Still recovering from the panic of last night..

[PaladinGirl]

Made a MAJOR oops last night with Toon.

I was scrambling around getting ready to feed her and my fat tail while also setting my daughter up for her bath. Without even realizing it, I left one of the sliding doors on the front of the tank open a crack. It was probably a half hour or so before I realized something wasn't right because she is always out watching us when she wakes up.

Well absolute panic ensued at that point. I was pretty sure I'd find her because like I said in another post, there's not many places for her to hide in here. But still. Panic mode.

I was crawling around the room calling her. I kept telling myself how stupid it was to be calling her. I focused on the closet because I figured that's probably where she'd be. We keep an old baby diaper changing table in the closet. I was getting ready to look under it again when she poked her head out. As soon as she saw me, she ran to me and climbed into my hand. I swear she looked relieved.

I just feel very negligent. I don't know what I would've done if I didn't get her back. I know I'd be scarred for life though! I learned the hard way just how careful you REALLY have to be when you own reptiles. I'm not even going to use the sliding doors anymore, lol.

That was probably one of the longest 10 minutes in my life! Has this ever happened to anyone else? I picked that tank out because I loved the sliding door feature. Now I realize I shouldn't have invested in it. Glad I didn't get one for my fat tail, or for the gecko I will soon be getting

 

[M_surinamensis]

I've always been a little uptight about enclosure security, so it hasn't happened to me too often but I have had some loose arboreal geckos (some recovered others not) and one early incident with a d'alberts.

I was in my early twenties, living with some friends and keeping a modest number of reptiles, amphibians and other animals. The young d'alberts was in a display enclosure, a forty gallon breeder with a mesh lid made from window screening and a frame I'd put together from some sheet metal and five minutes with a brake press. One of my roommates had a pet cat.

The cat sat ontop of the screen. The cat was too heavy to do this and went through the screen, ending up in the tank. When this was discovered, the cat was trapped and the snake was gone.

I did immediate searches of the surrounding area, followed walls and edges, looked in and under everything I could, dismantled a portion of the floor and wall near a heating vent to investigate a gap; looked everywhere that snake behavior should have made the snake go. When that was unsuccessful I set up a load of minnow traps and continued tearing apart the house without any luck.

Found him again a couple days later when he knocked a picture off the wall in a hallway several rooms away from the enclosure. He was about three, three and a half feet long and the bottom edge of the picture was about six feet off the floor, in the middle of a blank wall. The picture frame came down, I investigated the crashing noise (while muttering death threats aimed at the cat, which I had assumed was somehow responsible for anything that sounded like it was breaking) and I found him improbably curled many times over his own length on an inch of nail, nowhere near anything that could explain how the heck he got there.

 

[Franklinj480]

I was 10 years-old when I had a colony of green anoles, they were kept in a 30gallon with a screen lid. It was a very secure enclosure, I knew it had to be from my previous experiences watching the wild ones climb the outsides of our windows.

One day I was feeding or misting them, I got lazy and would just slide the screen open a crack instead of taking the lamps and the screen off entirely. Mom had called me for something I had been waiting awhile for, can't remember exactly but it made me hurry up with my lizard chores. I returned to my room about an hour later to find the enclosure still open and one of my males missing. I went into panic mode just like you did with your toon. Unlike you though my bedroom was extremely messy and cluttered with toys and a near infinite number of hiding spots.

I talked with my parents, desperate to think of an idea to get him back. We have a family cat who very often leaves dead bird gifts around the house. They suggested I leave something familiar in my room near the enclosure, so after spending a solid 6 hours tearing my room apart and checking every possible location I had to give up and go to bed. I left his favorite faux-palmfrond decor out near the terrarium and misted the leaves. I woke up the next morning surprised to find a very (brown) green anole freezing his tail off on the fronds.

It was just a $5 lizard at the time, but he was pet and I was very attached. I think the traumatic experience of the whole ordeal has made me over paranoid now, its something that will never happen again.

ps - Seamus your story made me "lol" - I can't imagine keeping reptiles in a house with my peers. I'd control freak out over everything

 

[LeoMerlin]

Well I'm glad to hear you found your gecko! That would frighten me to death!

