My garter got out!

[Dracaena828]

I made a grave mistake when cleaning out her tank earlier this evening and forgot to place the lightfixture that I use as a weight back on Azuli's tank lid. I was out at a movie when I got a frantic call from my mom who was picking up some stuff from my apartment that she had seen my new snake crawling under the futon in my living room. The futon was spread out like a bed and had tons of lumber underneath it for a tortoise tank project, so she couldn't see the snake once it went under. She kept an eye on the bed until I got home, but I don't think she watched it close enough because after carefully removing the wood piece by piece Azuli was not there. My sister and I went over every inch of this place and even moved all the books off my shelves and carefully leaned back each shelf to see if she was hiding in the gap underneath. This snake is no where to be found.... What do I do? Are there any tips to try and catch her, or lure her out of hiding? I have no idea where she could be.
She just shed last night and hasn't eaten for several days so she is quite hungry. I've had snakes escape before, but usually ones with much slower metabolisms, and never a gravid one. This escape worries me much more. Plus I have two ferrets and I am afraid to let them out of their cage until I find her. Please, any suggestions??
Angela

[Stefan-A]

Search the futon, look inside furniture (sofas, beds etc). Look in warm and humid places (bath room, kitchen). Look under clothes, carpets and in shoes. If you have the opportunity, isolate the room where it was last seen as quickly as possible, to make sure it doesn't escape. Put food, water and a hide with a heating mat beneath it somewhere in the house. Spread flour in the doorways and along walls. If it moves around, it will leave tracks and will tell you where it has been.

[Odie]

Dang, check everthing 18 times, lay out some food maybe :confused:

[mikm]

Hey Angela ... I am absolutely no good at finding lost snakes but I have read success stories :) . If you suspect 'under the futon' you might try putting a few plastic bags under there or abouts. The kind of bags you would typically get from a grocery store. The idea being that if the snake slithers near/across/in one of them the bag would make alot of noise hopefully alerting you.

best of luck ...

[adamanteus]

I think other people have said it all Angela. Hope you find her soon. Good luck.

[GarterGuy]

Sorry to hear this, I also haven't had much luck in finding missing snakes (lost 3 Sonora sp. in my apartment that I never found), but the suggestions everyone's made here sound good. Good luck.
Roy

[garterman07]

i hope you find her. i personally never have lost a snake and i never want too but i lost a tarantula once...i lured her out with a fresh mouse traped in a feeder box by here cage, she was missing 3 days and then i found her munching down the feeder mouse. but best of luck mate, put food out in other locations not just one area but multiple areas leave out water dishes like large pans or bowls it could get into because if its like mine it will love water.

[stonyloam]

I posted this once before, it may be of some help. Good luck.
I found this in the web, Google search “nuisance snakes NY”.


Direct capture methods and live traps for non-venomous snakes:
Pick them up, wearing heavy leather gloves for protection. Support the snake's entire body to keep it calm. Hold snakes behind the head, to keep them from biting you.
With care, snakes can also be captured with a "snake stick," which is a catchpole modified for snakes. A forked stick can also be used (carefully!) to pin down a snake.
They can be scooped into a garbage can using a scoop or shovel.
To live trap water snakes, add a brick-sized piece of Styrofoam to a minnow trap (so the trap will float, allowing the snake to surface for air). Bait with about a half-dozen minnows. Attach a rope to the trap for easy retrieval, then float it in near the shoreline.
If the snakes can't be found, you can lure them to a spot where they can be easily captured. Place piles of damp towels or burlap sacks on the floor, near the walls. Cover the pile with a dry burlap bag to keep it moist. In a few days, return to the pile during the middle of the day, when the snakes are most likely to be there. Scoop up the pile with a large shovel, put it into a large garbage can, and carry it outside.
Several variations on the above technique: Use a board or a piece of plywood instead of the pile of towels or burlap sacks. Place some decomposing grass clippings on top of the board, which should be 1" off the ground. Dead mice or mouse droppings placed underneath the board will help to attract snakes. Check every few days. This technique works well with garter snakes and black rat snakes, but is not as effective with water snakes.
Create a reptile tube trap, based on a technique suggested by HSUS animal capture consultant, Dave Pauli. Inside this trap, the temperature should be just right for the snake—more appealing than the surrounding area. The trap is a piece of thin-walled PVC tubing that's 2–3 ft. long. Drill a few 1/8" air holes along the length of the tube. Cap one end. In cold weather, place a disposable hand warmer, battery-operated electric sock, or heating pad in the far end of the tube, along with some soft cotton rags. If you have fresh rodent droppings, you may want to toss a few in there, too. (In hot weather, substitute an ice pack or cold, wet rag for the heat source.) Then drill a 1" hole into a cap and use it to cover the other end of the tube. Although the snakes can leave the trap, they usually stay inside because it's more comfortable for them. You can install a one- way valve by affixing a 1 1/2" stiff plastic circle over the inside of the cap. The snake can push its way in, but can't leave easily. (This trap also works with other reptiles, such as lizards.)

