Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone, my wife & I got a Ball for my 18 y/o son a few weeks ago (I want one now!). it's about 12-14 inches long and kept in a 10 gallon fish tank with a wire mesh top that he keeps a light fixture upon for heat (as well as an under tank reptile heater).

He woke up yesterday morning and apparently the little bugger had pushed the top aside and got out during the night.

We live in a double wide mobile home & have 3 cats and an adult Corgie dog, all of which haven't acted any differently as if there was something 'new' lying around to play with.

The Ball has started shedding and left small amounts of skin in the tank but we cannot find ANY trace anywhere else in the house of any shed skin. The animals haven't eaten or played with it (no blood, etc.).

My son and I practically tore the house apart all day long yesterday looking for it. You name it, we've looked there, moved everything from flipping over furniture, looking inside subwoofer speakers, moved and looked under stove/fridge/wahser/dryer, emptied clothes drawers etc.

From the inside of the smallest shoe, pockets of clean/dirty clothes, my son even (finally) cleaned his room by emptying it completely while scouring the smallest nook. We went room by room with no sign unless it crawled into the bathtub and went down the drain. Yes I even checked the small space under the kitchen counter & the floor where there's access from where the dishwasher used to be.

Every box that had an opening was opened and dug through, kitchen counters were scoured. If I had a million dollars, i'd bet it all that the darn thing wasn't in the house!
I'm at my wits end unless it could climb the smooth surface of my 6' tall wall units and is sitting on top.

Any advice please???
Have you lost yours and where did you find it?

n/p

nope, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, furniture, everything was moved, tipped, tilted, scanned... even the dark back corners of the hot water heater (in it's own small closet space) were examined (and vaccumed). Clothes hanging in closets were looked at (pockets). If anything had an opening greater than 0.5 inches, it was picked up and opened (shaken slightly too). we went through every trash basket, kitchen drawers too.

I will say we have forced how air heating, vents in the floor are about 12" long by 5" wide and the spaces between 'slats' of the vents are about 3/8ths wide, too close together for it's head, let alone it's body of at least an inch wide, to get through. But if it managed to squeeze through, it'll never get back out.

Is there something I could put out as bait? Get a live mouse in a small cage and leave it in the middle of a room (the cats would love that!)?

I even checked the inside of my acoustic guitar...;>

we have found ours on tvs , in toy boxes , you name it.. pretty funny the spots they pick.
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2.1 Dogs
2.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Cat

it might sound stupid, but did you look behind its cage?

I lost my kingsnake when I was a teenager, looked EVERY where, about to give up, when sitting at my desk, i see its head poke out from behind his cage(I had a background on the tank)
I felt stupid, but was happy to find it...

Kinda like the ol' question, "Why wont my computer work!?" is it plugged in?

They dont always go to the warm spots.Start beside the cage and work your way outward looking behind and under everthing.We have found ours behind the cage,between a sheet of paneling against a wall 3 ft away,insid ethe file cabinet drawer 3 ft away,under the bed twice about 7 ft away.
The trick with flour on the floor at night to determine which room they are in or are of the room might work.We tried it and there were tracks from underneath the sofa the next day but there were 3 trails so she wanst still under there the nxt morning.Itsmessy.I sorta felt like I was on a snipe hunt with that advice.lol.
Good luck.
Toni

Once you've done a sufficient job of tossing the house -- lock it up tight so he can't get out and wait -- he'll be out -- it might be a week it might be a couple of months but he'll come out when he's ready -- or you'll open the pantry door to find him wrapped around a bottle of soda or something - probably scare the you know what out of you.

Good luck!

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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

The 10 gallon glass fishtank sits on my sons computer desk. We started by searching through his room, slowly taking everything out piece by piece and searching through everything (socks, closed boxes, trash, etc.). Then putting it all back (searching again as we went). Then we pretty much did the same thing with every other room working our way through the house.

I'm trying to think like a small snake that only needs a 4" diameter 'spot' to curl up. I was really hoping the other animals would've helped. The dog sleeps under my son's bed but apparently didn't hear anything which is kinda funny as she can tell when the wife is almost home from work by the sound the car makes at a thousand yards, with the windows closed!

ha Tosha that is a great picture!
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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons

nice pic, snake on the move!

Same thing happen to me once and after searching for hours i found him at the back of his encloser trying to get back inside cause it was much warmer there then in my room.
Not sure if anyone sugested this cause i am way to lazy to read all the post. But try putting a hide out on the floor some place safe with a UTH under it. if he is cold that is where he will go if you are lucky.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight. I'm going to assume it'll be searching for such a place and also assume most of it's movement will be at night?

