Never underestimate the climbing power of teeny tiny lizards!

[Stompsy]

I got home from work this afternoon and discovered the mesh lid for my baby Pink Tongue Skink enclosure had been broken. My cat had decidedly jumped up for the warms and has fallen through, pushing the mesh down and creating an easy access escape for the little guys.



Unfortunately, I could only locate one of the two in the enclosure and spent the next 30 minutes frantically searching the house for the missing Skink.

I was about to give up when I thought about how much PTS’ love to climb. And the highest accessible place in the room was my curtains. Sure enough, there he was, perched right at the top, cold as ice but completely intact.

Crisis and heart attack averted. And the cat is now banned from entering that room.

 

[dragonlover1]

WO that was lucky,I was imagining a cat with a fat belly

 

[Stompsy]

WO that was lucky,I was imagining a cat with a fat belly

She would have freaked when she fell in and probably stayed away after that. But I kind of knew she hadn’t gotten the lizard because she’s very well fed and would have played with him and maybe chewed him up, before leaving him laying on the floor somewhere.

I have plans of a big, multi bay enclosure in the works, for this exact reason. I think I may need to speed that process up.

 

[Tobe404]

To add to that. Never underestimate the power and smarts of a bigger species of Monitor - even if he's only around 7 months old.

Learnt that the hard way. Escaped his enclosure last Thursday night / Friday morning. But fortunately he was still in the carport and hadn't managed to get outside (or end up under one of the cars/freezer/behind a fridge or cupboard).

Had to grab him by the tail and drag him out from behind a few fold up chairs and the treadmill. Bit of hissing here and there but overall was very tolerant of it all. Didn't tail whip or go for a bite. Thankfully. He's back in his enclosure now with some reinforcements on the sliding doors.

Still acting as he was. Eating like a machine. Tame as. Can pat him all I want and shows no sign of aggression. Very lucky.

 

[Stompsy]

To add to that. Never underestimate the power and smarts of a bigger species of Monitor - even if he's only around 7 months old.

Learnt that the hard way. Escaped his enclosure last Thursday night / Friday morning. But fortunately he was still in the carport and hadn't managed to get outside (or end up under one of the cars/freezer/behind a fridge or cupboard).

Had to grab him by the tail and drag him out from behind a few fold up chairs and the treadmill. Bit of hissing here and there but overall was very tolerant of it all. Didn't tail whip or go for a bite. Thankfully. He's back in his enclosure now with some reinforcements on the sliding doors.

Still acting as he was. Eating like a machine. Tame as. Can pat him all I want and shows no sign of aggression. Very lucky.

Oh bugger. This is the first escape I’ve had in almost ten years of keeping reptiles. I almost cried.

So glad you got him before he managed to escape!

 

[pinefamily]

WO that was lucky,I was imagining a cat with a fat belly

I was thinking the same thing while reading your post, Stompsy. Well done on finding the second one.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Well... at least your cats are inside.

 

[Nero Egernia]

Glad that you were able to recover it, Stompsy. I know the feeling. Your heart just stops.

Got to be careful with escapees. Particularly if you have a dog or cat running around the house. Obviously small reptiles are at risk to our furry pets, but if something such as a large python were to get out with something small like a Chihuahua things could be a little different. Luckily for me when I've had escapees they were large enough not to be seen as prey but were small enough not to consider my cat as part of the menu!

Sometimes you don't even know your reptiles have escaped until you see them out and about. One time I was on my laptop, completely absorbed in an article I was reading when I dimly heard something climb onto the lounge besides me. I briefly thought it was the cat but he was sitting at my feet. Dumbfounded, I turned and there it was - a big skink staring fixedly at me only a few centimetres away. I think we were both a little surprised to see each other, to be honest.

 

[Stompsy]

Glad that you were able to recover it, Stompsy. I know the feeling. Your heart just stops.

Got to be careful with escapees. Particularly if you have a dog or cat running around the house. Obviously small reptiles are at risk to our furry pets, but if something such as a large python were to get out with something small like a Chihuahua things could be a little different. Luckily for me when I've had escapees they were large enough not to be seen as prey but were small enough not to consider my cat as part of the menu!

Sometimes you don't even know your reptiles have escaped until you see them out and about. One time I was on my laptop, completely absorbed in an article I was reading when I dimly heard something climb onto the lounge besides me. I briefly thought it was the cat but he was sitting at my feet. Dumbfounded, I turned and there it was - a big skink staring fixedly at me only a few centimetres away. I think we were both a little surprised to see each other, to be honest.

Yeah, I think this little guy and I had the same shocked expression when we locked eyes. I was actually more worried that he’d gone down the heating vents in the floor than stressing about the cat! But it’s definitely given me something to think about.

 

[Bl69aze]

Can I just recommend not leaving enclosures up very high that a cat could jump on I lost my bird on a cold night next to my large snake tank where it’s nice and warm, and my cat jumped on the bird cage, scaring the bird (she had a towel) and jumped off to get up top of snake tank and kicked her cage off it’s not a lightweight cage either

Edit: just read you have plans

 

[Buggster]

Had something similar with a baby bluey- it was an open topped tub (in a closed room so no other pets could get it). Couple week old bluey so maybe 10cms long? (He was a tiny bugger). Tub height was around 40cms, and all the decor was very low to the ground (so his back would be touching the top when he went into the hide, so very low.

And one day he was gone. Never found him, and never figured out how on earth he manged to climb that high... serves me right for not putting a lid on the tub. Lesson learnt :/

 

[Imported_tuatara]

Had something similar with a baby bluey- it was an open topped tub (in a closed room so no other pets could get it). Couple week old bluey so maybe 10cms long? (He was a tiny bugger). Tub height was around 40cms, and all the decor was very low to the ground (so his back would be touching the top when he went into the hide, so very low.

And one day he was gone. Never found him, and never figured out how on earth he manged to climb that high... serves me right for not putting a lid on the tub. Lesson learnt :/

Exact same happened to me with a different species