My garter got out!

[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
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!"

[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' .

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 ...

[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