Great...Now what do I do?! (loose corn)

[Squirgle]

I just brought that cornsnake baby home from work yesterday and put it in its cage. Last night my brother decided that he wanted to open the cage for some unknown reason and LEAVE IT OPEN! The screen top was open about 1-1.5 inches all night long. Not surprisingly the snake, which got loose at work as well, got loose and now I have no idea where it is. To make matters worse, the cage was in our (I share a room with my younger brother) bedroom, so its a dissaster. I've started pulling everything from the room that I can, but any tips on how or where to look would be great. Keep in mind this corn is only at Most 16 inches long. And to top it off, the bedroom door is always open at night, so I don't even know if its in the bedroom for sure.
Any ideas or tips would be appreciated.
Squirgle
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[Karen]

Ive only had a couple escapees before and usually I find them when I stop looking. lol One night b4 I went to bed I noticed one was gone and tore my whole room apart. Dresser,bed, moved racks everything. So I have now learned not to bother doing all that. If its a baby it'll be hard to find. Hopefully it'll showup. That one that I tore the room apart for showed up a couple days later by the crapper and shower.
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[Shadrach]

Start by looking in the obivous place's! Like in closet's, under bed's, under dresser or chest. Usally snake's don't travel far once escaped, they alot of time go, and hide pretty much right out in plain sight and you can't find them for looking!! You can also place a heating pad with a shoe box on it and place a food item in it to lure it in then after it eat's it will stay in the box since it is nice and dark and warm!!!
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[Squirgle]

Well if nothing else, I at least know the snake will be ok food wise, I had just fed it on sunday, so that should be ok. Only thing I really have to worry about is if the dogs find it first, but we would hear them barking. All the furnace covers don't have openings big enough for the snake, and in all the rooms below the top floor they are on the celeing (its an old house). Another plus is that the house will be clean for sure now lol. That should make mother happy if nothing else does. Surprisingly she didn't freak out when I called her to tell her this morn. Anyway, back to searching
Squirgle
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[morti]

Just a couple of thoughts... snakes in general are always looking for a few things... Heat, food, and a place to hide. Here are some ideas I have heard to find an escapee:

Get some plain white flour and put a thin line of it in the doorways. That way if the snake crawls through the flour, you have a path to follow so you can figure out which way it was heading.

Put some loose paper around likely hiding places. That way if the snake moves around, you can hear it.

Put a few human heat pads in likely places in the floor with little hide boxes on top of them... that way the snake will get heat and hiding while you are looking for it. Check those boxes often.

Lastly (my favorite trick), Get a 2 litre soda bottle and poke a hole in the lid that is just barely big enough for the snake to crawl into. Then put an appropriately sized prekilled or frozen thawed prey item in the bottle and put the lid back on. Pole several smaller holes in the sides of the bottle so the smell can waft and put that on a heat pad set on low. The snake will (hopefully) crawl into the bottle, eat the mouse and won't be able to get back out because of the bulge. Good luck with that!

-Morti.
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[Squirgle]

Thats a good idea shadrach. I already checked the obvious places, only problem is, since my younger brother is only 12, the majority of the room is a total mess. But I'll try the food idea tonight...(cover the box or no?) and would it really be able to smell it? even if it wasn't in the room? wow, thats impressive.
Squirgle
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[Squirgle]

I like the soda bottle/shoe box idea. I'm going to try that for sure. Now would it be best to try that in a few different rooms or just the room it was in for sure before? If I have to do it in a few different rooms I'm going to have to buy some heat pads, and am going to waste a lot of mice (not that it matters). But also my dogs might knock the bottles around unless I put the dogs in the kitchen overnight or something. (big dogs...bloodhound and black lab/golden retriever/husky mix)
I've been tearing my room apart all morning, heck I even tried to get my bloodhound to track the thing but he just gave me a funny look and left the room. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img] lazy dog...
Squirgle
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[Boaguy]

Hey just this week this happened to me with my spotted python,
first thing i did was look EVERY where a snake could get... but to my supprise she ended up being in this crack in the wall i didnt even know about b/hind her cage.
well i couldent get her out so what i did is take a human heat pad (put it near her cage snakes dont usualy go far) i put the heat pad on LOW and then took a mouse and left it out inside a hidebox that was ontop of the heat pad..well she came out and i am happy again [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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[karibou]

LOL corns are masters at ecape and hiding! We had an adult male get INTO the back of the computer tower!! he squeezed through and opening maybe 1/4" wide (if that).. he is almost as big around as a 50 cent piece.. we tried to lure him out with a mouse.. he dragged the mouse inside the computer with him (still don't know how he got that mouse through there) needless to say we tore the entire computer apart to get to him. A friend of mine recently had a corn excape and find its way behind a picture that one of her kids had made in school. The picutre had been (as kids do) duct taped to the wall.. the corn got trapped in the tape. Luckily they found her so she wasn't stuck for too long.. basically what i'm getting at in my rambling is that corns will hide in the most unlikely and bizzare places you can think of! good luck!
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[Squirgle]

Any more ideas?
Do you think the snake would be hungry by now? (Fed on Sunday) Hungry enough to fall for the bottle trick? I'll be trying that tonight, plus throwing the flour in doorways...would it move around That much overnight? Or would it just kinda cruise the room its in?
thanks!
Squirgle
I'll keep you all posted...for now its off to work...
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[Ace]

When I first got my corn i lost it a few times, places to look are heat sources such as refridgerators, i found mine curled up under the refridgerator. if you have a heat lamp you can try and shine it in a corner with a towel or somthing, I used that trick once he was curled up in the towel in the morning. Maybe it was just luck. My corn has always stayed within in the room that i lost it is though. hope you find your snake.

ACE
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[Squirgle]

well the result of the first night.....Used the bottle with food, floured the floor in our room and the doorways in all the other rooms....no dice...according to my mother (unfortunatelly I wasn't there last night) there was nothing. This is such a pain in the arse....arg
thanks for that idea, we'll give that a shot too, I'm just hoping it stayed in my room, although I doubt it...we will also check the refrige...
Squirgle
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[Dr.Oviparous]

Try behind the fridge also

I know this is no laughing matter, I know, and I feel for you, but still, I gotta say it. I'm looking at the post title, and I would say more fiber in your diet! eewww, I'm sorry everyone [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ! Juggalo
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[Squirgle]

LOL ok as gross as that was, it was funny at the same time lol

on a side note, we checked the fridge already, nothing there. Oh, and since I wasn't home when they set up the 'trap' and flour, arg, what a mess. No matter how much you explain it sometimes, some people Still don't get it. L specifically told my mother that the heat pad Had to be on LOW, I get here earlier today after hearing on how they didn't catch it to find that she had the heat pad on HIGH because she said "the heat pad won't keep the fuzzie warm on low." Which I explained wasn't the real reason for the pad...the fuzzie had been practically deep-fried and was stuck to the side of the bottle EWW. Also, she told me she had put the flour in the doorways and on the floor in my room, I was thinking, "good that should give me some idea of where it is." Instead of what I thought, the flour was lightly sprinkled in the doorways, "But I thought I'd watch for the flour trail it would leave," instead of looking for a trail IN the flour, and the flour on my floor? yeah it was sprinkled around the heatpad and thats it....I was rather frustrated...I'm like what kind of trail is a snake as big around as a pencil going to leave on Shag Carpet? (well Kinda shag-ish)
arg, so I fixed the 'trap' and stuff, hopefully I'll have Some news for tomorrow.
Squirgle
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