I think I see the problem. It looks like the spaces in the cage are large enough for him to get thru. Lol
5 Likes
When I first brought my baby iguana home. He managed to somehow get out of his enclosure. I go to check on him after I get back from running errands and he isn’t in his enclosure. I start freaking out because he’s a tiny baby iguana and the apartment is pretty good size. I look around for him everywhere, checking every room and behind furniture. Scared he is now lost and I won’t be able to find him. Only to get back up from looking behind the tv stand, turn around and I finally see him, on the back of the sofa…full on sleeping 
I was so relieved when I found him lol. This wasn’t the only time he’s managed to escape either…
Many months later he manages to squeeze through the bars of his upgraded enclosure and disappears for over a week. Tore the entire apartment apart, he can’t be found anywhere. thankfully there isn’t a way for him to escape outside from inside the apartment. I eventually get worried he managed to get into the hidden hole in the wall in the utility room. I began to accept maybe he got stuck in the wall somewhere and decided to wait and see if he would make an appearance. Made sure I had food and water laid out so he could eat and drink should he resurface. Food untouched and time goes on…he eventually shows himself. He is found on top of the mirror of one of the dressers, just chilling like nothing happened or it was completely normal for him to vanish for over a week lol. I definitely made sure that nothing else he would live in he could escape and no more escapes so far!
4 Likes
I was breeding tarantulas. The ex had a couple of BP’s. We kept them all in one room. As I walked past my rack of tarantula enclosures, I seen the head of the ex’s male BP looking back at me from between enclosures. Fourth shelve up at eye level.
It was one of those moments where you stop , digest what you just seen and take a step back to make sure you really seen what you think you had.
5 Likes
If he lived with my tortoise, yes.
1 Like
Well today I’ve been granted a new story. One of my leucomelas dart frogs jumped out of the viv right as I opened the door and landed right in the tiny trash can in the room. Luckily I had just taken the trash out and replaced the bag.
5 Likes
Yikes! It sounds lucky that it landed in the trash can rather than escaping.
4 Likes
Last night, I opened my ball python’s enclosure, then suddenly had to go into the other room to take care of a few things, but I was out of the room for long enough that I forgot to go back into the reptile room. About half an hour later, I remembered, so I ran back into the reptile room, and luckily he had only made it two feet away from his enclosure, so it ended fine, but from now on, I’m gonna make sure that he’s in the enclosure and the door is closed and locked before I leave the room.
6 Likes
I finally found my escapee! 25 days later! Honestly I’m shocked it took me this long to find her given how small my apartment is
10 Likes
WHERE WAS SHE?!
I’m so glad she showed back up!
2 Likes
Thank you!!! Me too, I am so happy and relieved, she’s my favorite of all my babies. I have absolutely no idea where she was hiding, but I woke up to a noise in the living room last night and when I went to check, she was just chilling on the couch
7 Likes
I’d be absolutely devastated if I lost a snake that beautiful!
1 Like
“Hey mom! Got any rats? I’m starved!” I’ve been hoping she’d turn up soon!
4 Likes
Reviving this thread for my own wild adventure, and in case this helps other people:
My very small Black African House Snake somehow managed to get out of his bin and I was PANICKED. I turned the house upside down trying to find him. Expert advice from Emily of Snake Discovery and Clint of Clint’s Reptiles is to Think like a snake, follow the wall, and go downward. That led me to the laundry room in the basement. It’s dark and cool down there.
I had the inspiration to set a “Heat Trap”- I put his heating mat, still on a safe temp via thermostat, under a bin down there so it would be in a snug and tempting place to hide. It’s chilly down there and I hoped he’d seek the heat. I put a similar “trap” in other locations too.
This morning, guess who was coiled up on that heat mat? IT WORKED. Found within 48 hours!
So if your snake is missing, and you think you know where it most likely might have gone, like your cool dark basement or cellar, try making a nice safe warm place for it to go to, then check that spot in the mornings.
7 Likes
I forgot to lock the door to my reptile quarantine room the other day and my cat got in overnight. She knocked over the quarantine bin that my newest hognose is living in. I woke up and I went into the room to check on the hognose. I saw the bin on the ground and freaked out. I cleaned up the room a bit and searched for the hognose and couldn’t find it anywhere. I eventually gave up and went to work. When I got home, I walked back into the room and the hognose was right on the floor. I picked her up to see if she was at all injured, and she was totally fine. That was definitely one of the saddest, scariest and least productive days of my life.
