Ball Python Escape

[RoseyBreeze]

I've had my ball python for a little over 2 months now, and it has been a breeze since the first day I had her. She eats like a champ, and she shed for the first time last weekend. She is still young as she is only 19 inches, and weighs 115g. As I am a college student, I left for winter break to go to my home town for 2 weeks. I left the pets in the hands of my roommate as I have always done in the past. When my roommate went to feed the snake tonight, she was not in her enclosure. I have absolutely no idea how this could have happened. This is my first snake, but not my first reptile. I knew they were escape artists, and I thought I had the lid secure well enough. My roommate and I have a 2 bedroom apartment, so there's not a huge radius she could be hiding, but a lot of little crevices.

I'm honestly not sure how to go about this because I've never had one of my smaller pets get loose before. She could possibly have gotten out almost a week ago, and I'm stuck over 500 miles away until Friday. My roommate has been ripping the apartment apart trying to find her, but no luck. No doubt she will be getting hungry sometime soon. Our apartment is usually kept on the cooler side, and the bedrooms are usually the coldest. The snake is kept in the living room. No doubt she will be looking for warm places to curl up in. One of my other fears is that my roommate and I have pet gerbils. Should we be worried about the snake getting into their aquarium, or worried about their safety? The gerbils are kept in my room, and have never even been in the same room as the snake.

So those are my main worries. I'm unsure of what to tell my roommate to do, and if I need to worry about my other pets. I've never had one of my reptiles escape before.

[KMG]

Check behind, under, and in the motor area of your fridge. I have seen many escaped snakes found there on here.

[Kirks_Herps]

Check any place warm and dark even if there is no way the snake Could get in there .
I have heard of people putting a small line of flour across doorways as a way to track any movements room to room but remember the snake can stay in one spot for days if there is no need to move.
I would also alert your neighbors. I had a king snake get out of my condo and into my neighbors and she flipped........ good luck

[Zincubus]

As above really ... Check all the quieter warm places for example where there are electric appliances in the kitchen plus behind TVs , PCs , plug extension leads etc ..

I've heard of many being successful by putting down some bottle traps , the ones used to catch tiny fish in streams . You simply get a 2L plastic bottle , slice the top third off the bottle and turn it around and stick the two pieces together .- with the opening facing inside the bottle .

Then put a couple of pinkies or fuzzy mice in there and leave it in the room where it went missing , near the edges of the room BUT put the bottle on top of a heat mat !!!

Check in the morning ( even through out the night )

Good luck



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