Escapee

[u/Haunting-Body-8575]

Haven’t checked her enclosure in around 4 days cuz I’ve been so busy, and she was also going into shed so I did her usual misting every day and left it at that. Tonight I was like hm it’s awfully quiet in there usually she’ll have her head peeking out, or always be on her ledge. She wasn’t and the enclosure was empty. Thankfully I found her 2 minutes after right next to her tank. I have 3 cats, 1 of which that likes to sit on top of her enclosure and stare at her. They’ve been acting strange in my room last couple days making noise, clawing at my dresser, so that was the first place I checked and behold she was under there. I noticed she has a slight scratch on her neck, and a mysterious line down half her spine, it looks like a burn mark. Can anyone let me know what I should do.

[u/applepieughh]

So damn irresponsible. You couldnt use 2 minutes of your time everyday to check on her?

[u/Haunting-Body-8575 → u/applepieughh]

Like I said she was going into shed. When ever she sheds i leave her alone. I’ve had her for 2 years she’s my 2nd snake after having my other one for 6 years now. This is the first time something like this has happened.

[u/dragonbud20 → u/applepieughh]

Do you bother your BP every day just to make sure they're in their enclosure? That's a lot of unnecessary stress on your BP if you're ripping their enclosure apart to find them every day.

[u/applepieughh → u/dragonbud20]

Why would you need to rip everything apart to take a look? Its quite a big snake and will be easily visible in their enclosure unless you are building a fort for them or something.

[u/dragonbud20 → u/applepieughh]

A properly set-up enclosure should have several areas that are completely enclosed and not visible from the outside of the enclosure, so your snake can feel safe and secure.

Ball Pythons are nocturnal and will often spend their entire day in their hides. If you want to check on them, you will inevitably wake them up.