banging head on lid....

[norbert03]

aelfric has been trying desparately to escape for about three days now. he slithers up his vines and along side the upper rim of the enclosure and then he starts banging his head on the lid trying to get it to open. it's very interesting. he also seemed to be trying to bite his way out. there's no way for him to escape, he is locked in real good. i just moved last saturday so i gave both snakes more time to adjust again, but last night he started trying to escape again so i took him out for play and he was completely calm as usual. i was concerned that if he got into the habit of trying to bite his way out of his cage that he would get into the habit of biting me. i can't really prevent this behavior and it's not harmful in anyway that i can determine. has anyone seen anything similar?

 

[Sisuitl]

I would just be concerned that he'll think that if he bites the lid, someone will let him out, which is essentially accomplishing his goal. Is there any way he might get hurt from that? Hopefully he's not rubbing his head or anything.

He probably wouldn't bite you since he's already out, and that's the point of biting in the first place.

 

[mbdorfer]

Any type of injury to the mouth is highly undesirable, as it can potentially lead to the dreaded mouth rot. I would remove the vines, and make it harder for the snake to reach the rim, especially if the vines offer body support enough that he can concentrate on "biting his way out". :cheers:

 

[KatieL]

We went through something fairly similar. After Sienna escaped (albeit briefly) she spent the next month trying to get out again. Every night she would try to shove the corner of the lid open with her head for hours! She could lift it up a millimeter or two, but not enough to squeeze her head in. Well, she would try to hold it up, but inevitably would have to give up and let it slam back down (that'll scare you awake!). We just left her alone when she did it, and like I said before, after about a month she gave it up and went back to her usual quiet self.

Good luck with the lid-biting thing, hopefully he'll give up on that one real soon.

 

[Forrest]

I find this interesting. I've seen my snakes explore, but never agressively try to escape. Also, I too would be concerned about such a snake damaging his/her mouth by trying to bite a lid. (Mine are metal screen lids, which I imagine could hurt a snake if they bit it agressively.)

 

[norbert03]

i will keep an eye on him...

and will probably upgrade to a 20 gallon tank sooner than planned. i want the vines in the enclosure so he has something to climb up on, but his determination to escape and his methods of choice are slightly disturbing. he's escaped before, for two months and now he is locked in REAL good. i just moved last week, perhaps he is adjusting to his new environment.

 

[barret]

Both of my snakes try to escape when ever I have the lights out and turn them back on. They will lick (or sniff) the top of the cage for hours until I turn the lights on. I'm not sure if they're trying to escape or if they're just exploring, they've never escaped before.

 

[celbii]

i pretty much have the same problem, except he will climb along inside the lid area where it meats the top of the cage and has a ledge like thingy, cept he usally uses his plant or fake tree to get up there, although he can get up there himself by climbing up the glass.