Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After a recent move, my rack was damaged (unknown to me) and the back was loose on it. Well, a few days ago, as was bound to happen, one of my snakes came up missing. I went to feed everyone and to my great surprise, the bin for my largest normal female was empty. Because of the loose back on the rack, the bin had gotten pushed too far back and she somehow got out through about a one inch crack. I also caught my Mojave female in the act of escaping and put her back. I fixed the rack, and began my search.
I figured since my missing girl was so big (about 2600 grams) she would be easy to find right? Wrong! I tore the house apart and she never turned up. I was worried she might have gotten down in the heating duct since we are remodeling and all the register covers are off. So i gave her 2 days to turn up (during which time i got up and searched the house several times a night with a flashlight, put out heat pads and mice, etc.), and after seeing no sign of her we finally resigned ourselves to dismantling our ductwork piece-by-piece and taking apart the furnace. Big surprise - we still couldn't find her.
At this point i was pretty bummed out - thinking she had either escaped the house or found her way into the sewer line from the open toilet or sink drain and figured i would never see her again. Just as we started putting the panels back on the furnace, i happened to glance across the basement. The distinct side-pattern of a ball python caught my attantion in the least likely of places...in the ceiling.

She had somehowe managed to go down through a hole in the floor and work herself over ontop of a drain pipe, where i assume she spent the last 3 days watching me with great amusement while i frantically tore the house apart looking for her.

She was dusty and dirty and very cold, but was otherwise unharmed. This really proves that an escaped snake can be ANYWHERE, so don't give up looking!

Good job finding her.

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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

That is a very happy ending. I have had a similar situation. Thankfully, we outfitted our small pet room with doors that seal so an escaped pet cannot (in theory) escape the room. So when our Bull snake escaped we knew she had to be somewhere in the room. I finally found her inside a cardboard box where I store spare bits of hardware cloth at the very top of a 7 foot tall wire shelf unit. How she got up there, I have no idea!

Congrats on finding her!
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25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

That's awsome how you found her, it seems like they just end up appearing when you least expect them to.
I lost one once..... One summer night, years ago, I tried to relax on a roof porch outside of my bedroom after an exhausting day. I took my radio, a bud light, and my normal bp outside to chill out and relax on one of those reclining lawn chairs.........ended up zonking out and waking up at dawn, with the snake gone. Irresponsible, I know, and I was so mad at myself. I tore out boards and siding, looking for her.
She had crawled back into my bedroom, and up into my desk. I was shocked and excited, to find her in the desk drawer a day later, when I went to fetch a pen to pay bills. I never felt so lucky! It was almost like I had won the darn lottery, or something.
It seems that they always end up, showing up somewhere.
Congrats!

LOL, sounds about right. The people I've talked to that has lost a snake always asks where should I look....I tend to tell them not to look at all. You rarely find the snake when looking for it but there is a high chance you'll still find it when just walking by where it happens to be...like in your case. My brother lost his a couple years ago and I helped him look but told him not to worry about it...you'll "happen" upon it one of these days...sure enough he wakes up one morning and goes in the kitchen and finds it right there on the kitchen counter. LOL