Can Someone Please Help! My Monitor Escaped His Cage!

[batmanjosh5000]

(i know this isnt about tegus but im sure similar actions have to be taken wether a tegu or monitor escaped and the people on this site are very responsive) On thursday my brother and i went to feed my juvenile savannah monitor (who i bought as a hatchling in march, so hes probably a foot from head to the end of his tail) and he wasn't there, so we just figured he was burrowing, but yesterday the same thing happened, so we got really scared and dug up the dirt but he wasn't there which means somehow he escaped! Im not going to get into the exact details of how he did it right now but (were assuming) he basically figured out how to move his basking spot to under the plexi glass dirt and put dirt under it to make it higher on one side and climb up and pushed the strongly velcrod on plexi glass top and was actually strong enough to lift it somehow, it still boggles our minds how he possibly figured out how to do that! So since last night and today weve been looking everywhere in the room of the cage and the rooms near it, in all the vents and closets and small spots he could go into, we havent been having much luck finding. today we put out thawed fuzzies and water bowls around in the rooms but he never ate any of them. tonight we set up 2 little set ups in the room that has a platform with dirt and has a basking spot with lamps and a water bowl with wax worms and super worms in the dirt, and tomoro ill put fuzzies near them, also in that room i have a warm blanket on the floor. and on top of that we have 2 video cameras taping 2 differet spots of the room so we can watch it in fast foward to see if he ever came out from anywher. Is there anything else i should be doing!?! should i keep searching for him or will that just scare him!?! do they travel far from wher they escape or would they normally stay in the same room!? any advice on this would be REALLY helpful, because i dont know what to do at this point and im really worried about him! somebody please help!

 

[laurarfl]

In my experience, they go for a nearby place and hide. They will come out and look for warmth and food. I recommend using a super smelly food to entice them out.. Check under the edge of cabinets in case there is a corner with an open joint or an unsealed edge.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

In my experience, they go for a nearby place and hide. They will come out and look for warmth and food. I recommend using a super smelly food to entice them out.. Check under the edge of cabinets in case there is a corner with an open joint or an unsealed edge.

thank you for the reply! whats a good smelly foods? a boiled egg?, and there is a hole in the corner of the wall that we suspect he went in but it's too small for us to see

 

[Tyler137]

thank you for the reply! whats a good smelly foods? a boiled egg?, and there is a hole in the corner of the wall that we suspect he went in but it's too small for us to see

Beef liver.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

Beef liver.

is that ok for monitors?

 

[Tyler137]

is that ok for monitors?

Actually never mind for some reason when I was reading I just was thinking tegu.. Shrimp would be a good way to get him out, smelly and pretty sure they can eat shrimp.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

Actually never mind for some reason when I was reading I just was thinking tegu.. Shrimp would be a good way to get him out, smelly and pretty sure they can eat shrimp.

ya they can eat shrimp, but hes young so ive never fed it to him yet so i dont know if he'll recognize the smell, but it's definately worth a shot. Ive been constintaley looking around for him, is that bad? because maybe he scared and wont come out from wherever he is if im always around making noise. should i just leave him alone and let him come out of wherever he is and eat and bask? or should i just keep constintaly looking fro him?

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

Savs arent very cold tolerant so most likely he found himself a really snug place and is staying put, and if they get so cold (below 60)they wont be able move even if they want so heat up your room! You can sprinkle flour on the floors if you dont have carpet and that way you can see any track marks. You can also use those sticky mouse traps, just be sure to check them often! and use oil to remove him from it slowly if it works. its a pain in the butt but its better than a dead monitor. I would usually NEVER recommend feeding canned cat food to any lizard but its smelly so using it as a lure wont hurt. Good luck!

 

[batmanjosh5000]

Savs arent very cold tolerant so most likely he found himself a really snug place and is staying put, and if they get so cold (below 60)they wont be able move even if they want so heat up your room! You can sprinkle flour on the floors if you dont have carpet and that way you can see any track marks. You can also use those sticky mouse traps, just be sure to check them often! and use oil to remove him from it slowly if it works. its a pain in the butt but its better than a dead monitor. I would usually NEVER recommend feeding canned cat food to any lizard but its smelly so using it as a lure wont hurt. Good luck!

thank you! theres alot of good advice there. is there any specific kind of mouse trap? would i need to put anything on it? and is there any kind of canned food i should use?

