Escaped Ball

[Temporal]

I've had a chocolate ball python for a few months, and it recently escaped by somehow knocking off part of the backing on it's enclosure. He's been out for ~36 hours now and I can't find him anywhere. My room is the warmest in the house and he's displayed quite a bit of interest in my rats(which are too big for him to eat, and I'm pretty sure he can't enter their cage) so I don't think he's out in rest of the house, but I'm at a loss as to how to re-capture him. The folks are worried because we have cats, but I can't imagine a two foot ball doing much to a cat, I'm more worried about the cats finding him to be honest.

Has anyone else ever had to deal with this? I can't afford a commercial trap right now or that would have been my go-to, any kind of help would be appreciated, I just want to find the snake before it ends up as cat food or figures out a way into my rat's enclosure.

[4Ballz]

my cat found my bp under the couch last year. He was out for weeks. Cats come in handy.

[ExotixTowing]

Check every nook and cranny you can think of !!!

Everytime I read a post like this I have to run downstairs and check on my guys haha

[Kaorte]

Check every possible space. Laundry, closets, in and around furniture, bookcases.

The BP will not harm a cat. If anything, it would be the opposite. I think a ball python would be able to hide fairly well from a cat though.

You could try to lure it out at night. Lay out a heat mat and leave a thawed rodent by it. Maybe place a few plastic bags around the heat mat so when the snake slithers by you can hear it. Turn off all the lights and wait..

They will come out eventually!

[SRMD]

I have also heard of putting some sort of white powder down on the floor, because if your bp went through the powder your would see trail marks, when my bp escaped twice i found him on top of my radiator and on top my desktop computer which is like 3-4ft of the ground so check places you wouldn't think they can get to!

[4Ballz]

even a plastic garbage bag, or tin foil to hear noise too. (if you are in the room at the time)

[jbabybulldog]

When my ball escaped he went behind my cupboards probably accessed it from under the stove or fridge, he crawled into that tight space between the back of the cupboard and the wall, and then managed to crawl his way up on top of the dishwasher laying between the soft padding of the dishwasher and the counter top. The only way I found him was because I unscrewed the dishwasher from the counter top and pulled in out, I did not expect he would of managed to crawl that high, I just did this to try to look behind the dishwasher. I was so relieved when I saw a little piece of him on top of it, I then managed to push down the padding enough to un-wedge him out. Good luck and remember they aren't always low to the ground.

[Sama]

As often as not they seem to be found in the room the went missing from. Look everywhere and in everything! Take some time to sit in the room when its quiet, maybe with a book and just listen. Look high as well as low, people have found them in the top of closets and sitting on top of book shelves. Look in smaller places then you think they can be, you would be shocked how well they can contort their bodies.

My sister's corn snake was found in a box under his cage, UNDER the dog bones that filled the box. We sat and listened and heard something shifting, got closer and realized the little sound was coming from the box, looked inside and still didn't see him. We pulled it out and tipped it a little and saw a glimpse of his orange color! If you don't find him asap, don't panic! I found my 1700g normal bp 2 weeks after she went missing, about 4 feet from her cage! I tore that room and every other apart for the whole 2 weeks with no sign of her, my dogs and cats ate in that room, my husband's computer was in there (so he practically lived in there) and still no sign for 2 whole weeks. Then one night as I was going to bed, I just glanced in with no real hope and there she was! Coiled around the edge of my desk.