Those who've had missing snakes ...

[Marla]

For those of you who've had missing snakes, or ball pythons in particular, and found them again, have you ever considered using Mouse Maker as a lure?

One of my new boys got out a few days ago. We've torn apart the area at least once a day looking for him. Last night I made the house really cold all evening and night and provided 3 warm spots: a heat pad tucked behind a chair against a wall, the heat around the snake containers, and a heat pad tucked behind one file cabinet and against another with a hide box on top containing a dead mouse. He didn't show up for his appointment, but I've left it set up and am leaving the cats and dogs blocked out of the room.

I don't want to spread flour all over the red carpet to look for tracks and I imagine it won't be so effective on carpet anyway. I am thinking about strewing plastic grocery bags all over the place so I can hear him if he moves. I don't know what else to do, except maybe using Mouse Maker as a lure.

If you have any other ideas or think this one is lousy or will work, please tell me. I'm worried about the little guy.

[beaglegod]

Sorry to hear about your escapee Marla. Those sound like some great ideas for getting him back though.....................except for the flour part LOL This is your second escapee? Im not sure I thought you posted some time ago about an escapee,if so is it the same snake?

[Marla]

Nah, every snake I've ever had has gotten away from me at some point. I just usually recover them before they even realize they're free. But it's the third time I've had an escapee since joining this site, which is the main reason I switched enclosure types. Now I've realized there's a better way to go about it and will be making holes for use with a bungee cord to prevent future escapes. The multi-drawer setup was great for convenience, but not so good for escapes. The taller locking bins were great for escapes, but not good for stacking or keeping heat/humidity steady. The single drawer at a time (stacked) is better for both, but still leaves the possibility of escape, just this time as a multi-step process for the snake. A bungee cord ought to fix that, though.

[The_Godfather]

How hard have you looked?

I once tore apart my room 5 times looking for one of em sure I'd covered every area. Well, it's happened two times. And I end up finding them in a stupid place I never thought it'd be.

[Marla]

Do you mean have I emptied or lifted every single thing in the room, the two adjoining rooms, and the crawl space? No, I haven't. But I have emptied/lifted/looked in everything within 10 feet and a lot of what's further than that. By myself I don't have the power to do a thorough search of the entire area. Friday I searched until I literally collapsed on the floor and had to have my daughter bring me a granola bar to bring up my blood sugar. Sunday my older daughter joined me in the search and she was able to check a few places I couldn't because of size, but he still wasn't there. There are a lot of hiding spaces he could get to that I couldn't look in, anyway, like the drop ceiling and the ventilation.

None of which relates to my question, has anyone used MouseMaker or considered using it for bait for a missing snake?

[JLC]

Mouse Maker is something used to scent other prey items to make them smell like mice, yes? It makes sense that leaving such a strong odor would attract the snake...but if the snake went to the smell and didn't find anything, it may just crawl off again, back to wherever its been hiding.

Unless I'm totally mistaken on how you plan to use it?

[Marla]

I wanted to use it to leave a trail to the dead mousie in the hide box on top of the heat pad, hoping that I would find a full-bellied snake there instead of a mousie later.

[JLC]

Oohhhhh....yeah...that does sound like a pretty good idea. I don't know if snakes track like bloodhounds or not...but it sounds like something worth trying.

[Wizill]

how else would snakes track? by sight?

[Marla]

Well, turns out if I want Mouse Maker I have to drive over an hour to get to it. I just finished spending over an hour with my entire household going through the entire downstairs. We pulled the bottles out of the bar, the books out of the bookshelves, the socks out of the basket in the laundry room, etc. We looked under and behind the washer, dryer, and water heater, and behind the furnace. We looked in the rafters as far as we could with a stepstool or climbing on appliances. We pulled out the stereo, tv, vcr, dvd, guitar case, sofa, loveseat, etc., and patted the bottoms of the sofa, loveseat, and chaise. I disassembled my desk, dumped out the hampers and went through the clothes, opened the backgammon case, looked through the trash cans. And yes, we did go through the crawl space and checked every box in it. Basically, if it could be gone through or reached by humans of our heights and widths, we covered it. If the snake is still in here, he is in a wall, the rafters behind the furnace, or the insulation in the crawl space.

I give up. I am throwing in the towel. I will keep a couple of warm spots and check them multiple times a day and I will leave the mouse in the warm hide for another night and keep the dogs and cats out of the room, but he's going to have to come back voluntarily at this point. I guess I need to go ahead and work out a name for the clutchmate he left behind.