>>Thanks, I'll try that tonight. I'm going to assume it'll be searching for such a place and also assume most of it's movement will be at night?

Stack a few tin cans at the corners of doorways at night(closets too)...and make them easy to tip over.

..or anything else that would wake you up at 3am when they crash it...lol

..and check your furniture to see if the "black bottom" has any holes in it too.

good luck
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Charles Glaspie
http://www.myspace.com/coldthumb

Thanks, I've already ripped off chair, couch & box spring black bottoms...;>

lol.I cut up all my furniture and found him later in the file cabinet that my daughter searched prior.Go back and doublecheck behind your helper. If you have cats and dogs I imagine the can thing may look like toys to them...consider the flour on the floor to see where he is coming out at night but you may have to crate the 4 legged critters so they wont mess up your tracks.
Fortunately,my door to the rest of the house stays close and there was no space underneath for an escape so we knew ours was in here.

the dog and cat may do no more than cock their head at the snake.
the wife dog connection is psychic.: ).
t

there isn't a specific spot that is universal... i found one wrapped around a fish filter 4 stories down and another in the my dad's pant pocket that he just laid on the floor while taking a nap hahah ... definitely seal up any escape paths to the outside, I would also try to muzzle or keep the cats/dogs somewhere else just because you never know if they like snake meat. I've heard of using flour, noisy materials, but if you have too much surface area to track it becomes a mess. unfortunately they aren't that easily tricked into falling into a tilted garbage can like hamsters... so keep some water out just in case. good luck hunting!

I once had 10 babies(2 weeks old) get out while I was on vacation and my snake sitter didn't close the cages correctly.

took me about 5 days to get them all back but I found them. Hard to find something so small that doesn't make noise.

you could lay down flour in some areas so you can see if it passed that zone. I tried to close off all rooms and places I could so if it was in an area it had to stay there.

I found them in shoes, under the couch, in the kitchen.
I could see they had been on the bathroom counter cause things were knocked down. same when I found the book shelf one papers had been pushed on the floor for it to get up in there. The last one I found was near my bed I happened to hear it move some cardboard boxes I had there. So keep your eyes out for signs and if you hear anything go look.

I heard they usually hug the walls and don't stray tooo far from their cage.

keep us posted and good luck
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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons

I just moved two weeks ago - After a 3 day weekend of moving, I was exhausted and very tired - In setting up a vision cb 70 rack, I put the back stops on upside down "Tired" - Put the snakes in and went to bed - Woke in the morning to find that 2 adult females escaped through the back of the rack as when I pushed the tubs in, I left an opening back there.

Give them an inch and they will take full advantage of it - Luckily I found both in about 2.5 hours - One was in a closet in the livingroom hiding under some junk - the other in my sons bedroom, under the bed and in between some boxes.

Best of luck with the hunt

Tosha - I love that pic...
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Mike P.

My one time losing a ball was on vacation of mine. My friend didn't close the cage correctly and I found my ball after a hour of searching. He was coilled up under the vaccum in the closet.
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Coolluigi

1.0 Pastel
1.0 Yellowbelly
0.2 Normal
0.1 Spider
1.2 Het VPI Axanthic
and soon to be more. *fingers crossed*

I'm hoping that since it's been a week since it ate a mouse and is currently shedding, it'll be active and come out during the day. The other animals are still 'uncaring' and don't seem to sense it.

No other sign of it this morning. We're in NH and while it's getting cold out we don't really have the heat running all the time. The thermo is set to about 65-70 and because the thermostat is at one end of the house in the hall, it's usually the 'middle' of the house (living/kitchen/dining) that is the warmest. The 'ends' are cooler because the distance the warm air has to travel.

The other bad thing about all this is all that searching is now moot, it could be anywhere we've already looked when we went through the house the other day.

Now don't take this the wrong way, but you guys raise babies...!?!
If/when we find it again, is there a way to quickly feed/grow it to 6 feet so 'losing' it won't be a problem anymore????
;>

Sometimes they are hiding in plain sight.

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Everyone has eaten and everyone has been eaten.

Oh if my son's snake was so easy to see...
I'm lining up cassettes across some doorways, which way they fall will give me an idea which way it's going.

Pour strips of flour in the threshold of every door and around all the bottoms of large appliances (like the stove, the washer/dryer, the fridge, the dishwasher) than go to sleep tonight. Typical of the snakes they are, they hide during the day, and than come out at night when the house is quiet and dark. In the morning, hopefully some of the powder will be disturbed and you can track down where he went. Its completely harmless to the snake and easy to vacuum up. Good luck!
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)

Like others here I've found them all over, warm or cold.... probably the worst was in a glue trap, but at least it slowed her down I guess...Don't forget to look "up".
I've never had to resort to the flour on the floor, but have read many times that it's helped.
Something I always thought that might work is to turn your ac on high & put out a couple heating pads with a hide on top.

