How long can he survive?

[Sylphie]

Hi,
I have a corn snake, about 40inch long. He more than once fled from his enclosure, but after a week/two we always found him. And there were his shed on shelves/floor or we heard at night things that he threw down or sounds like "snake falling from the cupboard".

A month ago he fled again but this time he's nowhere... there are no signs of him wandering at night at all, no sounds etc. We wonder that he might get out of home this time. I'm curious how long can he survive without feed and water (temps at home are fine for him)? I hope to find him soon or later, but it's the first time when he is gone for so long.

[prairiepanda]

Have you figured out how he's been escaping his enclosure? You should probably address that lol

I would put out water dishes to discourage drinking from the toilet, which might expose him to harmful chemicals or bacteria. He should be able to go a couple months without food without seeing any particularly bad health issues. He can survive several months more without food, but obviously will be in pretty bad shape when he turns up. I've heard of escaped corns reappearing after more than a year.

To find him, you could try putting out hide boxes or making little basking spots around the house that he might find appealing.

[Sylphie]

prairiepanda, yeah, we secured his enclosure after I found which way he escaped. It's just the first time when he's gone for so long without any signs, so I begin to worry.

And thank you for response, I hope that we find him soon before he lost too much weight. We'll try with boxes for sure!

[reptiledude987]

I saw something on tv where there was a retic loose in someones home and they had an interesting technique to find it that may be worth a shot. What the did was crank up the a/c in the whole house to make it as cool as possible then heated one central area of the house with a small space heater and some basking lamps and used that as a warm spot to lure the snake to. It worked in the show of course they wouldnt had showed it if it hadnt but may be worth giving a try. Also wouldnt hurt to put a prey item in the middle of the hot spot to assist in luring the snake to the area.

[Sylphie]

Wow, that's worth a try, thank you reptiledude987!

[reptiledude987]

give it a shot and let us know if it really works or only on tv lol.

[Sylphie]

Sure! I just hope he's still in the house and not wandering somewhere outside.

[reptiledude987]

The burm on the show was actually in the crawl space under the house but hadnt left there and was apparently there for several years snagging mice and rats under the house somewhere in florida. The home owner was the wife who had divorced the husband a few years ago and had forgot about the escaped snake until one day when she saw it in the cold air return duct that it had pushed its way into from under the house. So I'd think the odds are it hasnt gone too far. Any time I've ever had escapees they dont tend to go to far. Once my dog knocked loose a latch on my nile monitor enclosure when he was small and he managed to squeeze thru the corner and found him 4-5 months later still in my apartment.

[Sylphie]

Update:
We tried that thing with cooling down temp at our rooms (without A/C it's not that easy, but there is still rather frosty outside) and making an hot spot with hide (and our live mouse in her cage to stimulate him)... but it seems that he escaped outside our home, or I don't know... maybe he's just sleeping somewhere waiting for better days...
Uh, it's really sad, but maybe he will come back. We even searched in most of the places, we moved furnitures etc... :(

[prairiepanda]

If the temperature outside is still cold, I would expect him to still be in your house. It's possible that he may have found a way into the walls, or under the house if you don't have a basement. I've heard of snakes going down the toilet too. In one such case, the snake reappeared later on and had been dyed blue by toilet cleaner(it did survive though!)

[Sylphie]

Huh, prairiepanda, thank you! We still hope that he'll come back (we have also a few cupboards that are fixed permanently, so maybe he's somewhere between them).

[Sylphie]

After 3 months, WE FOUND HIM... or better said our mouse was attack by him, but fortunately she was smart, and start to squeak when she saw him... and we managed to get snake off her. She has slightly wounded one leg but aside of that is perfectly fine, and our corn is already feed in his cage.

Uff, it's really rather not funny method to find your snake, but I'm happy :D

[EL Ziggy]

Congrats on finding him Sylphie. All it took was the right bait :). I'm glad your mouse is OK too :).

[KyleKennedy]

Thanks for the tip! My retic is secured 24/7, but if he ever gets loose I will try that method.

[Sylphie]

Haha, yeah, I'm glad that we finally found him, he's really thin, but no signs of "bad shed effect" on skin, or dehydration.

KyleKennedy, that's a good method, but not so much when that mouse is your pet too, we were really scared that we don't damage to get snake off her in time... but everything seems fine. :D

[prairiepanda]

Glad to hear both animals made it through! Your corn should perk up pretty quickly now that he's back in his home :)

[toddnbecka]

Happy to hear he's back in captivity, no more worries about the stray bugger roaming the house hungry any longer.
We have 3 pet rats now, went and got "crawlers" for feeders that nobody wanted to eat. Bought a bottle of soy baby formula to feed the baby rats, now they're mostly weaned, fat and growing larger. Have 3 males, not sure if they'll cohabitate well when they're mature.

[Sylphie]

toddnbecka, I have some experience with rats, and don't worry they co-habite perfectly fine! One of them will just be the boss, and others will be his "minions", but they are really caring and protecting towards each other, and the dominant one will never hurt seriously his companions.

[toddnbecka]

Rats must be more social than mice then, I separated several male mice into another tub to slow down their reproduction rate and found a couple of them had been chewed up a little a week or so later. Not seriously injured, but they had dried blood on their tails and rear ends.