Help...I have lost my gecko

[dolfun55]

I am the worst leopard gecko mom in the universe.
I let Lucy out in the bathroom so she could run around and she managed to find a crack between the wall and cabinet and she is gone.
I had no idea that crack was there. I am just sick. I have placed her food and favorite log outside the crack she went in in hopes she will come back out. I was up all night watching to see if she would come out but nothing yet.

Any suggestions?

 

[ejh805]

Maybe try setting out something that emits heat?

 

[dolfun55]

Not sure what that would be that I could set on the carpet...thoughts?

 

[Kab]

Hmm, I lost a crested gecko last week. (we found her, curled up in my curtains, not to happy to leave)
What I did:
- Put out her favourite food (mangos), so in your geckos case, superworms?
- Are you able to gently move the cabinet at all? We ended up moving all of the furniture in my room veeerrry carefully and listening for shuffling.
- Is she so fat that she got stuck? (Im not implicating bad husbandry, Just thinking over all the options!)
- Have you raised the temperature in your bathroom and attempted to lower the humidity? Bathrooms are huge humidity pits, if you have a portable heater throw it in there, it will take away the humidity.
- Have you put a heat pad on the ground near the food? I see its on carpet, do you have a spare tile you could set down?

Sorry you lost your little buddy, I am sure that she will turn up soon!

 

[dolfun55]

I have a dish with worms and her favorite log sitting outside the crack. Unfort the cabinet is a perm fixture in the bathroom so w/o calling a carpenter in to totally pull it out, there is no way to move it. I was in the bathroom with her when she was running around and she went in the crack so fast, there was no time to react so she should be able to come back out with no prob. I have a little space heater I can turn on to raise the temp in there...thats a good idea. I dont have any tiles unfort but maybe if I warn the room up she will want to come out and eat and get warm. Cross your fingers. I am just sick over this. She stole my heart..just love my little Lucy. I cant believe I didnt know that crack was there. Horrible learning experience.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

One of my babies got out earlier this week. I ripped into my closet and once I got a bit of stuff out she came to the front to see what all the noise was about. I put down a dish of mealworms and she couldn't resist. I scooped her up while she was eating.

If you never see her I would put a trashcan propped on a book with a few mealworms at the bottom. This way if she goes for the worms she falls to the bottom of the trashcan and can't get out again. You could also leave a couple in an escape proof dish near the bottom of the book just to see if she is coming out and eating but not so many that's she's not hungry enough to hunt the ones in the can.

 

[dolfun55]

I'm not sure I understand the trashcan trick?

 

[Kab]

I'm not sure I understand the trashcan trick?

You elevate it enough with an EASY TO CLIMB incline to get in. However once shes in the incline of the bin//combined with the smooth surface will make it to smooth for her to climb out. (Ei; pile of books at an angle to get in)

Do you have any plates you would be willing to sacrifice? You could put one of those with a heat pad on it. :\ Or a bed heater? they are fabric, generally famous for causing house fires. My grandparents have one, its what I used when my house dropped too 10 degrees and I had to keep my cresties warm. (Its usually a shiny material, you plug it in and it has a heat setting)
You could fill a flat fabric bag with rice or barley and heat it up every 40 minutes, it would be very effort intensive but hey, You love lucy!

Im at work so I cannot give you a diagram of the garbage bin thing, but your biggest priorities right now should be getting the humidity down and the heat up.

http://31.media.tumblr.com/c60853a463fae637ec13421ed6fc7441/tumblr_mtl5kluzg61r6q7szo1_1280.jpg
^ horrible diagram. If you want a better one my lunch break is in 2 hours, just say the word!

 

[dolfun55]

word...word!! If you dont mind and have time...
I would def be willing to sacrifice a plate for my Lucy.
I have a corn bag as well and a space heater. I have a towel in front of the bathroom door in case she comes out while I am at work, she wont
be able to get out of the bathroom. I'll turn the heater on in there as soon as I get home.

 

[Kab]

Gave it another go, I REALLY hope it makes sense now. (sorry it took so long, I was out with the boss for lunch so I drew it up right before I had to get back to work!)
http://25.media.tumblr.com/47c995eb6c4effc45a258f3b7ce4e97e/tumblr_mtldktwsAM1r6q7szo1_1280.jpg

In short... I didn't have time to make something incredibly indepth. Basically you want to make an "uphill" that your gecko can climb easily. At the top of this uphill, is a downslide, into a trashbin/bucket/something the gecko will slide down without hurting themselves. At the bottom of the bin, food for the gecko! When you get home/wake up/go check, Lucy is still there, unable to escape.


All of the things you listed should really help, hopefully we get to see some photos of the incriminating escape artist sooner then later, and in good condition.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Awesome! I tried to draw a diagram on my ipad and realized I'm way too horrible an artist to make the picture help anyone understand what I meant...haha. I did make a video of my escapee's capture but need to figure out how to make the iphone play nice with this new PC....

 

[dolfun55]

Ohhhhh I get it now...sorry I was reading way too much into it. Thank you SOOOOOOOO very much!!
I will get the heater going and get this set up as soon as I get home from work this afternoon.

Cross your fingers my lil buddy comes out! I'll update later tonight..thanks again!!

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Here you go. Given I spent about 20 minutes dragging crap out of the closet before I saw her smugly staring at me from next to the cooler. I decided rather than rush and make a grab for her I would offer a few mealworms. Her stomach won over caution. Definitely not an animal with sharp enough instincts for the wild....lol

[video=youtube;j3CmJkjcOi4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3CmJkjcOi4[/video]

 

[Kab]

Hah, its alright. I may have overcomplicated it myself! I used this method to catch a mouse that got loose in the shed by my house as well, cheese in the bottom of a bin.
My experience with losing terrestrials was a lost salamander, and quite frankly I've never seen a lazier escape artist. (I found him asleep next to the shelf I used to keep his tank on)
Hopefully this experience can turn into a "sort of funny story" down the line.


@ DRCarrottail, If its any consolation, It took me 3 tries before I decided YES THIS ONE WILL WORK.
I love how timid your gecko is.. Slowly moving towards her food and then BAM. >.> i love watching them "hunt" is what im saying.

 

[dolfun55]

No luck yet...still no Lucy

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Oh Keeping my fingers crossed for you and Lucy!!

 

[dolfun55]

Lucy is back home safe and sound!!!!!!!!
She somehow made her way to the garage.
I came home from work this afternoon, raised the garage door and she ran across the floor!!
I am sooo excited. She plopped herself in my hand for a good 20minutes when I picked her up.
I will be a much better Mommy going forward and will check the room for any little cracks before letting her play next time.

Thank you so much for all of your help and encouragement!!!!

 

[indyana]

Hooray! I'm glad Lucy is home again. Scary that she got all the way to the garage!

 

[Kab]

Picture! Picture darn it!
Im shocked she made it to the garage-- Did she crawl through your houses inside?

Im so glad she turned up.

 

[Phoenix1115]

Must have found her way through the walls!