering if all the heat from the 75w spot lamp would scare it away). Any help would be appreciated.

If he could get out of the room and you you have a basement check there. For some reason mine always go down around the sump pump. Most likely because of thirst. A lack of water will be a problem before a lack of food will.

no basement. They're pretty rare here in CA. i have a small dish of water set up and there also is the cats dish in the kitchen.

This probably should go in the lost/escaped pets forum but no one looks at that one and this one has more people on it.

when ever any of my snakes have escaped i always find them in one of 3 places.

#1 - the airing cupboard, warm and dark, what else does a snake want,

#2 - behind the radiator, again warm and dark,

#3 - under the bood shelf, dark and a confined space so they feel secure.

so id give you the same advice, check all the warmed and darkest places you can think of. and dont look at that over crowded book shelf and think, theres no way to get under there, my book shelf has only a 4 milli gap underneath one ende, but my 5 foot male amelistic always seems to get under their somehow!

good luck in finding him.
p.s. dont worry,...even if he's a hatchling he should be able to go a good 3weeks without water so you have every chance, and also look at this as a eccuse to finally clean your room up

You also dont want to search for it?Why did you post?...Paul

No i don't know how the lid was put on wrong. it's never happened before. I have a very unusually lid. It's plastic with slats in the top and it's hinged with the back of the tank. I think it was because of these plants i have hanging from the top that got caught in the back and pushed the lid too far forward so it got caught on the front edge of the tank and didn't sit all the way down like it was supposed to.
I wasn't saying I didn't want to look I'm just saying it's gonna suck because my room is so full of stuff. I've looked through my closet, under my bed, behind both dressers and the TV stand, behind the entertainment center, under the fridge and the TV, under 2 couches, and even on the top of the entertainment center and still nothing. It's only been a day though so i'm still hopeful. It's my mom i'm worried about, she gets really attached to animals and she's so worried somethings going to happen to him.

Normally they stay close to where they escaped.The bottle trick might work I wouldnt use the light.You have to fine comb through everything in your room.Juvies(worms) can hide anyplace and are hard as heck to find.Good luck..Paul

Here's a bunch of the ideas I got when I first posted a lost snake post a couple of years ago. Not sure which of these might actually work, but. . .

First of all, clean up the room as much as possible where you think the snake is. Check small dark spaces (shoes). Don't assume the snake has gone far. Scatter hidies around (for a baby, I'd suggest a number of penny rolls). Leave a dish of water out. If you don't have carpeting put flour around it (you should be able to tell if the snake has crawled over the flour). Check the hidies every morning.

I've heard look upstairs, and I've heard look down.

I've also heard that loud low sounds (a stereo on high bass) will bring snakes out. (didn't work for us, but worth the try).

Try bringing a cat into the room after nightfall, and watch the cat closely. He might hear the snake moving around, when you might not (do not leave the cat unsupervised).

Use Murphy's law. Invite the most snake phobic person you know to spend the night. He/she will find the snake in the bathroom at the most inopportune time

We've lost a number of baby snakes over the years, and seem to find about half of them before the cats do. We've also lost one who was never found, and found one that we weren't expecting (escaped from the incubator, and I never realized he existed until we found him, alive and well by the cats' water dish, double checked the boxes and found we already had an occupant in each one).
Good Luck
Corinne
dragonfly@w-link.net

I lost my corn snake a week ago and i was so upset...my cat sat on the cage while sleeping and the wire couldn`t hold his weight and it caved in!!!! So i came home from work early to look for her no luck....then we found her under the fridge, even though we looked under there early she ended up there later, my point being they keep on moving and might not be in the same spot but might end up there again later...good luck!

Mom found him late last night. She was walking out of the bathroom and heard the cat jump in the bathtub. She turned around and saw the cat was staring at a towel draped over the edge of the tub. She lifted up the towel and there he was. We put him in my king snake's more secure tank and moved my king back into her old tank that the corn escaped from. The tank i had my king in is very secure. The top slides in from the front so it cant be pushed up and it has 2 pins you put in at the front so it cant be pulled out.
So after setting up 3 bottle traps, laying flour at the doorways, and tearing my room apart the cat finds him. That's my life. Thanks to everyone who helped!

Congrats on finding your corn...Paul