Tips/Advice on luring out or finding a missing ball python?

[ChelseyDgaf]

Hello everyone! I'm in a bit of an unfortunate mishap. On Tuesday evening (17th) my ball python went missing! So this will make it the third day. To sum it up concisely, I left my juvenile ball python on my bed to have a brief conversation just outside my bedroom door (it was under 5 minutes) and came back to find my ball python missing! Usually when I leave her on my bed she chooses to go to a specific area behind my pillows but was not there. She has been missing twice before (I'm not a bad owner I just spoil her and always let her roam oops xD) but I usually find her fairly easily and quickly, one time she was in my drawer, the other she was relaxing in the open. She usually always goes to about 2 or 3 specific spots. So I don't really panic when I can't see her.

But this time I'm starting to worry. She has never been missing this long and I've searched through my whole apartment, it only has 2 bedrooms. I've checked shoeboxes, clothing drawers, regular drawers, kitchen cabinet/closet/drawers, bathrooms and nothing! I've even left her cage open overnight on the ground near two hopper mice in a small cardboard box with no top and still nothing! The AC stays around 78 degrees so I was hoping that'll make her come out but no luck with that either. Her feeding day was supposed to be yesterday so I expected she'd be out sniffing for food or warmth in her housing. I am running out of options! I'm close to giving up and just waiting it out and not searching as much on a daily but I am determined. Any other suggestions that might help?

[footballpythons]

i would say from my experience look behind couches and furniture and doorknobs. also you could make a heat source in your house in one specific spot and maybe it will come you never know. Good luck!

[Bea]

so a few tips i read from a tumblr post:

-try to block of anything climbable, as they WILL climb. that or look on top of climbable stuff!
-look in warm areas, they still need heat, even when missing.
-get a bunch of plastic bags and stuff them into corners, against the wall, behind furniture, etc. then turn out the light and be VERY quiet and VERY patient. the idea is that the snake will move over or near the bag, making it crinkle, and making finding it easy!
-you can always try luring it back into its cage with a mouse, a box, and a hole, apparently. google knows more
-if all else fails, you can usually rent a heat detecting camera. it can't see through walls, but snakes apparently do show up as temperature oddness, and it may be able to help with peeking around/under furniture, or in cabinets

good luck, hope she turns up soon!

[Zincubus]

Yeah , the warm areas are key.

In or around TVs / DVD players or HIFIs , anywhere where there are loads of wires and extension cables etc.
Gas boilers , towels cupboards etc back of electrical appliances ...

[ChelseyDgaf]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I will try the thermal camera one that sounds effective. And one thing I'm worried about is we have a locked door where the AC unit is and only maitenence has access to that room. The snake could've gone under but I don't really want to call maintenence because I'm not really supposed to have a snake in here oops