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

Ive never had to use them so Im just repeating when Ive read by others, I would think that the mouse sticky traps would be less adhesive than rat ones but at the same time I dont even know if there are separate ones for mouse or rats. They are just called sticky traps. so its like a glue pad so if they walk on it they are stuck to it. I'd put one right outside that hole in the wall just in case he steps out of it. Any canned food would work since its just to lure him out, not nessicarily for him to eat. If he eats it fine, its not gonna hurt him just once. but for anyone else reading this, canned cat/dog food is not to be used in part of monitors diet except in situations like this where there is a reason for it.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

alright cool im going to give that a try, and i could probably get organic dog or cat food from trader joes incase organic makes it any less unhealthy if he eat it.

 

[Midwestmonster]

Hope you find him. Keep us posted.

 

[Dana C]

You are giving your monitor far more credit for deductive reasoning than it is capable of. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it got out the issue is finding it. You will have to turn over every piece of furniture you own and look not just under but in it. In other words you will have to pretty much take your house apart. You will find it if you do. It will not come to your set ups.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

Should i even be looking for him? Or should i just wait for him to be hungry and eat the food or for him to search for food that way we might see him when he comes out?

 

[batmanjosh5000]

You are giving your monitor far more credit for deductive reasoning than it is capable of. Anyway, it doesn't matter how it got out the issue is finding it. You will have to turn over every piece of furniture you own and look not just under but in it. In other words you will have to pretty much take your house apart. You will find it if you do. It will not come to your set ups.

alright cool that's what we've been doing, but weve got alot of stuff in our house so it's taking us a pretty long time, it took us a day to do the room he escaped in but were continuing on the other rooms, no luck yet but hopefully soon.

 

[Tannaros]

One 'technique' I've had success with in past escapes is putting down plastic bags, like the kind from grocery stores and such. They're by no means pleasing to see scattered about, but lining a room/suspect hides/doorways, etc. allows you to pick up on any noise your would-be night prowler might be making.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

One 'technique' I've had success with in past escapes is putting down plastic bags, like the kind from grocery stores and such. They're by no means pleasing to see scattered about, but lining a room/suspect hides/doorways, etc. allows you to pick up on any noise your would-be night prowler might be making.

thats a good idea ill give that a try thanks!

 

[batmanjosh5000]

to everybody that helped me THANK YOU SO MUCH! we found him!!!! he traveled into my parents room and was in the vent under my dads night stand! Its crazy because we were starting to get all depressed and everything and started to feel like our only hope is if we saw him walking around, but tonight we decided a different technique of looking, instead of intensely looking at every crack that he could possibly fit in we just did a more vague look around in all the vents and dressers because it took us wayyy to long to look into specific areas, so we just went room to room and then there he was! i just really hope this isn't a dream because this is the dream ive been having everynight the past week (obviously in different spots though) lol! this is the best day ever. and now weve got so much weight on top of the glass that we couldn't even lift the top. Now ive got to quickly get back to building the enclosure because he got super big somehow! he looks great! a little lazy though but he normally would be sleeping at this time anyways, but when i found him i reeled him out with a fuzzie which he gladly exepted when i woke him up, and then i gave him another, and then in his cage i gave him three more just to make sure he gets alot of lost nutrients than i sprayed him alot so he, then he basked and now hes probably digging a tunnel or just sleeping. Should i schedule an appointment at the vet incase anything happend when he left?

 

[Tyler137]

Congrats on finding him finally. I don't think you would need to schedule an appointment. Just make sure he poops in the next couple days, that way you know he isn't impacted from something he could of gotten into.

 

[batmanjosh5000]

Congrats on finding him finally. I don't think you would need to schedule an appointment. Just make sure he poops in the next couple days, that way you know he isn't impacted from something he could of gotten into.

thanks man, and ya id prefer not to bring him to the vet, its very pricey