Lost Stimson's juvenile snake

[Caldorian]

Ok about 3 days ago my Stimson made a jailbreak. It has been getting cool as of late and it seems to have been starting to climb again like it did when I first got it. We have an exo-terra mini wide which is the 30x30x30 as we were told that would be best size for the snake. Now during the night while I was trying to sleep it sounded like he had tried crawling around his enclosure and failed when climbing as usual. Now I wake up in morning and go to get him out of the enclosure for the children and no snake, thought he was hiding in his substrate but nope, cleaned that small handful by small handful and have not found him. I have moved his enclosure down to the ground and just leaving it open but what I am afraid of is one of my 2 dogs might have had a snack at night. It has been getting fairly cool the past several days and I have pretty much tore my house apart and cannot find it. checked under the washer/dryer combo with no luck. Looked under both of my fridges but no luck and have not seen him approach the fireplace or anything. I have thought maybe he went into my wifes computer because the case is open, she is in hospital and such so has not been on the whole time but looking on main side of computer I have not seen a snake. This Saturday is when we were looking to feed him and our spotted but the Stimson seems to be a finicky eater and will normally eat only if mouse is nice and warm and he is warm as well. Does anyone have any other ideas of what I could do?

BTW I am located in the Riverina area of NSW so temperatures around here have been cool for the past few days but house seems to be colder than outside on a few occations

 

[adderboy]

A juvie stimmie is so small it could hide in almost any sized space, so your best chance is likely to be spotting it moving about once it gets a little warmer. But that's if it's still alive.

Your mention of the two dogs is a worry. If one of them hasn't eaten it yet, that might happen at any time in the future if they remain in the house. Furthermore, they are more likely to find it than you are.

It sounds as if the room in which it was kept wasn't closed. If that's the case and it's still alive, it could be anywhere in the house, which makes finding it harder. However, if it was in a closed room, you've got some chance of finding it by keeping the room closed, keeping the dogs out of the room, and focusing your search on that room.

Sorry I have no better suggestions. Finding a small escaped snake in a house is no easy task at the best of times, but the dogs present a significant additional complication.

 

[dragonlover1]

escaped pythons don't usually travel far, my pygmy banded moved about 2 metres under a tub. and my son's darwin disappeared and turned up 2 metres away 2 weeks later pushing books off the shelf.
Look in tiny warm spaces, under the fridge etc. check the curtains, inside or under the lounge

 

[CF Constrictor]

Hi Caldorian
As previously stated , a snake that small could hide anywere but will probably seek out somewhere warm. Several years ago , a mate had his young childrens excape. He turned the house upside down with no luck. He also had dogs and a cat. After giving up hope , about a month later , his wife spotted it pearing out from under the washing machine, perfectly unharmed. So don't lose hope just yet. Best of luck.

 

[Tony Jones]

Hi Caldorian
I had a juvenile children's get out once
I closed myself in the room with my dog & just watched her carefully & watched were she was sniffing around & searched that area & found the snake , you have to watch carefully & it helps if you have obedient dogs
Good luke

 

[Kaiwei]

Man, sad to hear your story! Wish you luck and finding her soon, fingers crossed!
Maybe you could create a hotspot for her and let it run 24/7.....if it's cold in your rooms that'll be the place the snake wants to be and you should be able to get her if you're lucky enough....

 

[Caldorian]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement I do believe the snake is hiding someplace it can find warm, it hasn't helped that the room they are kept in is not the cleanest of bedrooms especially under the bed but as I said I have the door of its cage open with heat mat and light going, did not have it going 24/7 but will try longer periods for the heat there for the light, mat it always going though. Today is feeding day and usually late arvo we feed so I plan on warming his small fuzzy up for him to where it is nice and warm and then let it sit on the heat mat in side the cage and hopefully with any luck the smell of the mouse and the warmth will bring him out and get him to climb into his cage. This morning the house is a very warm 9 degrees so hopefully the warmth of heat mat and lamp lour him back.

 

[Sdaji]

Over the decades I've worked with snakes I've searched for many escapees (mostly not my own, some of them were snakes the owners had written off as never to be seen again). Two out of three times I find them quickly and easily within about 2-5 minutes. At least nine out of 10 times I find them within half an hour. It definitely helps if you're experienced with where snakes like to go because you immediately check all the most likely spots and don't have to bother with an exhaustive search, and it's fun because the owners are puzzled as though you already knew where it was. But, if you methodically start at one end of a room, clear a space, carefully search any item then put that item into the clear space, and work your way through everything in the room, you'll generally find it and if you're quick but thorough and methodical it usually doesn't take long (and almost always I find it in one of the low fruit places, which I go for first). The fairly consistently stay in the room they escaped in unless there are obvious environmental incentives for them to move, in which case bathrooms are often a good place to look. If you have cracks in floorboards/walls/heat ducts/open windows etc etc you may have a problem. They almost always turn up, and in the case of newbies who don't know how to look for a snake, usually they are surprised when they just stumble across it very close to the cage it came out of, after they spent a lot of time looking (usually with a lot of time and effort but not very effectively). Often in those cases they turn up several days or weeks later.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Luckily Green Tree Frogs aren't like snakes... years ago after cleaning my 2×2×3 GTF enclosure I was distracted by unexpected guests turning up and never actually put the sliding glass doors back on the enclosure... it was around midday and all the 6 frogs were tucked away asleep... later that night I awoke to get a glass of water and it was then that I realised my error... normally late at night my frogs could be observed climbing all over the glass... there was none of that... I went over to the tank and had a WTF moment as I realised the doors were not there.. they were on the ground next to the stand leaning against the wall... I thought well I'm not dealing with this now, all the frogs were gone, I'll find them tomorrow.... at 7am I got up and all 6 frogs were back in the enclosure tucked away in their usual spots... I put the doors back on and shook my head in disbelief.

Good luck with the search... I hope it turns up. About 12 months ago my own stimmy managed to escape his tub enclosure... my own fault, one side of the lid wasn't clicked down flush and he managed to squeeze out from under it... I went to do something in his tub, change his water dish or something and I got startled to see a small snake curled up on the bench in a perfect coil right beside the tub... I have 2 laptop computers on the same bench and a few other electronics and he was all cosied up entangled in the power cords.. he escaped his tub and went less than 12 inches and curled up... it took some getting him out of those cords LOL

 

[Caldorian]

Just a bit of an update,

Our little stimson was found today outside. My youngest son had moved a box out of the way of his little pedal cart and saw a snake cured up on the ground. He did not know if it was a good snake or bad so he called my other son who in turn got me. I said to them it is him and to pick him up and let me look him over. He was fine, definitely hungry but other than that in good nature and not trying to escape or anything.

 

[Harpo]

Wow. That is good, congrats on that, geez you must feel relieved/lucky. I'm happy for you.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Wow... he almost made it out into the big wide yonder!

 

[Harpo]

You have inspired me to put a hide outside the enclosure, I tried to hide it under a vase

so if someone leaves the tank open or unlocked there is some place close for the snake to find.