How long can my ball live in my house???

[Melissa88]

One of our kids did not put the lid on all the way when changing his water. He has been gone for about 3 weeks now We have looked ever where we can think and he is no where to be found. I live in UT and its pretty cold here right now how long do you think he can live just wandering around my house??

[MitsuMike]

Depends on where the snake is and how warm that spot is. If the house is around 75 I would say quite awhile. That is IF the snake is inside the house, it might have found a way outside and would have died the first night. Now if the house in in the 60's I am not sure how long it will last, depending on the snake really. 3 weeks is pushing it if temps are in the 60's or lower.
Look in places where you would NEVER expect to find a snake. Like on top of a dishwasher, under the frig, in your dresser, etc.

[FatBoy]

What methods have you used to ty to find it?? Sprinkle flour around on the floor in different rooms to see if he is roaming at night. Warm up FT rats and leave it in a hide boxes in different rooms, look anywhere that creates heat, under fridge, water heater, computers, etc.

[SlitherinSisters]

Oh man that sucks!!! After this long I'm not sure that you will find it. There are so many things that could go wrong! Getting in your furnace when it's not running but still hot, then it kicks back on... Same with the water heater, assuming it's gas. Like someone else said, it could have gotten outside. My aunt had the same thing happen with a kingsnake this summer and they never found it. You could try the flour and f/t tricks, but it's been quite a while.

When I was young my brother caught a bull snake and lost it in the house. It was in the summer and that darn thing lived for MONTHS in the house! One day my step mom and I were washing dishes, saw something out of the corner of our eye and it was a MUCH larger bull snake!!!!

Good luck!

[Melissa88]

We have pulled out the fridge, cleaned out all the closets, got a snake to look in the heater vents, pulled out all the drawers in the kitchen, looked around the water heater. We have cats so any time they act like are watching something we tare apart what ever they are by. And he will only eat live mice. Our house is always at least at 68 if not warmer.

[FatBoy]

Try a FT mouse then...it is the smell that will attract him, doesn't matter if he eats it or not. My son lost his king snake once and it showed back up 13 months later!!!! Very skinny but he survived. 3 weeks is way to soon to give up looking, IMO, I would keep trying. Use the cats to your advantage, if they are seeing a snake roaming around at night they should be pretty jumpy. When they are not looking at you make a load noise with your mouth, if your cat jumps, I think your snake is still around. I feed 125 ball pythons weekly, we lose a rat every now and then. When I see my cat sneaking around acting funny I smack my lips real load, if he jumps I start looking for the rat. I have had a couple snakes escape over the years and the reaction from my cat was the same. The longest we ever lost a BP was a few days and the FT rat in a hide worked every time.

[Melissa88]

Thank you i will try that but i guess i better lock the cats up so they dont eat him..

[jsmorphs2]

Sorry to hear that. One of our BPs got out while a friend was snake-sitting for us. I have NO idea how long she had been out for but when we got home she was gone. I found her within 5 minutes. She was two feet away from the rack under our ASF colony shelving unit. I've had one other BP escape (a longggg time ago) and he ended up in my bed which was right next to his cage. So, from my experience look close to his cage, or in the same room. If its cool in your house he probably didn't get far. Good luck and hope you find him soon.

[loonunit]

Well, I had one go two weeks in a closet. I think he went into a shed cycle or something, because he didn't make a peep the entire time... and then we woke up one morning and he was hanging out in the living room trying to climb the windows.

I recommend putting out some water bowls for him. Dehydration is the bigger worry.

If you're worried about cold you can buy some extra UTHs and put them in the corners of closets, under beds, and behind bookshelves. That way he has warm places to hide. You can also buy cardboard shipping tubes from your local FedEx or UPS store and cut them up with an X-acto knife, so you've got some cheap hides.

I really like and recommend the talcum powder/flour trick. Once you set up the hides and water bowls, you can sprinkle powder around them to see if he's visiting them. Also sprinkle it along the baseboards and corners, too--they usually stick close to walls and stay behind/under things as much as possible when they cruise.

The talcum powder didn't really help me FIND Morris--as far as I can tell, he simply didn't budge for two weeks. But it did tell me where he'd been... (There was an exit track through the powder coming out of the closet, but none going in. So I think he must have just been in there all along.)

[Dragon Queen]

Awww... I'm sorry. I don't really have any advice, other than what people have said. I remember a story my dad told me about when he lost his snake. For some reason, someone told him to put out milk, so he did, and one day his mom found the snake at the milk bowl. lol I'll keep my fingers crossed that you find your snake.