Reptile & Amphibian Forums

first let me start by saying i work at a pet store. well i also work part time at the university of texas at el paso doing telemetry studies of rattlesnakes. this means that i leave my regular job at the pet store caring for the reptiles and fish to do the rattler thing on the weekends. last week i left on friday morning and before i left thursday night, i calmly asked one of my fellow employees to change the water on our green tree python that we have because he had deficated in it. never tell another person to do what you should have done earlier. friday afternoon i get a call on my cell phone that our green tree python has gone missing! this is a 500$ snake and they lost it! the girl neglected to latch the cover to his cage and he escaped durring the night. the whole weekend i was worried that the snake was going to end up dead somewhere in the store, or in the mall that the store is in. i did not get back in town until the following monday morning. after a weekend of parinoia, i went to work to surch for the missing jewel. i also had learned that our water heater had exploded. my first thought was that the snake had coiled around one of the pipes that leads into the water heater and had been killed in the explosion. but i searched anyway. after an hour of vigorous searching, i began to take my searching to the next level and start searching the roof, which is 20 feet above the store. the owner of the store thought he would be modern when designing the store and didnt put in a true celling, so you can see all the pipes running across the roof of the place. it looks stupid in my opinion. but he did make one good decision in, he painted the roof black. which means green would show up perfect. after about 20 minutes and a sore neck from looking straight up, i found the snake. in the rear right corner of the store, 20 feet in the air coiled around a pipe. so i climbed the ladder got a broom and gently coaxed the snake on to the broom handle. it took me 2 hours to find the snake, but no one else could find him for 3 days while i was out of town. it just amazed me. any way, i just thought it was a cool story. the snake is now at my house for observation for a week so i can make sure he is healthy and all before he goes back to the store. i mainly posted this story for the guy who recently lost his snake in his apartment. dont lose hope, and look high. they love to be in the highest spot they can find. thanks for reading.

steve

if it was a matter of just keep looking,my desire to find him would be enough to keep me searching for a year.the problem is,i exhausted every option about 10 times already.he,if still alive,had to have gotten into the walls,leaving me no more options but to wait.it really sucks because the only way out from the walls would be to go back into the closet.about 4 times a day i open that closet in hopes of finding him just sitting there but no luck.at this point i would even settle for a corpse,just something.im starting to go crazy.thanks for responding and giving me some hope.hey just out of curiosity,how do you suppose he climbed 20 feet to get to the ceiling?

Hey heres a story either me or my son forgot to close the rack where our rosie boas are and the male escaped he was gone for like a month last weekend my wife was out in the yard and she found him in some bushes I hope your story ends up like this

i had a ball go missing in college. my roommate left him on the floor unattended and he vanished. we searched everywhere (or at least we thought so) to no luck. one day four months later, my roommate was out golfing. when he pulled out a club, the ball came out wrapped around it.

I was following the whole lost snake story, first, I am
so SO sorry to hear this... I've had quite a few escapes
when I first started out, it can be so stressfull.
As others have stated, be patient! AND don't give up yet!
Almost every snake that escaped I found very close to where
it escaped from (usually on the third or forth search of the same
area when I already figured I looked everywhere!)
I had a young corn escape (my rack was right next to the
kitchen) that was missing for 2 months... late one night I
caught him slithering out from under the fridge!

Some tips/tricks to try if you haven't already...
place a line of sugar (or flour) across any and all doorways,
esp along the closet where you said he got away. This won't
help trap the snake, but it will show you if it's still
around and where it's moving. (this is how I knew my corn was
still alive, I had a sugar track leading into the kitchen
one day!)
Place plastic bags along the walls/corners of the room(closet)
and adjoining room. Sit late, late at night in the dark with
a flashlight.. if the snake is around and moving you will hear
the bags crinkle.
Set up (although I think you already did?) perches, water bowl
and a heat mat or basking light by the hole in the wall..
maybe he'll come check it out and stay!
How about (anyone near you that has GTPs?) placing a female GTP's
shed skin nearby... if your snake is male and older, it *might*
attract him to at least come check it out? just an idea..
I've never had luck with the mouse-baiting idea.

And heck, get down in the muck and cobwebs and search! If I
was close to you, I'd give you a hand. Any macho male friends you can sweettalk into searching for you? hee!

last but not least...
NEVER GIVE UP!!
NEVER SURRENDER!

I wish you the best and hope he turns up!
-April
-----
'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

thanks for the advise april.iv had the mice for about 2 weeks and im going into the woods tonight to set them free.its not that im giving up on finding him,its just that i feel that they did their share,lived in a tiny cage for weeks as bait for a python.they were really troopers.besides,they are starting to make my apartmemt smell like a zoo.its not that i need a tough guy to go down in the basement for me.i am really fearless when it comes to almost everything,but if you could see what i am talking about,well i think youd understand.its really the exposed nails that i am afraid of.like i said there is at least 6 inches of brown water on the floor and the ceiling had caved in so there are all sorts of beams and 2x4's on the foor with nails sticking out.since the water is almost black,you cant see where you are stepping or what you are stepping on.its bad enough getting a nail through your foot(its happened to me already)but the thought of a nail that was in that water going through my foot is too much to bear.