Crafty Blog

Even though this happened last week (Thurs), I decided I should document it in case any other ball python owners are in the same situation

Enter Marilyn. She’s a 9 month ‘young’ ball python who likes to spend her time pushing her head against the cage lid in an attempt to find that one weak spot that will allow an escape. That weak spot was found sometime during Wednesday night/early Thursday morning.

After I discovered she had escaped, panic set in. I immediately thought that I would never find her again since I’ve heard many stories about pythons squirming into tight spaces behind walls, etc.  I began to frantically move things around trying to find her, but quickly gave up after realizing that it would not be that easy, and would more than likely require some thought. After ‘googling’ around a bit before I had to take off for work, I decided the best course of action is to strategically place towels on the floor around the house, so that if she were to go on the move again while I was at work, she might come across one and find it a nice and warm place to hole up.

While at work, I did some asking around and further searching around online to come up with a plan of action when I got home. I was going to be out all weekend, so I had to take that in to account as well.

Uber Plan to Snag Marilyn:

1) Place heating pad on floor, place damp towel on top. Pythons love warm, damp places, especially with all the dry cold around in the winter.

2) Use flour to make a line ~1″ wide across doorways leading into rooms, in order to section off the house. Apparently when the snake crawls into a new room, it will cross the flour line and make a small trail pointing in the direction it was headed. Would be useful in narrowing down the search area.

3) Make sure than any holes that were uncovered when I noticed she was gone are still uncovered. Just in case she happened to crawl in under the cabinets in the kitchen, I didn’t want to block her in if she wanted to wander out over the weekend.

I got lucky and did find her after I got home from work on Thursday. While packing for my trip before the weekend, I opened my sock drawer, and there she was staring back at me. So if any python owners out there have an escapee on their hands, hopefully my list of things to try will be of some use to them.

cc