BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:37 pm**

Have you ever had the displeasure of misplacing your bluey? Has your little pet ever escaped from his enclosure and worried you sick until she turned up just fine?

I welcome everyone to tell their escape skink stories here.

And Zach, I'd love if you'd share the story of Eugene going under ground. What was that all about?? :shock:

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:39 pm**

Repost from about a month ago

Steve wrote:I had a pink tongue attempt an escape tonight...

I watched in shear curiousity as one of my little guys climbed to the highest point and contort his body into some sort of yoga position as he reached out his front legs and grabbed onto the screening. He pulled himself up and spent the next 10 minutes (literally, I watched the clock) exploring the top of his cage, reaching every side (the cagetop is about 30"x12").

My cage is originally made for rats and rabbits, so the top is just straight bars about 1 inch apart, I used 1/4" screening to cover the entire thing. At the very back of the cover, there are spaces that are 1/4" wide and 1" long to allow for the top to swing open where the plastic hinges are.

It was right at those 1/4" wide openings that my little guy managed to squeeze his head and front legs out and then pull himself up and out. He actually looked like he was doing pullups, he let his rear legs drop and used his long prehensile tail as balance, and he used his front legs exclusively to pull himself entirely out of the cage. I was fascinated.

Good thing I had been there.

I have often noted how snakelike these guys are in their movements, but I never expected the level of strength and flexibility that this one demonstrated.

I scooped him up and brought him upstairs with me to show my fiance... "honey, look who wanted to come out and say hello"

He just chilled out in my hand, tail firmly wrapped around one of my fingers. Good boy.

I fashioned a cover out of tape for the gap, I can't believe that it actually was necessary. These guys are not THAT tiny that they should be able to flatten out and fit in a 1/4" wide space. But they can.

I should have taken some pictures while I had him out.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:40 pm**

A few years back Bubba was lost for a couple of weeks. I had let him out to walk around like I always did and when I went to find him he was nowhere to be seen. I looked everywhere with no luck. I gave up after about a week, figuring I'd lost him for good. On Saturday, which is my usual cleaning day, we had plans so the cleaning didn't get done that week. Another week goes by and it's Saturday again. I strip all the beds and then get clean bedding to make them up again. I lift a corner of the mattress to make the bed and I feel something push out at me and touch my hand. I look underneath and there is Bubba, stuck inside the mattress somehow. He crawled into it, must have been the box spring or something maybe, but he was too big and chubby to get back out. We had to cut it to get him back out. He spent an entire two weeks in there and when I put him back in his cage and gave him clean water, he drank for probably 3 minutes straight. Poor guy!

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:48 pm**

I have a few, but 3 really stick out - so i'll make them short and sharp.

Once i was out in the lounge room with LIL (one of my Blotchies) and it was early morning. We were both kicking it over the ducted heating vent when i fell asleep. I woke up 3 hrs later with Lil gone. I crapped myself, then pulled back the curtain to reveal him sitting there soaking up some rays.

Next one was with a Big Female Blotchie i had. Unfortunately she's not with us anymore, but she was cool. She somehow got out of her tank, and made her way out to the entrance of the lounge room. I had no idea she was there. I was all of a sudden told to look at the floor near the door, and there she is just watching us watching TV. She was a curious one. I miss her.

Ok last one is when Lance decided to break out. He somehow got out from under the lid on his tank and made an awfully big crash when he hit the ground from nearly 2 meters up. I heard the noise from another room and came to investigate. After a quick search under clothes and my stereo unit, I found him. Now his Tank has a terracotta tile (which is kinda heavy) on top to stop him from doing it again.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:08 am**

I already posted on my other thread, but I'm all for a repost.

2 days ago my little sister was playing with Wocket after feeding, just giving him some social time. When she put him away, she didn't close the tank properly, leaving room for Wocket to escape, which he did. The next day at feeding time I can't find him, he's not in the tank, and I freak. I have a dog, so an escape is one of my worst nightmares.

After tearing apart my room, me and my younger sisters decided to start removing everything we can from the room. While removing clothes by tossing them into a big pile, I look over and see Wocket sticking his head out of the clothes, confused by his little flight. He was scooped up, coddled, and put away. So far he seems like everything is back to normal, and my sisters have been given better instructions on how to close the tanks.

Also, in the past, I owned a fire bellied newt. I actually only had it for about 6 hours. I'd put a fake plant hanging from the lid of it's tank, and the critter climbed out and escaped. We never managed to find it. Creepy.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:44 am**

when I was about 10 years old I used to keep my blueys in a disused budgie avairy.

One day i could not find one of the blueys anywhere. After searching for ages I was just about to give up when I decided to check one of the old nesting boxes still attached to the wall about 4 feet above the ground.

There, curled up sound asleep was the bluey I had been frantically searching for.

A few days later i was sitting some distance away from the avairy watching the blueys wander about when one walked over to the chicken wire front and preceeded to climb up and over the top where it fell to the ground and wandered off into the garden.

I knew then just how good escape artists they are.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:49 am**

When I first got Homer my sister had taken her out and played with her on my bed and put her away but did not close the lid right. So as i walk into my room to go to sleep I saw some thing crawling around under the sheets. So I pulled the sheet's off of her and there she was. To this day she has not tried to get out ( knock wood).

