I have a ball python on the loose in my house I have lots of other animals can anyone help me?

Question

I have a dog, cat, another ball python, Red tail Boa, mice, guianna pigs 3 to be exact and also I have a fish tank. I can't find the snake anywheres if anyone can help it would be great

Answer 1

Snakes can dehydrate quickly, especially small ones, and will seek out moisture. They are often recovered in bathrooms, or under piles of laundry.

I would set out damp towels in strategic places along walls. The snake probably will move at night, and will eventually encounter a damp towel. It is likely to stay put, until you discover it.

Baiting it with food or a heat lamp will not work.

You need a regular snake cage. If you are using an aquarium with a removable top of some sort, it will escape again.

Answer 2

What is the answer to "What is the WORSE case scenario - if I get a snake?"  Answer - "You just discovered it."  These Houdini's can get into places you wouldn't think to look, or DREAM they would FIT into.

They are difficult to detect under refrigerators, or wrapped in the coils on the back.  It's nearly impossible to search a sofa for a snake, without gutting the sofa to the frame...

What size is the Ball?  

If it's gone long enough, and get's hungry enough; it might not be able to eat a small cat or a Chihuahua, but it can strangle it, and try to...

As for the rodent pets?  They absolutely aren't safe.  It can squeeze between the bars... IF there ARE bars, or open tubes, for minihabitats (plastic).

If the other snakes are smaller; it just as readily might consider them food.  

So - it's hard to answer, since I know nothing but the size of the guinea pigs and mice, if they are full grown.

My advice is to get everything you can into a glass tank with a welded mesh screen top, and use rachet straps (so a lock can't be knocked off).  Make sure the tanks are large enough for the animals, cause it may be a while before you find the snake.

Again, if it's hungry enough?  It will try for the fish, if it figures a way to open a lid.  Put weights on the top to prevent this.

While out of state caring for my dying mother; friends lost one of my balls.  It is STILL on the loose, and I have been looking over 1/2 a yr. now!!!!!!!!  My poor parrot lives in a snake-proof housing outside of her cage contructed of the plastic sheeting sometimes used over ceiling tube lighting (1/2x1/2" squares).  Feeding her these days is a PAIN!

I would truly like for this creature to make itself known!  But, as I wasn't here, and the weight everyone else thought was STUPID wasn't kept on the toilet lid - it could be in the city pipes, for all I know...

If the snake is small, and the dog and cat are large?  They can hurt it.  So, again - kennel them when you aren't home, or are sleeping.

I have not given up on my missing Ball.  

And I know friends who have lost snakes; gutted their house several times to find it, and discovered it alive and fine a year later!

I have even, myself, resorted to taking the furniture onto the lawn and having friends partrol it for the snake, while I have further digested the house.  No avail.  The beastie remains missing.  Not only can they crawl under a dresser, and up into the frame, and into a drawer; but they can snug in just as easily on the support frame for the drawer, and never be bothered when you check a drawer.  You have to STRIP/GUT everything!

I wish I had better advice for you.  It could be on the top of a window curtain rod... or in the folds of gathered drapes... or under the dryer, or behind the DVD player you looked at a dozen times today day, not realizing it was snugged up back there.  If there are "v's" in your photo albums on the shelf?  It could be in one.  It could have, depending on size, picked a family free standing picture, and be snugged up between the back and leaf which make the photo frame stand alone.

It quite literally - could be any where it can FIT in, or crawl up.

I know this panic and frustration.

I wish you well, and hope you soon recover the missing rascal which has so unknowingly upset your entire household.

I know this wasn't helpful, or reassuring.  Good luck!

Answer 3

My aunt lived in an apartment in New York City and she used to find large snake skins  in her apartment. Evidently she has a snake living somewhere that she has never seen except for the snake skins. She's no afraid of the snake, but everyone else is and will not stay the night at her place. She lived in the apartment for 5 years.

Answer 4

There are actually different kinds of exterminators, and if you ask, they might be willing to find the python.

In the meantime, keep your animals in their cages.

Is the python bigger or smaller than the dog & cat?

If it's bigger, it will see the dog and cat as lunch, no lie.

I'd try to keep them nearby, or in a kennel/carrier, just for the time being.

Snakes like vents...you could check there?

Be careful!

Answer 5

first of all is there a place you can safely put the dog and the cat so that they cant get to the snake if they find him? like in a seperate room that the snake wouldent be in? make sure you look in nice warm places, under desks and tables, look under the refridgerator, next to the tv if it could get to it, make sure you look in the area that is escaped from, its most likely not hiding far from its home. look under and in everything, they can get into some pretty funky locations. my friends snake excaped once and we found him 2 days later completely coiled up inside the bottom of the refridgerator, we had to take the whole fridge appart to get him, and he was still alive!! good luck with finding him, hes around there somewhere!

Answer 6

check around anything that admets heat, get down at her level where she left from and go tords heat, like tvs, game units fridge. and keep an eye on the guiny pigs

Answer 7

Well to begin with secure dog, cats, or any other animals that can do harm to the snake. Ball Pythons are very non agressive, however make sure your little rodent friends are safely put away. Check all areas that are dark, warm, and isolated. My ball python got out once and I found him under a dresser drawer.