Lost my Ball Python

Two nights ago, I forgot to close my ball python's enclosure all the way. I woke up with the tank wide open and no snake to be found. We have searched the house thoroughly and we've not seen him. Close to his enclosure is a vent from about 1910, the holes are big enough for him to get through. The doorways are also short enough for him to push himself under. We checked the vents, and even pulled a CIA operation with two phones and a lot of tape and twine, and we still haven't seen him. The whole upstairs floor has been checked extensively and some of the downstairs. We have two indoor cats and an outdoor cat who I'm afraid may have eaten the snake. As well as the dog being under suspicion. If anyone could help and give some advice on finding my lost snake, that would be great! He means so much to me.

Don't panic! It is completely normal a snake owner could be so careless that he/she forgot to lock the snake's enclosure. But if I were you, you have to think like a :snake: . Probably check the warmest and the darkest part of your room or put a live mice/rat inside your enclosure. It always works for me tho But I am not sure it could be a good solution with finding your Bp. Every snake is different. The bigger the snake, the easier you can find it of course. Just keep your eyes open! Btw how big is your snake? If its big, cats or dogs can't actually eat it.

Here is a thread if you want to see how other snake keepers deal with problems like finding their escaped pets. I hope it helps. Good luck in finding your snake. Update us ASAP! :)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Lost-Snake-xD

The warmest place would probably be right at the entrance of the vent- and I'm afraid he went inside of it and made his way to the furnace. We checked there numerous times, but to no avail. Here's a photo of the little guy, he's a bit bigger now- but still small enough to fit under the doorway and into the vent.

http://imgur.com/a/omq6K

i honestly don't feel a cat would eat the snake, more so just make a mess then strut around the house proudly until you find their present. you know your cats better than i do, but that's from my understanding of my own cat.

start your search close to the enclosure, look in EVERY nook and cranny — even if you think "there's no way a snake would go/fit in there," look there especially — and only then fan out from there. from my experience they stay close to their enclosure.

if your search brings you father than 10ft from the enclosure, set up a hide and maybe a heat pad and place food in their for them: the scent and heat might draw them out. you can also set up lines of flour to look for tracks.

my 2 year old has escaped twice due to my own error: when he was a few months old i found him ~10ft from his tank under the fridge (looking up at me like "where did my house go??"). second time he was older and was ~5ft from his enclosure: completely stuffed himself into a box full of shoes; it was the last place i looked because i thought "there's no way he'd go in there."

good luck!

Trying my best to follow all the advice given but have still not found the little bugger, I'm going to check under the mattresses again and hopefully someone can reply with information on the vent situation. I hope I find him.

When my snake escaped I figured, he probably went along the wall because being in the middle of the room makes them more vulnerable (more sides to get attacked from). So I went along the wall checking everywhere along the way. I finally found him in a closed drawer in my walk in closet. These drawers are pretty heavy but he somehow found his way into my clothes... I somewhere read, look everywhere you think he would be, then everywhere you don't think he would be.
The people that had him before me said, he has gone missing before and turned up two weeks later in a desk drawer.

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Originally Posted by John Tobin

hopefully someone can reply with information on the vent situation

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scenting the room might draw him out if he's in there.

The vent is straight for a while when you go in it, but we didn't see him there when we recorded a video of it (with a light). There's also a straight drop down two floors after the narrow space, we sent a camera down there while we used face time to get live footage of it. He wasn't in there either. I don't think, even if he were in there that we could draw him out with a scent. I'm afraid he could've gotten caught on a nail on his way down and we couldn't see it because the camera was facing one way. Also, I looked behind all the big objects, beds, dressers, desks, and in the drawers and I haven't had much luck.

I thought I was the only idiot who would leave the cage open, About 2 nights ago I fed my BP and even sat there and watched him eat and then i just got up and walked off without even closing the door. I got up in the morning picked up my keys for work and the snake lock was attached to them. I knew what I had done straight away so I walked over to him and the door was wide open but luckily enough he was in his hide just chilling out. I think it may have been because he had just eaten he wasn't very active but I know how lucky I was.

Its easier then you think to leave the door open or just forget and get side tracked doing something else. :gj:

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I thought I was the only idiot who would leave the cage open, About 2 nights ago I fed my BP and even sat there and watched him eat and then i just got up and walked off without even closing the door. I got up in the morning picked up my keys for work and the snake lock was attached to them. I knew what I had done straight away so I walked over to him and the door was wide open but luckily enough he was in his hide just chilling out. I think it may have been because he had just eaten he wasn't very active but I know how lucky I was.

Its easier then you think to leave the door open or just forget and get side tracked doing something else. :gj:

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

i honestly don't feel a cat would eat the snake

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Unfortunately they might do that. They left me only the tip of the tail of a baby corn that managed to squeeze trough the space between the tub and top of the rack. :tears:

Hard to miss the blood tho if that was the case.

Judging by how crazy my guy goes when I heat up his meal with a hairdryer I would go get a F/T rat if you don't have one, put it on the floor in the room with his cage (If you can keep the cats out of that room) or put it in his cage and heat it up with a hairdryer to scent the whole room. Put some flour lines down on the floors to try and catch a snake track.

I've looked just about everywhere in the room now and I still haven't found him. Any more advice, tips? Thanks for the help so far everyone.

I found him! Well, he found me. I was watching YouTube tonight and just heard a thump. I ran, turned the light on and looked in the closet. He was right there behind the door, staring at me with a face that said "what did I do wrong?" I'm just so happy I've found him and I'm sure he's VERY hungry. Thanks for all the help, everyone! Turns out the best advice I'd been given was: "he'll show up."

Glad to hear he's ok. Hopefully you can get some better sleep now.

Sweet! Glad to see you found him!

Glad he's back! Keep a string with a knot on your wrist so you won't forget to close the lid anymore!

I bet you're happy.. it happened to me three times, I lost two!

Sorry for this stressful situation, but it obviously happens more often than we snake keepers would like to admit. I had a two day mission just this week to pull my baby corn snake out of a computer chair. He was just hanging out with me, cruising around my arm and lap and started climbing towards the bottom of the chair. My BP and adult King do that all the time, I just watch them closely. No problem right? WRONG!! He was small enough to find the TINIEST hole ever that went up into the inner workings of the chair below the seat part itself. By the time I realized his head was in there, (I still had his tail on my wrist) he was far enough in that he had a grip and I couldn't pull him out. I tried to lure him out with food, warmth, etc...he wouldn't come out. I started pulling the chair apart, but couldn't get to him. I was also afraid to move anything because I was afraid to squash him inside the chairs working parts. I ended up wrapping a bedsheet around the chair and taping it up because I couldn't just stare at the chair all day (which I did for HOURS) hoping he would crawl out so I could grab him. If he crawled out while I wasn't looking he could go anywhere, at least this way he was contained. Well, after a pretty sleepless night I opened the sheet up and he was still inside the chair. I figured he would be, he felt safe in that tight, warm space. I ended up working on getting him out for another 3 hours!! I destroyed the chair in the process, but there he was, dirty but otherwise perfectly fine! Just goes to show, if they CAN fit, they WILL fit.

Good luck with finding yours! We are all rooting for you and a positive outcome.

Just saw that you found him!!!! That's awesome!!!!!

Just chacking if you find him, and i'm glad to see that you do.