Lost Ball Python...How do you find one?

[tipposan]

So after about 3 years of owning a ball python, I forgot to close the cage after cleaning it. Left it open for a good 2 hours...unattended and low and behold...he's gone.

Can anyone suggest a way to lure him out of where he would be hiding? I have started the long process of doing a room by room search but I am sure that he could have gone anywhere in that 2 hours.

He is due for a feeding and I was thinking about heating a rat to see if that would work.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

He is a pretty good size now so I would imagine that he would be a bit easier to find.

Here is a fairly recent picture...


DSC_0140 by closhusan, on Flickr

[rlditmars]

Chances are he hasn't gone as far as you may think but yes he could be anywhere in two hours. Start close and look for small tight places that are in the immediate vicinity. These are animals who by nature like privacy and small confines. Think of the smallest hide he would fit in and that is the size of the spaces you need to be checking. If your dressers or cabinets have space behind and beneath, look there. I found one coiled vertically between a wall and the side surface of a dresser once. Check anyplace that might be emmitting heat like a computer or appliance as they may be drawn to it. Other than that you can try keeping a live prey item in a something like a critter keeper that has openings, down on the floor where he can catch it's scent. I wish you the best of luck finding it and let us know if you do.

[tipposan]

So I gave up for the night and started looking in the morning.

Checked with the kids to see which room was open around that time and started there. Eventually found him in the linen closet curled up among some clothes that were set aside for donation.

Back home safe and sound. Roamed around a bit and went back into his hide...


DSC_0285[1] by closhusan, on Flickr

[PitOnTheProwl]

congrats

[rlditmars]

Glad to hear it. Now lock him up tight this time.

[mandalorian]

Glad you found him. My JCP was missing over a month when he magically popped up last week. He was real hungry because he didn't hesitate to take a med. f/t rat...

[Pythonfriend]

im no expert, but i know two tricks that can help.

the first would be to make some sort of barriers between the rooms, barrier is not the right word, its about making visible if the snake moved across. for example with a ruler and rice you can make nice straight lines of rice in the doors. of course that wont work if you have cats or dogs or children or keep forgetting that they are there, but if it works it shows you if the snake changed the room, and in which direction it did so. you could also make such a line using dice, or domino stones standing on the long side, anything that doesnt harm the snake but that the snake will change and move around by crawling over it.

the second one is a bit brute-force, has been suggested by Stefan Broghammer at reptilTV , that is to use double-sided tape to make barriers that will actually trap the snake. Of course these must be checked several times a day, because being taped to the floor is not fun for the snake. According to Broghammer, snakes get stuck to double-sided tape and have no chance of freeing themselves, and he described accidents where people used double-sided tape to fix something inside the terrarium, it came lose, and the snake got stuck to the wall or ceiling for days. of course this can only be the last resort, if all else failed.

[satomi325]

Tape is a no no when dealing with reptiles. A snake can rip its own skin and scales off trying to get loose.....

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[Annarose15]

So I gave up for the night and started looking in the morning.

Checked with the kids to see which room was open around that time and started there. Eventually found him in the linen closet curled up among some clothes that were set aside for donation.

Back home safe and sound. Roamed around a bit and went back into his hide...

Can you imagine the reaction he would have gotten if he'd gone out with the donations?!

[Marrissa]

I'm glad you found him! And I got a good chuckle from that Annarose.