Escaped in a heat wave!

[piedplus]

My Pied escaped on Monday. My own dumb fault. I tore the house apart on the first night, no luck. I put out a heat source on Tuesday morning, but when I got home from work it was so hot in the house that I unplugged the heat for all my BP's. I continued the search Tuesday & Wednesday. Both nights I put out a f/t rat next to her water dish in a large, floor level cage with the sliding doors off. Nothing.

It's Thursday now and I'm worried about her in this heat. I'm pretty sure she's not in the kitchen. It's about 90 muggy degrees in there. I'm pretty sure she's not in the bedroom or bathroom. It's running 75 degrees or less due to the window air conditioner and the tile floor feels cold. She's gotta be in the living room, where it's running just over 80 degrees, where the cages are, where she escaped from, but where?

So I put an extra water dish out by the couch. I put paper bags and towels around it. I sprinkled some baking soda around the water dish so I can tell if she drinks any. I put plastic bags along the walls to make noise. I'll put out another rat tonight and see if I can catch her.

Tonight's a last ditch effort for me. I can't think of anything else to do. Any ideas?

[lasweetswan]

Make sure you have no open holes anywhere. I had an open outlet and ended up having to cut my BP out of the wall.

Edit: I really hope you find yours soon

[piedplus]

Make sure you have no open holes anywhere. I had an open outlet and ended up having to cut my BP out of the wall.

I think I'm safe there. I plugged up all the holes to keep the mice out when I bought the place. The one thing I'm worried about is the wall heater. If I can't find her by the time cold weather hits... well... guess I'll be buying a new wall heater. Better that then the chance of roasted snake!

[piedplus]

Edit: I really hope you find yours soon

Thanks! Me too. Can't believe I was so dumb!

[purplemuffin]

Don't look for something the size of your snake! Look for something smaller. We all know they can fit in surprisingly small places, but we tend to forget that when they go missing! Keep looking!! Good luck!

[tqmidget85]

Man, I just went through this whole process, so I can fully empathize. You seem to have covered everything that I learned to do, but maybe just restart from the "inside-out", so to speak. Find the closest spots to the cage that could possibly have a hiding spot. I feel like they try to find the closest thing possible to hide in/under from where they originally got out from. In any case, DON'T GIVE UP!!! Good luck and keep us posted!

[lasweetswan]

Any luck yet?

[Akren_905]

This might sound weird but take a rat fishing. When i used to work at a petstore they lost little boa (not sure what type, it was blueish grey and tan/ apricot) it was missing for about a week. after ppl looked everywhere and left out FT i got bored took a small feeder rat out hooked it up to a 4 foot long steel fishing leader. gave it a little collar and took it for a walk around the store. Found it withing an hour he smelled the rat and found me.

Hope u find your pied

[angllady2]

I cannot stress this enough : THINK SMALL.

Right now your focused on searching for a whole snake.

Don't. Search for a 3" long piece of snake, because 90% of the time that is all you'll see.

I've had several get out on me, and without fail when I finally see them, it's about a 3" long bit of their side, which is ridiculously easy to overlook. Think of those Where's Waldo ? pictures. Or the I Spy books.

It's very important to remember they like small tight spaces, and they can smoosh themselves into some of the most unlikely places. Break out your magnifying glass, go over every inch of your couch. Not just under the cushions and under the bottom, but look for tiny tears in the fabric to allow her to get inside the couch. Check for loose staples holding the fabric in place, she can easily squeeze into a gap like that and end up wedged inside the couch frame or springs.

When you check the entertainment center, look on, under, behind, inside, beside, between, inside out and upside down. It's even possible for them to end up inside a computer, I've seen that! Remember this, a young adult snake can fit into a cereal bowl when balled up, so if it's big enough to hold a cereal bowl, it's big enough to hide the snake. Even more likely, if she's all stretched out, she can squeeze into an area the diameter of a silver dollar, that is pretty darn small!

Keep searching, look with a fine toothed comb, she'll turn up. Look up as well as down, I remember last year someone found their missing ball python wedged into the back of a large picture frame 5 feet off the ground, and they still don't know how it got there.

Best of luck with your search.

Gale

[oliverstwist]

I just caught my butter with a live pinky in a dish on the floor...