And of course, as I was getting ready to cure my snake’s supposed scale rot, he escaped his quarantine bin.
If anyone has any tips or advice or even knows of anyone I can call to come and find him, please let me know.
I searched my whole room top to bottom for an hour last night, before getting my mom and then we searched the whole upstairs. Couldn’t find him. I put plastic bags all around the baseboards of my room last night and stayed up hoping he would make some noise,and he hasn’t shown up.
This morning I went through the whole upstairs again and checked everywhere, and I mean everywhere. All my sweatshirts, my little siblings lego bins, their clothes, my clothes, their bedrooms, the living room, the playroom. He’s nowhere.
I’ve set up his enclosure again hoping the warmth of his lamp will coax him back in. Going to put out a mouse and hopefully he eats it and can give me some peace of mind he’s alive.
If anyone has any advice or tips please let me know. This has never happened in the two years that I’ve had him, and I’ve kept him in this tub before and I didn’t think he would be able to get out. I had him in there two nights ago and he was fine. I feel so bad and like such a bad snake mom and I am royally freaking out.
Update: My godsend of a mom found him nestled under my dad’s desk while i was at work. thank you to everyone for their advice and help you guys are amazing💚
Make sure the snake isn’t actually still in the tank or stuck in some decor. Start looking there and slowly work your way outward.
Set up baited bottle traps and crinkly plastic bags along walls it’s most likely to travel, and keep eyes and ears open when they’re most active in the hours just after sunset and just before dawn. Good luck!
It happens to the best of us, even the pros. Don’t beat yourself up too much.
Hold the phone for a minute. Are you SURE the snake is not still in the enclosure? The last time someone posted with this same problem their baby corn was all jammed up nice and cozy in a castle in the enclosure happy as a clam. The owner swore the enclosure was searched thoroughly multiple times. The owner spent some days searching everywhere in the room and house. I think finally the owner searched a tiny area inside the castle and found the little bugger.
You can put short strips of masking tape along the baseboards, sticky side out, with several tiny metal bells attached to them. Snakes will usually slither in one direction until they hit something (baseboards) then travel along it. You can get the bells from a craft store.
I really hesitate to give this advice because there’s a reason you should NEVER put tape of any kind on the inside of a snake’s enclosure. Removing tape from a snake can tear the skin. There are ways to remove sticky stuff while limiting the damage with non-stick cooking spray, olive oil or mineral oil. There’s a YouTube video by Emily and Ed from Snake Discovery freeing a Kingsnake from a “sticky trap” with mineral oil. If you go this route, you MUST stay in the room the entire time the tape is down so you can be ready the moment the snake hits the trap. If you are a heavy sleeper, you might not want to leave the trap down while you sleep.
I think some people have sprinkled flour on the floor by the baseboards. But that’ll just tell you if the snake has slithered through it; it does nothing for catching the snake.
Leaving the enclosure open in the hopes that it returns to the warm spot, yeah, I think that’s giving ANY snake way more credit than they deserve. I would not leave the enclosure open as the snake could still be in there. Now, live rodents is definitely good smelly bait.
Crinkly, crunchy, plastic bags near the baseboards sounds safe if you don’t use tape to stick them in place. Probably a very low chance of asphyxiation. I’m not sure if I would leave these down if I left the house for very long.
This is a sub-adult/adult that was in a quarantine enclosure with minimal fixtures, you can find photos in the OP’s other thread.
Murphy’s Law of snake ownership: An escaped snake is an inevitability if you keep for long enough. Even I’ve had one get out (and mine was much smaller). Chances are he’s not going to go back to the enclosure, though weirder things have happened. If you do try something like a bottle trap, you’re going to need one big enough for your boy to fit through the opening and I’m not sure if he’s too big for most sizes or not.
Like @deanaii said, best time to look is early morning and in the evening, as corns are most active at dawn and dusk. Be sure there’s nowhere where he can get into the walls, keep an eye on any warm areas of your room/the rest of the house. Snakes like small, tight spaces, so anywhere he can slither into needs to be checked. If you can, leave the door to your room closed and block any space under the door so that if he is still inside, he stays there. Don’t give up, I’ve got two separate snakes that were found months after they disappeared. One after 6 months, the other after 18.