Good luck!
Scott

I've gone through the house again, up & down, it had to have gotten through the floor vent similar to these:
http://www.decorativevents.com/FloorRegisters/bcl-painted-steel-registers.htm
But I still have my doubts as I'm almost sure the head couldn't fit through the 3/8 space unless it really wanted to and could flatten it's head and body somehow.

As that whole 'system' was cold (the heat wasn't on the time it escaped) would it really make the effort?

Here's a pic of my son & his ball. I've gone through the house yet again with no luck. I just can't picture the head getting between the floor vent slats, it just seems too big but i honestly can't think of any other place it might be.

http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/python.jpg

You seem to be focused on the floor vents, but have you looked up high? Check up on top of those cabinets. Sometimes the most unlikely place is where they will be. Don't assume they can't get somewhere.

You might have to break down and buy another one... thats when things seem to show up around my house. (of course I hope you know I'm joking. ....)

I have looked everywhere, up & down, inside all cabnets and containers, inside 3 ring binders, top of cabnets & wall units, behind everything, pulling things away from walls, going room by room, sifting through every clothes item in closets & drawers.

I am stumped! But your probably right, get another ball and a high security welded steel cage with laser motion sensors and then watch the first ball show up...;>

well I was putting flour and duct tape around yesterday in anticipation of at least finding 'something' this morning. What I found was a small hole in my living room wall about 1 inch in diameter along the floor from many years ago. It originally was just a small dent in the sheetrock from me hitting the wall a bit too hard with the vacuum.

I guess subsequent hits over the years had finally turned it from dent to hole. As I live in a mobile home, the sheet rock is covered in a white patterned vinyl so while there is a hole, there's still enough vinyl 'covering' to make it look solid.

My finger goes right in and the vinyl acts similar to a dog door flap. There was no trace of the ball this morning but my daughter says one of my cats woke her up spazing out with a long strip of tape on it.

The internal (and cold) wall space is about 16" wide (between joists) and probably 5" deep. I've no way to see inside. Is there some way of scaring the snake out or luring it out somehow (if it's in there)? if a loud noise will do, i can put my 150 watt 2x12 combo guitar amp right next to the wall and play my bass or electric guitar through it...;>

At least it being in the hole would confirm the reason it (wasn't) anywhere else in the house when I searched before.
I had also set up a heating pad on low covered with my bathrobe (I made a nice long tunnel/hideout) next to the hole with no results.

Thoughts?
-Jim

You found "tracks" leading to the hole?

No, I realized the dent was a hole yesterday while going around the house putting down the tape & flour.
I don't keep my house very warm, probably around 65-70 so my guess would be that if the ball is in the wall, it's probably around 60 /-5 degrees in there. There were no tracks anywhere this morning.

It's been 3 days now since i did the first major search so i'm gonna assume (I do that a LOT!) it was in the wall at that time. I've been doing sporadic searches daily since then so it 'could' be anywhere.

There's been no 'sign' of 'interest' by the 3 cats and dog (do snakes smell?) so I'm gonna go on the assumtion it's been and still is in the wall. Maybe thaw a frozen mouse, duct tape the tail to a stick and try to lure it out? It would've been fed the day it disappeared so it's probably hungry but too cold/chilly at night for it to move?

http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/misc/snakehole1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/misc/snakehole2.jpg

You can sit your heating pad outside the hole but don't sit it so close that it creates a warm spot on the other side of the wall.
Also don't limit your search to the hole & warm spots, we had one get out & found it a week later curled up behind the trash can on the linoleum(sp?) floor, probably the coldest spot in the house.
Also don't give up on your sons room & the rooms near by, just because you didn't find it don't mean it's not there.

well, i decided to go through the house again starting with my spare bedroom where I have my recording studio setup which is across the hall from my sons room. I moved a guitar case away from a wall unit and the little bugger was sitting on the floor looking up at me.

She was cold but moving fine. She looked fine and i picked her up and put her back in her tank & gave her fresh slightly warm water in her bowl.

She also devoured a baby mouse (the individually bagged frozen kind you thaw in warm water).
I've got a vcr sitting on top of the cage...;>
Most of her shed is gone too & she seems in good physical health. I just wish I knew where the frig she was hiding!

Well, thank God ! I just schrolled down to see if you ever found the baby and saw your post. Now you can sleep. Good job!
Toni