[mikm]

So Terry ... Any plans on amending that document to ad an option 8 ?? You know if all of the above fails put up a basking lamp, water dish, and offer pieces of trout or worms, preferably offering food by hand ... :o :D

[stonyloam]

Hmmmmm….. I think I am being teased a little, but it might just work. A basking lamp, comfortable mat, shallow water bowl maybe a little food in a quiet place along a wall. Leave the lamp on all night and check it every now and then. I found my snakes would hang around far into the night if I left the light on. They roamed from one end of the room to the other, always seeming to be next to a wall. Good luck.

[Snaky]

I think everything is said, you should check and recheck every spot where the snake could go.


Put food, water and a hide with a heating mat beneath it somewhere in the house. Spread flour in the doorways and along walls. If it moves around, it will leave tracks and will tell you where it has been.
I know this technique is used often, sometimes with and sometimes without results.

I hope you'll find her.

[adamanteus]

In the past I have had snakes escape. Sorry to say but I found them very quickly, or not at all.

[Cazador]

Yep, finding a snake that has escaped can be very difficult. I'd also suggest putting a rolled up towell at the base of doors that lead out of your home in order to block the snake's exit.

Here's a twist on Stefan's suggestion. You might prepare a few containers of worms, and put them in the middle of a flat cardboard box with flour on it. Then lay block the gap under doors with towells. If the snake comes to investigate the worm smell, it would leave tracks in whichever room it's in. I actually found an escaped snake in a cold room with it's chin resting on a container of worms, so I know it can work. I didn't use the flour trick, though.

[Dracaena828]

Hi all~
Many thanks for all the kind replies. I found Azuli at about 4:00 in the morning when I had completely given up for the night. I'd just gone out into the living room to turn out the lights when I saw her come out from under the futon. She saw me and whipped right around and flew back across the room, but I caught her in a corner. It was so late I just went straight to bed, and this morning I woke up very late for work. My apologies for not writing an update sooner :) I am so relieved.
I have no clue as to where she could have been, we took every inch of this apartment apart. Including removing the futon mattress, all books from every shelf, looking in all shoes, under every appliance, and putting anything that she could get into (including the ferret cage) on top of the futon once we were sure she wasn't there. Sneaky little thing, but she is now safely back in her tank and about to get a nice meal of minnows. My apartment is a bit of a disaster, but that's ok ;)
Angela
P.S. There were some really good suggestions there, maybe we should make a list to put under care sheets? I never would have thought of the flour, that's very clever. I had planned to make a basking spot with a bowl of fish, but it really wouldn't have occurred to me to put a hide next to it. Duh....

[Cazador]

I found Azuli at about 4:00 in the morning when I had completely given up for the night.

Maybe that's the best advise of all... just give up. Then they have a way of turning up right away. :rolleyes: Also, thanks for the advise about turning this thread into an article. There are, indeed, some very good suggestions here.



Stefan,
I've started a page in the caresheets about finding lost snakes (http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets/index.php?title=Finding_a_Lost_Snake). Since you proposed the most original idea (the flour trick), would you like to summarize this thread into a short article? If you don't have time, please send me a PM, and I'll do it after I return from a 4-day trip on Monday. Cheers,

Rick

[Stefan-A]

I'll see what I can do. ;)

[adamanteus]

Angela, I'm so pleased you found your snake. Good news.

