Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, I just set up my new baby ball python in a shoebox the other day, like I read how most of you do, and he must have spilled his water or something, because the cardboard in the bottom corner of the shoebox got soggy, and rotted out, and he escaped through a hole and is somewhere in my house!!! Does anybody know where a ball python would go, or where you commonly find your escapees? I am pissed off because he was my pride and joy. I even used the biggest shoebox I could find; I used a big timberland boot shoebox, so he would have the most room to move around in... any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks for your time,

b

Firstly, you arnt suppost to be using a cardboard shoebox.. people use the plastic shoe/sweater (or underbed) type storage boxes.. These are bigger, clear and plasic so the snake cant escape...

Regarding finding the snake, they rarely get very far away from where they escape from.. look in dark, warm places.. also any tight spot that it might have squeezed in or under.. if its cold where you are.. put the heating right up, this will help keep it alive and ok... you can try leaving a dead/brained mouse out to see if that arracts it out during the night hours...

Hope you find your snake, and when you do... put it in a proper enclosure!
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Reptiles: Royal Pythons and Bearded Dragons.

well as for the escape look in all warm dark places and even all places that you think he could never fit, they can fit into some tiny places. you can place a warm heating pad on the ground with a box on it and he might come to it because it is warm and dark, you could put a brained mouse out for him in a box and he may come to that. you can place flour on the floor and follow his tracks, try looking for him at night too since they are nocturnal animals. you can go to the ball python care sheet that you can find at the top of this web page, there are some more tips there. and i'm sure that someother people here will have some better tips for you too, since i have never experienced an escape myself.

as for the cage issue, most of the people here use rubbermaid shoeboxes, or sterilite. they are really cheap ($3-$6) to buy and come in all different sizes. not to mention they hold in humidity and heat well. they are extremely easy to clean too.

hope you find your little guy, let us know what happens
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~dana~

1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)
1.0 cat (whiskers)
1.1 russian hamsters (peanut and tj)

look every where if you think well he would not be there, thats where he'll be. my ball got out and he was in the back of are high dresser it was not a warm place and was vary small but he was there.

good finding

ps if you have speckers for you cd player and thay have holes in the back look in there ..

People here seem to talk like everyone has been keeping snakes for years. When someone just says, "put him in a shoebox!". Someone who's new is literally going to think of a shoebox. Hell, I've had my guy for almost eight years and the thought of using a Sterilite never crossed my mind because I've had any reason to use one for anything before. It would be nice if people would just slow down and realize they're talking to n00bs a great deal of the time.

As to your actual question, the first reply pretty much answers it. Go to Target or somewhere similar and buy a Sterilite or Rubbermade shoebox-sized container, the one without built in handles. Use a drill to put about 10 holes on each of the "short" sides of the box. And there you have it. Good luck finding your snake.

This person talking of using a cardboard shoebox as a permanent python "cage" doesn't jibe with his previous posts on the lizard forums and his pictures of cage-building projects on the caging forum. Oh well. But your point of being clear with our answers is well-taken.

-Joan

put some laughter into some of you, especially after all of these bad times with theft, RI's, etc... Hope I didn't offend anybody, but I was totally kidding...carboard box??come on... have a wonderful day!!

bob

They could have given you the help you really needed.

You had me scatching my head. LOL

>>put some laughter into some of you, especially after all of these bad times with theft, RI's, etc... Hope I didn't offend anybody, but I was totally kidding...carboard box??come on... have a wonderful day!!
>>
>>bob
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Thomas Jones
aligatorhunter@earthlink.net

No one is to be trusted

how's the male tiger retic doing? I saw a post of yours saying that it was breeding one of your normal females a couple of months ago.. Best of luck to you, and hope that he's doing great for you. He was a gorgeous animal, and I kind of regret giving him up, but I know that he's in a nice home...take care thomas,

bob

That makes so much more sense.

But, you know, there are people who really would do that. Sad as it is.

when i got my BP i didn't know what is he capable of!he got out of his tank every night, because there were holes for wires!
well, when he first got out he was only 1 m away, under the desk his tank was on!, next time he was under the second desk 1,5m away!once i had mice for him in the shoe box, and they got away!!!i couldn't find all of the mice, then i looked behind a closet i would never think of!he was there...and why?...because there was dead mouse under the closet and he smelled it!
so the best way is to put a bait near his living place (shoe box!??!!??!!?)
ooo and once his was on the pipes which led to radiator!...it was warm!
just keep looking, mine got out for seweral times!one day i woke up and found him under my bed!
just search every hole u can think of!
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1.0.0 Ball python (Oz)
0.0.1 Hardwicki Uro (Amon)
0.1.0 Black cat (Tomika)