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 4:26 am**

Not a SKINKS TALE, but, what ever.About 8 years ago, when my now dead Iguana, Trev,was still only 24 inches long, my daughter was letting her run around the front room,she so say put her back properly, but didnt lock the door, when checking on her that night after work I found the door open and had a freak attack because she was missing.We all searched the house and the cat for an hour to avail,being Christmas the house was trimmed to within an inch of its life, and while eating tea we heard a rustle in the front room,and from the top of the chrissy tree,out popped the lizards head, and man we fell about laughing.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:36 am**

Not a skink escape, but a Cockatiel escape...Champ Bear (yes my daughter was 3 when she named him) was on the t-stand with the girls. When my hubby came home from work Champ made a break for it...We couldn't find him for about a week. Then we put the girls outside in the garage and he flew over to them after hearing them. His crop was very empty and he was missing some tail feathers, but he was happy to see his girls.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:50 am**

A few years ago, I was letting Popsicle roam (under my watchful eye). She always had a tendency to head towards the kitchen, so I made sure to block the openings under the fridge and oven. On this particular evening, I was watching her slipping and sliding her away across the kitchen tile. It was quite an amusing site. All of a sudden, she found footing and took off. I wasn't too worried, as all the hiding spaces were sealed shut...or so I thought. I watched as Popsicle head towards the dishwasher and disappeared. She found a hole that I didn't know existed and squeezed herself under the dishwasher. My husband was on the phone at the time, and I was so scared. I sat in the middle of the kitchen and cried. Eventually, my husband noticed I was distraught. He came to my rescue with a screw driver and took apart the dishwasher. No Popsicle. We noticed a small hole that led to underneath the cabinet. We heard a little sneeze come from the hole. This made me cry even harder. We lived in an apartment, and who knew where the cabinets might lead. My husband rigged together a long pole and eventually was able to prod her out of her hiding spot. It was such an emotional time, that I cried again when Popsicle came scurrying back to me!

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:56 am**

My darling Tattoo decided to scare the life out of me one night several weeks ago. He was crawling around on the floor (me crawling around on the floor right behind him) and decided to go into the bathroom. I knew of no openings for him to find so I let him go behind the door. We have a base board electrical heating unit in there that we never use. Who would know that there was a hole leading into the baseboard and into the wall (the clearance from the floor is about an inch). We live in a condo so of course I nearly had a stroke wondering where the hole would go. My husband ran in with screwdriver in hand and proceeded to remove the heater from the wall. Tattoo emerged on his own before hubby could complete the transaction. What a relief to have him handed back to me. I almost think Tattoo felt badly for scaring me. He sat very quietly in my lap for the next hour.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:51 pm**

I have many escape stories from over the years, most with happy endings, but I will share my Bluey one:

We had him outside in the grass. I had built a bottomless enclosure of wood with a chickenwire top an he had used it many times without incident. That day, however, I went over to the cage after not watching for a bit and no Bluey! He had gotten under the wood through the thick grass!! I did not see him anywhere near the cage and was in tears and petrified I'd never see him again! This was in my sister's yard which is fenced, but not very securely, especially for a BTS.
My husband came to the rescue when he searched the wooden fence to our neighbors (the closest to the cage) and saw Bluey hiding between the slats unedr the grass! I could barely see him after Adam pointed him out!! Thank goodness for his sharp eyes!

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:59 pm**

Whoa, Zach's crazy skink escape -- that escapade gave me heart palpiatations and I'm a continent away! :shock:

Ya'll should check out the thread with the crazy excavation and that awesome picture of a very relieved dad with a poopy skink on his chest! Anyone have a link to that one?

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:50 pm**

Shadowfax wrote:Whoa, Zach's crazy skink escape -- that escapade gave me heart palpiatations and I'm a continent away! Ya'll should check out the thread with the crazy excavation and that awesome picture of a very relieved dad with a poopy skink on his chest! Anyone have a link to that one?

The first time I read this, I just skimmed it, but my eye caught on poopy skink. So I re-read. And somehow I read "I'm a continent" as "I'm incontenent". Yikes. :lol:

I guess I missed Zach's escape. A link would be great.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:53 pm**

Found it!

http://www.bluetongueskinks.net/forum/v ... e+dig+hole

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:04 pm**

OMG! My heart sunk when I first started reading about Eugene. That could've been any one of us!

I'm really glad that all of you have recovered your AWOL bluey's (and other pets).

I so love a happy ending.

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 8:48 pm**

I let my guys out every day while I wait for the school bus. So, they are quite at home outdoors and like to explore over long distances. I had thought about doing a pen but we have fire ants here and I've decided to only have them out with me watching them. One day, I took just Charlotte out while the kids were playing. We had a bit of a crisis and I stepped over to check on my upset child. I actually was distracted enough that I left Charlotte alone for 5-10 minutes. When I remembered she was out, I was just frantic. I was in tears and searching frantically. I finally calmed down and found her buried in the grass only a foot away from where I'd left her. I stick to my routine now but I sometimes have panic attacks about whether or not I've left my guys outside. They hate it when I dig them out of their shavings and cuddle them. Losing a bluey is enough to make your heart stop!!!!!

Posted: **Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:51 pm**

mom22wins wrote:OMG! My heart sunk when I first started reading about Eugene. That could've been any one of us!

I'm really glad that all of you have recovered your AWOL bluey's (and other pets). I so love a happy ending.

I just added a few of the pictures that had been taken off somehow....thanks for putting up the link so I didn't have to type that all again. :lol:

That's pretty much the scariest moment/night of owning a BTS for us ever.

BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

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Charlotte scares her mom