[drache]

Angela
I'm glad you found her
what a relief

[Odie]

:cool: you found your snake, Angela

[FitnessFreak]

i hope you find her. i personally never have lost a snake and i never want too but i lost a tarantula once...i lured her out with a fresh mouse traped in a feeder box by here cage, she was missing 3 days and then i found her munching down the feeder mouse. but best of luck mate, put food out in other locations not just one area but multiple areas leave out water dishes like large pans or bowls it could get into because if its like mine it will love water.
my goodness a tarantual running lose in your house for 3 days?!?

im aracnophobic so i probably wouldn't sleep at night lol.:eek:


PS : congrats on ginding oyur snake!!!

[ScimitarX]

My red-sided is terrible for escaping, she was once missing for 2 months before i found her again. She has since tried 3 more times to escape but i found her not long after each time.

Anyway glad you found yours.

[Stefan-A]

I don't really understand how the snakes are able to escape, especially not repeatedly. I mean, what kinds of enclosures are you, who have experienced escapes, using? Or is it just human errors that is the cause? Since I know this can easily be interpreted as moralizing, it's absolutely not my intent. I'm just curious, since I've never had a snake escape yet, despite the fact that I use fairly crude home made enclosures.

Sure, my female once managed to get out while I was putting back the water bowl after changing the water, but I did notice it and I caught her in less than two seconds.

[Dracaena828]

I've had probably about five or six escapes over all the years I've kept reptiles, and each time it was purely carelessness or forgetfulness on my part (forgetting to weigh down a lid, not putting in the pins to a sliding screen lid, etc....). Never from a properly closed cage or feeding container. I'm very easily distracted unfortunately.... My own fault :o
Angela

[Ameivaboy]

Glad you found her Angela

[adamanteus]

I have had a few escapees in the past, but no repeat escapes. One time I had a large Pine Snake (Pituophis m. melanoleucus) that leaned how to use her body weight to slide open the glass door! I just fitted a lock and that was that!

[KITKAT]

I once took care of a huge Boa for a professor at OSU. The snake lived in a large wooden box, with a sliding glass lid, and she was housed in our lab animal room.

One morning I entered the lab to find the Dean of Zoology, the snake wrapped around his waist... the other end of the snake wrapped around the rack of hamster cages, struggling to get her to let go of the rack.

I rushed up and helped him subdue her and put her back in the box, where she had slid the glass lid open.

Later I told the professor who owned her, where we had found her.

His reply, with an absolutely deadpan face but with a little humorous sound in his voice, was, "She LIIIKES hamsters!":D :rolleyes:

[drache]

I've never had a snake escape from a cage. I wonder whether my snakes are just lazy. I seem to remember one day coming home to find I'd left a cage open and the snake was still in it.
The couple of times when I thought I'd lost a snake, it was hiding in the substrate. I actually once tossed a garter in the trash, wrapped in poopy newsprint. She was still in there when it occurred to me to check.
We do lose Drache sometimes when we forget that he's on the couch and we get busy.

[Snaky]

I 've had an escape twice, and it was twice my mistake.

The first time I left the cage open. Made me always double check that now. Luckily I found it back very quick.

The second time, I didn't lock my door. The cat of my parents entered my room and pushed an enclosure down to the ground. I though the cat would've eaten the snake, looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Luckily 2 weeks later I found it back.

[mikm]

KITKAT ... that's a funny story ... I envision a cartoon with a caption, 'she really likes hamsters':p .

Though one reads about how snakes (especially garters) are escape artists I don't think you (or me anyway) fully appreciate that statement. When I first started keeping garters yes, I had escapes. Mostly carelessness on my part. Now rechecking the lids on feeder deli cups before I leave the house is common place ... :o :rolleyes:

[Cazador]

Once upon a time, I bought a folding screen lid that fits over a 10 gallon aquarium. It's the type that folds in the center, so you can lift and open one end at a time. These are rotten little lids that I wouldn't recommend for anyone. Juvenile snakes can become trapped in the middle where the lid bends, and snakes can push the center portion up, even if the ends are securely clamped down. I only bought one, but will never buy another.

Rick

[KITKAT]

Heh heh! I have a hinged lid too! I got a panicky call from a cat sitter one summer when we were in Georgia... the tank was empty and the lid was ajar, and she feared going into the room to care for the cats.

Of course I had moved the snake somewhere more secure for exactly that reason... I knew the lid would be a problem.

I use a brick on EACH side of the hinge... makes for a cluttered top, since there is barely room for the light too!:rolleyes: