Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this has been asked a thousand times, but I'm gonna have to ask it again. How on earth do you track down a missing snake? One of my BP's has escaped. He's been gone a couple of days or so now and Im running out of places to look or even ideas. Ive searched inside and under almost everything. His shy nature is only going to make this harder. My husband, who hates the snakes, is freaking out. He has dismantled my house, even pulled the bottom off the couch! He is paranoid about sleeping, afraid that the snake will get him or the kids. Ive tried to tell him different but its pointless. Ive even resorted to putting out a nice little bowl of mice. It's about feeding time. Im afraid that will only serve to get someone bitten though. Any ideas that Im missing??
Thank you very much.
-----
Jamie

I know the feeling! You can try placing hides and heat sources around the room where he/she escape. He just might move into one during the night.

I had escapees twice. I keep my snakes in the basement in the room where my furnace where it is always warm. I also have one display setup in my computer room. Anyway the first one I found coiled around an exposed pipe near the ceiling, I have no idea how he got up there but it does show they are very capable climbers.

The second one I pretty much wrote off, it was a female het albino no less, it was missing for a month. One day I was attending my other snakes and there she was coiled up behind another snakes cage on the exposed heating pad. It felt like Christmas when I found her.

So don't give up, keep looking in potential hiding places and warm places and if you happen to be up in the middle of the night look around. It will probably be moving around then.

Good Luck, you will find it.

Ok been there done that, I have had to do snake huns a few times. Heres a couple ideas that thankfully I didnt have to use because my snakes were ALWAYS in a closet or under the couch. Get a few boxes, dosen't matter what, cerial works, just keep them jusst small enough for the missing to fit in. Cut the entrance holes and put one in each room, under beds and couches, behind the fridge, closets, anwhere. CHECK THEM OFTEN. You might even want to put one on a heatpad or sent the indide of one with a mouse. Make sure you are looking in the hotspots like under he fridge and things of that nature. Look in places you wouldent think to look, one of mine was found on the top shelf of the linnen closet behind a bunch of things. Watch your step and good luck finding the lil one! Hope I have helped!
-----
"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

Advice I've seen before that actually works now & then...

Take a dead mouse and drag him along the baseboards (press well to scent the carpet/baseboard) in a room the snake might be in. The better the scent trail you leave the better it will work. Place the dead mouse in a hide along the wall. Hopefully at night the snake will pick up the scent and eat the mouse and stay in the hide. Might be more superstition than anything, but like I said.. sometimes it seems to work. And some water near the hide wouldn't hurt, either.

We've found them in the following places:

Behind a file cabinet wedged between the wall and the cabinet...

Behind or on top of anything warm, like the fridge, heat ducts, dryers and under water heaters...

In trash cans or in bags of shavings (animal bedding)...

Inside cardboard boxes...

They like to be in small secure spaces that's what makes them hard to find, and they can fit in places you would never think to look.

Good luck,

Debra
Camlon Reptiles

Oh! The tales of missing snakes you'll hear!

My best trick for re-capturing a missing snake when I've pulled a Stupid Handler Trick and left the cage door ajar is this:

Make the place as COLD as possible. Turn on the AC, open the windows (make sure screens are secure). Leave ONE electric appliance on - I like to use my computer. In the morning, the escapee always ends up on the one warm place in the house. I've done it when I've left the cage unattended for a while, or not secured it sufficiently. Only a couple of times, but enough to make me VERY CERTAIN that I'd really be better off not owning a VENOMOUS snake........

I also have had a BP go missing and she was on the lam for a week and a half. When I found her she nearly gave me a heart attack!! Mind you I was thrilled to find her. While sitting in the bath tub I started the water and out from below the faucet (it is hollow!! ) popped Isis looking at me like hello what is all this commotion about. The bathroom is the warmest/moist room in my house, should have figured she had went there. I didn't know that the faucet was hollow where it attaches to the wall though and since we usually showered the faucet hadn't been used only the shower head. The sudden vibration of water pouring through the pipe about her startled her, she curled around my hand when I reached for her. I also triple check my locks now!!

Nita
1.2 BP's (Osiris, Isis, Demetae)
0.1 Kitty
1.4 Humans (DH, Me and 3 daughters)

Thank you to everyone for your ideas. Im going to try each and every one of them. No luck yet...he's still gone.
BTW...Mine are named Isis and Osiris too. And its Osiris that is missing.
-----
Jamie

Spread some flour around if it's not carpet and you can follow a trail.

Take some plastic baggies and place them in room(s), turn the lights out and wait for the sound of your snake crawling through the bags.

Good luck!!
-----
Rob Talkington