Animals pulling vanishing acts.....

Hamadryad

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 2, 2002
Messages
151
So, have you all ever noticed how when an animal manages to escape from its enclosure that they somehow seem to vanish off the face of the earth until they decide to appear again...IF they ever appear again?? My baby male Ball Python "Cypher" escaped from his enclosure three nights ago and I practically tore my apartment apart looking everywhere possible for him.I had pretty much resigned myself that the must have escaped to the outside world :)eek: horrors ) and that I would never see him again.I was pretty bummed about it too.

So I was sitting here at the computer when I turn my head and there he is slithering across my kitchen floor!! I grabbed him (which isnt really hard ya know...not like chasing a Tokay Gecko around which I have done in the past....:eek: ) he was so cold...I tucked him under my shirt and went and watched TV with him for about an hour till he was all toasty warm again.I then took him back to his enclosure and reunited him with his mate "Trinity" ( Re-united, cuz it feels sooo good...) :}

I have had numerous animals escape on me and it is always on THEIR terms that I manage to find them.That is why I think I will decline the wonder and joy of keeping anything like a Yellow Fattail Scorpion or any Vietnamese centipedes again...I realized that if one of those buggers gets out you got problems!!!!;P ;P

The Evil Spider Hunter
 

Silver.x

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 16, 2003
Messages
806
lol, great story, but you realize that you sometime NEED to use the locks on those enclosures right? lol, just joking with ya. Glad you found it before it got into something it shouldn't!
 

Joe

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
192
In all my years of keeping herps, I've only had one get loose on me: it was a 4 foot Burmese python. Unfortunately it also happened to be the meanest snake I've ever owned. The kind that will strike the glass if you walk by his aquarium. I tore the house apart looking for him, afraid to tell my dad because he's petrified of snakes. I gave up after about two days only to come home one night and find him back in his cage with the latches firmly locked (I think I had forgotten to latch the top after I fed him). That was about 7 years ago, and I never did ask my dad about it. He must have been the one to find my Burmese and put him back though, as he's the only other person living here. I think when he wakes up later, I'm gonna ask him about it.
 

rapunzel

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 17, 2003
Messages
750
ive had my share of escapes.

pregnant with my son...very pregnant and my exhusbands Tokay got loose. Found it a couple days later on the CRIB. Made him sell the Tokay.
My exhusbands ball python..because he was drunk and stupid. Left it on the couch while he went to get another drink. Didnt find that until we SMELLED it, dead inside the springs of the couch.

Ironically, that is how he got his kingsnake though. It appeared in my cousins apartment, and because she was manager of the building, nobody would claim it as theirs-so she gave it to him.

Ive had hamsters get loose and have BABIES while out.

But, of all my critters...the worst loss was my a. geniculata, gone for a month. FOund when it decided to appear on the bathroom floor, molted and healthy.
 

Gillian

Arachnoblessed
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
1,123
SH,
I strongly agree with you theory. My 1st snake ever, a Creamsicle Corn Snake, escaped from a enclosure I had her in. (I hadn't learned the rule of "if the head can fit in, the rest of the body follows".

She was a hatchling, which means she was under 12 inches. She was a very tiny cornie, and even the tiniest(sp?) of pinkies was almost too much for her.

Needless to say, I was crushed. I tore the entire 2,000 sq. ft. house apart, for a week straight. I admitted defeat, and gave up. I was crushed, to think that she was going to starve to death, because I was an idiot in not keeping her in a proper enclosure.

I had even denied myself anymore snakes, because of this.

Cut to Halloween, when I was bringing my niece back, from trick or treating. We were walking in the front door, across the ceramic tile in the entry way. As we entered the kitchen, I saw movement on the floor, in front of me.

My eyes went down, to see a pearly white, orange and red VERY skinny snake, absorbing heat rising up through the heater pipes for the baseboard heating. I dropped everything, and grabbed her. 8 months later, Kaia had found me.

I had to baby her for awhile, but in typical cornie fashion, she bounced back.:)

Peace, light & eternal love..
Gillian
)0(
 

Gillian

Arachnoblessed
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
1,123
Originally posted by SaIiLdVaEnR
lol, great story, but you realize that you sometime NEED to use the locks on those enclosures right? lol, just joking with ya. Glad you found it before it got into something it shouldn't!
I use bricks on Othello's cage (Ball Python). One on each corner. Shadow isn't big enough yet, for these. But, he's in an Island Terrarium, with locking lids.
Peace, light & eternal love..
Gillian
)0(
 

atavuss

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
1,031
when I first started keeping snakes I was using leftover fish aquariums I had laying around. I quickly found that they make poor enclosures for snakes and switched all the herps over to sliding screen topped reptile enclosures.
I don't bother with the screened tops for my bearded dragon and blue tongue skinks as they are too porky to jump or reach the top of their enclosures.
Ed
 

Valael

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
756
My Yellow Anaconda has proven to be quite the escape artist. I've never had anything else get out (Except my first tarantula, which I found back within an hour or two.)

I had all sorts of weight on top of his cage, but then he went for the screening and ripped it loose.

Worst thing is, his cage is right next to our storage room with dozens of boxes, unfinished walls, and shelves built into the wall (That are probably 3 inches off the ground). I'd have better luck with the needle in a haystack thing.
 

Betty

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 9, 2003
Messages
215
I had a salamander escape once, and I found it years later, mummified behind a bookshelf. :eek:

An aquaintance of mine owns a little shop inside of a strip mall. The previous owner had a petstore there, and had snakes escape all the time. Even though it was a couple years ago, even now snakes weave their way through the vents above and fall on the heads of customers below! =D
 

Gillian

Arachnoblessed
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
1,123
Originally posted by atavuss

I don't bother with the screened tops for my bearded dragon and blue tongue skinks as they are too porky to jump or reach the top of their enclosures.
Ed

LOLOLOLOLOL
Peace, light & eternal love...
Gillian
)0(
 

scorpio

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Messages
694
Let me tell you the magic tale of cocoa the hamster.

Well, about 4 years ago, I was heavy into hamster breeding. I had around 65 hamsters at one point within 3 10 gallons, one 29 gallon that I turned into a city, and two 5 gallons.

One of these ten gallons held a rich chocolate color dwarf hamster that I was able to breed into a blotched chocolate/white mix which Ive rarely seen. So one morning, I wake up and I peer into the 10 gallon.........no hamsters, dictionary on top of snug fitting top and absolutely no way they could reach the top.

So 8 hamster babies at around fuzzy size and a huge adult hamster disapeared in one night with the only obvious reason being....they were abducted by aliens or one of my 7 snakes .....not sure =D

-----

Then there is my 20 inch female sand boa that climbs up the side of a 20 gallon and lifts itself out. Shes not too special. Shes done this maybe 12 times or so and I always find her in the same general spot. It only happens when I forget to re apply the tape that holds the lid down.

Anyway, the hamster baffled me and I still wonder how it happened.
 
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