 

[artes]

I used to have a rat who was a master escape artist. She would show up in the weirdest places, and then mock me. Like, her favorite spot to hide was in the (folded up) sofa bed. So I would sleep on the sofa so if she came out I would find her. Well, all she did was stick her cold nose on my hip every 15 minutes or so, then hide again. >_<

One time my cat accidentally released my hamster (it actually was an accident, my cats have no real interest in rodents), which was a dwarf hamster released into a huge room. I sat down and just started screaming "NUGGET!" and he actually came out and crawled into my lap. I had no idea he knew his name.

I also occasionally will still leave a cage open a crack or something (completely left the lid off the mice tank yesterday -_-), but I haven't had any unfortunate escapes. Its a good thing I have really good cats, lol.

 

[ElapidSVT]

at least this isn't a venomous reptiles forum!

glad you found your leo!!!

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Glad you realized she was out right away. I can't help but to wonder, calling for her, perhaps she finds your voice soothes her- and she was happy to see you? Not saying this is the case, but I wonder, since some do react by showing stress to noise.

 

[Chosen010]

I had a sugar glider in my college days, in a house with 2 other guys. He was a master escape artist and had figured out how to open his door from the inside. My closet was not in my room but in the hall way right outside of my room and by the bathroom door.
My roommates would discover him hissing at them while hanging from one of my shirts in the middle of the night when they would stumble to the bathroom. This usually scared the shit out of them, and occasionally the girl they had over for the night. He got out several times before i realized it wasn't me not closing his cage well, but him opening the cage.

He eventually got out of his cage one night when i was out of town on business and was found in the toilette drowned... I blamed my roomies because they were feeding him and must not have secured the twisty tie we used to lock his door..

 

[PaladinGirl]

Heh, now that Toon has had a taste of adventure, she thinks she should be able to do it some more. Last night, she spent probably 15 minutes with her nose in the corner of the tank next to the sliding door, trying to pull it open with her foot.... I could see the little wheels turning in her little lizard brain.."Hey, this was open last night! Come open it again so I can have another adventure!" I admit, I was somewhat surprised to find her thinking about her ordeal 24 hours after the fact. She was appeased when I took her out a few times and held her though. When I put her back, she calmed down and went to bask over her UTH

 

[artes]

Silly Toon. Lol.

 

[rickmoss95]

lol, glad you found it! i had a number of corn snakes for a while, untill YESTERDAY mourning when i shipped them to the urban reptile...anyways, about two months ago one of the kids failed to slide a tub all the way back into the rack(my fault for not checking) and my male patternless het hypo poss het lav got loose. i had no hopes of ever seeing him again, didnt look for more than a half an hour and gave it up as a loss. this is only the second snake i have had get loose in over 23 years!!! well, last night i had one of the boas upstairs for a while while the kids were handling her. about an hour later i took her down to put her away...and low and behold...my male was streched out in the middle of the floor!!! less than eight hours after i shipped ALL OF MY CORNSNAKES to cananda!!! what kind of luck is that!!! i paid alot for that pair and it was the whole reason i got into corns! after he got loose i decided i may just sell my corns, and THE DAY i shipped, i found him!!! what the...???

 

[Darcpixie]

I hope your interest in the geckos holds. I love my corns, had them about 4 years.

I had to dismantle my stove once when my crestie crawled up in it... Talk about a heart attack!

My coral snow corn female was let out by my oldest on accident. Thankfully I found her! Only snake to get loose!

 

[sunshinegeckos]

Bella got out once recently. I was putting her back in her enclosure after cleaning her tank amd she decided to take a flying leap into the closet. The closet was packed full of stuff so there I am in panic mode trying to putt things out without having things fall and possibly squish her and I finally found her in the back of the closet snuggled into some clothes. Crazy gecko lol. I am now more paranoid about it and take better precautions.

I am glad you found Toon

 

[SamsonizeMe]

My boy Valentine has taken advantage of me falling asleep a few times while I had him out after work; he gets into the closet or goes under my dresser. One time he went down the hall and got into another room. I spent an hour searching my room for him, then upon searching the other room found him in 5 minutes... stinker. He no longer has free-roaming privileges.