The strangest place to find a ball!

[Vypyrz]

I've been fortunate enough to not have any escapees yet, but the strangest that I've ever heard of happened back in '09 and where this member found one...

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...on-in-the-wild

[SeanL]

My girl has gotten out twice now... the first time she SOMEHOW got up into the closet and inside of a large box and THEN under a collection of books and an old laptop... I am not sure how...
the second time... she got out... and squeezed under my closed bedroom door... which the space between the door and the floor is only an inch... and shes MUCH large than an inch thick... so I have NO IDEA how she squeezed down that small but she did... and she ended up 3 rooms away in the kitchen... on the side of the fridge... wrapped up nice and neat... and when I was getting her out (with a broom handle because she was so far back) she was huffing and puffing and all mad at me cause she must have been just so comfy.

Yeah...these guys are amazing creatures! Some of the things they can fit through is mind boggling!

[SeanL]

Strangest: Lois got out one night and CLIMBED THE STAIRS. She's always been a climber, but I spent 20 minutes downstairs looking for her because everyone says ball pythons go low when they escape. I finally went upstairs and there she was, cruising around. Probably looking for a nice precarious bookshelf to climb.

(I'm glad your girl made it out okay. I know a cat who was permanently messed up in the head from a washer/dryer experience.)

I remember seeing a study done where they tested out a snake's ability to climb a rope...the ropes varied from really thick rope, to rope the size of a shoe string, and every single time the snake was able to climb the rope!
My thought in your situation would be to check down stairs too, not even thinking about it going upstairs!

[A.VinczeBPs]

All of mine are in tubs, so the only escape that can happen is by human error.
We had a baby go missing because I didn't fully close the tub late one night.
She was gone for four days before she was located by my cats, three cats staring at a purse is not a normal sight. She was all curled up beside the purse. To get their she had to get up a flight of stairs, and up on top of a shelf.

I've never made the same mistake again, always make sure to fully close the tubs.

[mechnut450]

had many snakes in 15 years and about 20 escapes most the time It my fault, weirdest was my butter corn ( he getting really old) but he got out of the tank I had him in ( lid was not on square ) I lost him for over 3 months. in the middle of winter. I happen to be checking the heating ducts and cleaning them out some from heavier items like coins and such I just happen to be using a mirror and a light and I seen this yellow skin. and though ok if this is the corn it either dead, or very close to it ( plus could not figure how to get out ,so I stuck a mouse in a small deli cup and set in the heater vent and watched and waited within 20 mintued the snake was back n the cage , with a full belly and only damage was some frost bite to the tail about 1/2 lost .

to this day we not been able to figuer out how a inch round snake got into the heating duct and not get fried by the electric heater coils.

[jbean7916]

my first by Spike was the Houdini of all time. He escaped constantly and we could never figure out where, I even had locks on his lid!! He always ended up in 2 places though, my sock drawer or my bed.

Stewie is my resident escape artist now and I always find him pretty close to home, usually curled up in the space between his tank and the table. I can't wait to get my other rack finished!!

[Elise.m]

I've had 4 escapes by 2 snakes! First was my Pastel, she chose 3 different spots. One, on the top shelf of the closet their rack is in. Two, in the box of boxes by my BF's cell phone charger (imagine the surprise of hearing "Babe, there's a snake by my phone. Come get it please." at 7am!). And three, in a long tube like box that was open on one end, closed on the other. She was curled up at the closed end. That was the longest it took me to find her.

Second, and last, was my pinstripe. He squeezed into a space that was between a box that was under my desk, and the actual desk. I pulled out the box to look along the wall, and there he was all curled up! It was quite cute.

I have left a tub open overnight on accident. It was feeding night, and luckily she didn't go anywhere! It was my het pied female, who's the most lazy ball ever! I was quite lucky it was her tub, and none of the others.

[zina10]

Few years ago one of my rescues got out of his "sick bay" tub. Found him in the Box Spring under my mattress. It was torn a bit underneath and he must have found that spot and slithered in. As I looked under the bed and then up into the box spring, I saw a bit of his pattern.
Guess he put himself to bed

[snakesRkewl]

I recently moved some shelves I breed on and didn't get the shelves nailed down as it was late so I figured for one night things would be fine.
Luckily the shelf was less than a foot off of the ground and there's no way to escape this small room
I ventured into the snake room the next morning to find this....

They were breeding the night before and he was trying to lock up with her on this box
There's no way to escape this small room

[LotsaBalls]

No interesting ball python escapes but about 17 years ago I had a 14 foot retic escape. I spent 2 1/2 hours tearing apart my apartment couldn't find her anywhere. I pulled out the fridge stove nothing. Finally when I was pushing the stove back in I saw some yellow under the burner. Somehow she was coiled up in and around the burners. I spent another hour tearing the stove apart to get her out.