First Snake Escape Scare (A - OK)! WHEW!

Sooo... last night I took my son up to go to bed. Every night, he likes to go in my wife and I's room to look in the vivs and say good night to the snakes. Welll, last night, we see Cruella chilling in the corner of her cave hide per usual (her new favorite spot this month) and look over to Leoric's viv. Earlier we had seen hims cope out both of his hides, but he wasn't in either when we looked before bed. It being the first night we had him and him being tiny (even though we have a snap in place lid that is essentially air tight), we decided to check to see if he was under the aspen bedding as it's tough to find a Golddust cornsnake in that stuff visually from the outside.

As I dug, I dug and I dug, I started to do so more meticulously. I took the hides out, looked inside of them and didn't see him. I took the water and plants out and went inch by inch covering his whole viv. No where...

I told the kid to go grab mom as we were going to have her look through once while I rearranged the dressers, opened drawers, looked through nearby clothes piles, etc. No where. The wife didn't see him in her check.

Finally the kid asked, "dad, are you sure she's not in her hides?" And I said, "Yes, Matthew, look." And I shook the two and looked inside. Then I decided I'd bang the sphinx on the ground a couple times just in case. Low and behold he comes out of one of the very short, stubby and dark legs that you can't see into very well and finds himself dazed on the floor. I snatched him up and we all wiped our brow.

We put him in and decided from now on to verify the snapping lid was closed all the way each time we close it and that we visually see him in his tank. We all wiped our brow and did our bed times reading for the night very thankful that Leoric was still with us.

WHEW!

Got some great advice on my blog here:

http://www.iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=160522

And will be picking up a new hide for Leoric to replace the current one during lunch today. Real happy to have the networks I do in regards to herping. All of the folks that I have spoken to and gotten to be good friends with really help me understand the hobby and these animals more every day.

It is always nice to read an escape (almost) story with a happy ending.

Supreme and utter monkey flipping tilt

O-M-G, I wanted to kill my stupid cat when I got home today. I go into our bedroom where we house the snakes on our dresser and see that my cat not only decided she would jump on the wire mesh cage I have (sliding zoo med), but BUST the screen open while I was at work. This HAD to have been from her weight as she doesn't have claws and I didn't see evidence of the back paws tearing it. It was just completely off and busted.

So, I just sat for a moment in shock and didn't do anything. I slowly walked over and not too many things seemed out of place... I shuffled them around and saw no snake. I lifted them out checking inside each hide (these have no secret or nook spots) and placed them out of the viv when I realized she wasn't in these. Then I began the process of shoveling around the aspen bedding...

After I got from left to about center of the viv, Leoric popped out. BOY was he pissed. I either woke him, or he was in shock from the cat earlier, because when I picked him up by his midsection he struck me four times (mouth closed, albeit once, but he never latched). I calmed when I held him for 20 seconds or so and stopped wiggling and striking and then was chill. I held him for a good 10 minutes. Kind of wanted to let him know, "look dude, it wasn't me."

Now you can say I've had my string of bad luck in the last two days, but this snake has started to feel like a bad omen and I feel terrible for his first couple days being so crappy at home. So, I went out, got the same viv Cruella is in with a steel ventilated top you can get at Petsmart. Put the locking clips on, got velcro around to secure it (just in case) and made sure it was as tight as possible, letting the little guy back in to enjoy his home again.

Since I messed up with his viv furniture before and the theme was ruined when I threw the Sphinx away (due to advice on iherp), I decided to go with a different one. Helicopter crash in a jungle type style (less plants obviously). Anyway, pic of the new viv set up. None of Leoric as I just wanted to get him back in undisturbed and have him chill for a few days. Hopefully, without me having to bug him again so he can get used to stuff.

Ugh... please tell me I have passed the worry phase and am good to go with this hatchling... geez.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was look over at Leoric's vivarium as the last two days have just not gone well with him. I saw the tank in one piece, so that was definitely a plus. I walked over, turned my flashlight app on and poked around his hides to see what he was up to. Comfortably chillin' on a little ledge of his helicopter hide all coiled up happily. Yesterday he spent most of the afternoon and evening inside his tree stump hide and seemed to like that, so it looks like he's finally found some normalcy and is enjoying his new surroundings. Will try and get pics after this weekend after he settles in a bit more.

That's good - be careful with that helicopter hide as he grows, though. Looks like several good places he might get stuck...

Absolutely Guru. It will be changed out accordingly. This should easily last him over a year plus. I learned my lesson with the Sphinx hide. I checked for nooks, crevices, areas he could get trapped. Until he gets any type of large growth girth wise, there is no issue. I checked all the entrances to ensure.