9 Likes
He’s just waiting for rat time 
5 Likes
Both my escape stories involve reptiles that belonged to my former roommate.
First was her crestie, Mork. She’d gotten him a fogger for his enclosure, but didn’t do a great job installing it and left a small gap in the lid where she’d inserted the hose. We both thought the gap was too small for him to squeeze through. The next day, she bursts into my room in tears, telling me that she can’t find Mork in his enclosure and was pretty sure he’d escaped. Her boyfriend and I start tearing her room apart looking for Mork, and my poor roommate is already bracing herself for the worst, convinced we’ll never find him and that the cats probably got him (and she adores that gecko, so she was really, really upset, understandably). Fortunately, after a few minutes of searching, her boyfriend finds him clinging to her window curtain just a couple feet from his enclosure.
Second was her large male ball python, Monty. She’d recently found this great homemade reptile rack-like thing on Craigslist. It wasn’t a usual rack with tubs, but instead was like a giant cabinet with five 4’x2’x12" compartments arranged vertically, each with sliding glass doors in front, complete with wiring and fixtures for lighting and heating elements. Each compartment had two circular holes cut in the back wall, and into each hole fitted slotted plastic vents. It was a great find and was a steal at $100 (it had some cosmetic wear and tear, but was still perfectly functional). Anyway, she decides to move Monty the bp into one of the compartments, prepares it for him, and brings him down to the living room to put him in his new home. As she’s putting him in, she noticed that one of the plastic vent inserts in his compartment has popped out, leaving a small open hole in the back wall of the compartment, so she puts Monty in, closes the glass doors, and goes to the kitchen to get some duct tape to re-secure the vent. She didn’t think the hole was large enough for Monty to fit through…but you can probably all predict what happened next. She returns moments later to find Monty has managed to squeeze most of his body through the hole and is merrily proceeding into the abyss between this giant, HEAVY reptile cabinet and the living room wall. Fortunately she managed to grab him and pull him back through the hole before he got all the way out. 
If he’d managed to get between the wall and the cabinet, it would have been a nightmare trying to retrieve him, because that thing was probably the heaviest piece of furniture I’ve ever encountered. Even just scooting it back from the wall by a couple inches would have required a huge effort by multiple people.
We also had a lot of cockroaches escape when we kept a colony to feed the lizards, but that wasn’t nearly as stressful.
4 Likes
This happened a few months back.
The offender: Tulip
Hubs had left the enclosure open by accident (thought I was coming behind him with food.) and Tulip was nowhere to be found. Tore apart the bedroom. Looked in nooks and crannies. Matt’s freaking out, I’m freaking out. Had just about given up, I’m sitting in the dog bed trying to look for any routes she may have taken.
Then it hits me; Tulip LOVES to hide in the paper towel. I’d made Matt check the paper towel in the enclosure like three times. Under our Leo’s cage was a crumpled piece of paper towel. Don’t know why I thought to check, but I was glad I did! The stinker was burrowed in the paper towel. 
A little chilly but otherwise fine!
7 Likes
That’s crazy! I’m glad you were able to find him, they always seem to end up in the weirdest spots, lol. Just a couple days ago I was misting my crested gecko enclosure (with two adult females) and one of the geckos was on the door. Since they’re usually calm I opened it a little bit to mist the enclosure. Then she pokes her head out and starts climbing out, I tried to stop her but she jumped on the lid and on the wall behind it. Luckily I had a 32 oz deli cup I was able to get her to start climbing into and I could move her, lol. That sure didn’t help with my confidence handling them.
3 Likes
About had a heart attack last night. One of my yearling checkered garters vaulted itself out of their bin. Before I could even move, he’d vanished under other bins. My room is…a bit of a pigsty, so I absolutely lost it and started tearing the place apart. Found him behind my giant, heavy dresser (also stacked with enclosures) and had to hulk it out of the way enough to get a snake hook behind and coax it back out. Have now realized I will need to upgrade garter bins sooner rather than later.
7 Likes