Hi everyone. I would first off like to apologize for the long post.
I'm a long time creeper, and fairly new to posting. I own a variety of snakes. 15 of them being corns.
I decided to write this here, as everyone seems so kind and I feel could understand my situation. Also the person that is also involved in this situation isn't a member on here, but is part of the same Facebook groups I am.
With my plethora of snakes, I have had two short term loses. Both due to "technical" difficulties. The first time was with my baby avalanche Cobain escaping from a new hatchling rack because the PVC bowed up and left a small enough gap for him to squeeze out of the tub. We noticed the escape within 3 hours and found him behind the rack (saw the reflection of his eye when we shone a flashlight back there).
The second escapee was my tessera Romeo. We upgraded him to a front opening PVC tank (from Cornel's World if anyone knows the style) and a week later went to the Dominican for a wedding. My friend who was in charge of coming in and watering and feeding let me know that Romeo was no where to be found (we still had 3 days left on our vacation at this point) and that they looked around and couldn't find him. To say we were stressed is an understatement. Upon returning home at midnight, we stayed up looking for the escaped convict. My boyfriend starting looking through all the other snake tanks (Romeo escaped by squeezing out of the vent at the back, so we figured he could squeeze into another one). While he did that I put together some snake bottle traps. Afterwards I started looking around. 10 minutes into looking I found him in a bag of clothes for donation in my closest. I opened up the garbage bag and he just sweetly looked up at me and was all "oh hi mom!".
Now brings me to the issue that is causing me to write. I recently put my place up for sale (upgrading to a bigger place, mostly to make room for more snakes haha.) I know how squeamish some people can be about reptiles, especially snakes, so my collection went to my friends house. I still go multiple times a week to clean poop, give water, and on feeding day. I also usually go the day after feeding day to make sure everyone ate, and to throw out uneaten food. Last Sunday everyone had eaten except for one little guy. I had recently gotten a pair of Honduran Milksnakes. The male being a lovely and feisty little ghost, and the female is a skittish anery. The male (Chaplin) hadn't eaten and I asked my friend if she could check on him as he was the only one. She let me know he didn't eat and she had thrown out the pinky. When I showed up on Thursday to fill up water dishes and to clean out poop, my heart sunk. I noticed that the tub Chaplin was in was open about an inch. Turns out my friend didn't close it all the way after taking out the pinky.
Chaplin has been gone for over a week now. The snakes are housed in their unfinished basement which is absolutely packed in a section with their stuff. There's no way for me to systematically go through everything in a space as big and cluttered as this one. I feel super helpless, and kind of hopeless about the situation.
We did go through the pile of laundry they had on the ground, and as many places as we could think of. There's just SO many hiding places. There is a freezer down there, so I put a bowl of water in the back of the freezer where it is warm, and surrounded the freezer with flour to look for any movement. Besides that, I'm not sure what to do.
I guess I am looking for advice, but also looking for some snake friendly shoulders to lament on.
Where have you found your lost snakes in the past? How long was it before they were found?
I'm a long time creeper, and fairly new to posting. I own a variety of snakes. 15 of them being corns.
I decided to write this here, as everyone seems so kind and I feel could understand my situation. Also the person that is also involved in this situation isn't a member on here, but is part of the same Facebook groups I am.
With my plethora of snakes, I have had two short term loses. Both due to "technical" difficulties. The first time was with my baby avalanche Cobain escaping from a new hatchling rack because the PVC bowed up and left a small enough gap for him to squeeze out of the tub. We noticed the escape within 3 hours and found him behind the rack (saw the reflection of his eye when we shone a flashlight back there).
The second escapee was my tessera Romeo. We upgraded him to a front opening PVC tank (from Cornel's World if anyone knows the style) and a week later went to the Dominican for a wedding. My friend who was in charge of coming in and watering and feeding let me know that Romeo was no where to be found (we still had 3 days left on our vacation at this point) and that they looked around and couldn't find him. To say we were stressed is an understatement. Upon returning home at midnight, we stayed up looking for the escaped convict. My boyfriend starting looking through all the other snake tanks (Romeo escaped by squeezing out of the vent at the back, so we figured he could squeeze into another one). While he did that I put together some snake bottle traps. Afterwards I started looking around. 10 minutes into looking I found him in a bag of clothes for donation in my closest. I opened up the garbage bag and he just sweetly looked up at me and was all "oh hi mom!".
Now brings me to the issue that is causing me to write. I recently put my place up for sale (upgrading to a bigger place, mostly to make room for more snakes haha.) I know how squeamish some people can be about reptiles, especially snakes, so my collection went to my friends house. I still go multiple times a week to clean poop, give water, and on feeding day. I also usually go the day after feeding day to make sure everyone ate, and to throw out uneaten food. Last Sunday everyone had eaten except for one little guy. I had recently gotten a pair of Honduran Milksnakes. The male being a lovely and feisty little ghost, and the female is a skittish anery. The male (Chaplin) hadn't eaten and I asked my friend if she could check on him as he was the only one. She let me know he didn't eat and she had thrown out the pinky. When I showed up on Thursday to fill up water dishes and to clean out poop, my heart sunk. I noticed that the tub Chaplin was in was open about an inch. Turns out my friend didn't close it all the way after taking out the pinky.
Chaplin has been gone for over a week now. The snakes are housed in their unfinished basement which is absolutely packed in a section with their stuff. There's no way for me to systematically go through everything in a space as big and cluttered as this one. I feel super helpless, and kind of hopeless about the situation.
We did go through the pile of laundry they had on the ground, and as many places as we could think of. There's just SO many hiding places. There is a freezer down there, so I put a bowl of water in the back of the freezer where it is warm, and surrounded the freezer with flour to look for any movement. Besides that, I'm not sure what to do.
I guess I am looking for advice, but also looking for some snake friendly shoulders to lament on.
Where have you found your lost snakes in the past? How long was it before they were found?