What if Your Exotic Pet Escapes?

It’s a moment every pet owner dreads – you return home to find an empty tank and the sure and certain knowledge that your prized companion is enjoying an impromptu exploration of all the dark and hidden places in your house.

While it’s a heart-churning event, do try not to panic; if you’re lucky your pet may not have got too far yet, so before you start tearing your home apart in the search, it’s often worth taking the time to having a good look around the tank’s immediate surroundings. Small and slow moving animals particularly can sometimes be recaptured with a minimum of fuss – especially if they haven’t had too much of a head start.

However, if your initial attempts to locate your missing pet fail, there are a few tricks to try so don’t despair!

Great Escape Artists

Some of the most commonly kept exotic pets are determined escape-artists – the flexibility of snakes, for example, and their talent for escapology is legendary! Aside of an almost supernatural ability to squeeze out of the tiniest gap, they are uniquely gifted at disappearing into virtually thin air almost the moment they make good their escapes. Spiders are another group more than ready for the challenge, if the opportunity presents itself.

Whatever the species the missing beast may be, finding your pet again is going to call for you to start thinking like it does. For many animals, few things are as attractive as a good hiding place, so you need to look at your house through the eyes of an exploring escapee. Hopefully you keep the door shut, wherever your tank sits, so there’s only one room to search – but if not, start nearby and work outwards throughout the rest of your home.

It pays to be methodical and look into every nook and cranny – and don’t discount anywhere; you’d be amazed at how small a hidey-hole even something the size of a 6ft python will happily fit into.

Luring Them Home

If you can find them directly, the next step is to try to lure them out of hiding so you can catch them – although if you happen to keep geckoes or any other fast moving pet, you may have your work cut out!

One trick which sometimes – surprisingly – seems to work is leaving the tank open; many escapes are opportunist and when the animal needs warmth, water or food, it may seek out familiar surroundings. However, if your pet is stubbornly refusing to come back, it can also be worth trying to bait an area in its new-found home.

Escaped salamanders and newts, for instance, can often be recaptured by putting down a damp flannel in the middle of the floor once it’s gone dark – the lure of the moisture proving too much for them to resist. Some spider and scorpion keepers have found this works for them too.

For other species of pet, putting out a little food can work; the draw of a few dead pinkies for a hungry snake can frequently overcome any reticence about coming out of hiding!

Let People Know

It’s obviously important to let your family or flat-mates know what’s going on – and your neighbours too – to avoid any awkward misunderstandings or your pet being hurt if anyone comes across it suddenly and unexpectedly. Confessing to escapes may not make you the most popular person in the place, but if you haven’t managed to find your missing pet pretty quickly, it’s just something you’re going to have to do!

Especially if you think there is any chance your animal may have found its way out of your home, contacting the local vets, animal charities and police is probably a very wise move. If someone finds your pet, it’s likely that it’ll end up with one of these, so forewarn them; not only will they know who to contact if it does turn up, but you might help avoid a panic when someone stumbles upon an unknown creature sitting in their garden.

Finally, it’s important not to give up; there are plenty of stories of pets being reunited with their owners weeks or even months after they first escaped.

The best way to deal with escapes is, of course, to ensure that they don’t happen in the first place; the old saying about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted was never more true than when it comes to exotic pets.