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Help! Snake is lost in my car!

G

griffinej5

New member
I was taking my snake home from school, and I set her on the dashboard for a second so I could open up the bag to put her in it. No sooner than I set her down did she start crawling into the dashboard. I tried to stop her, but failed miserably. I opened up the engine compartment, but I didn't see her there. She hasn't eaten since last Thursday, so she is rather hungry. I set up two mice in soda bottles out in the car, which my friend is staying. I'm inside trying to find someone with a screw driver so that I can try to open up the dash and look for her. We've been checking under the car, and haven't seen her crawl out, but it is possible that we've missed her, since she would be very dirty most likely. We also tried pounding on the dashboard in hopes of scaring her into moving, and I tried getting on the hood of the car and jumping on it a bit. So far, no luck. Any tips would be appreciated, and I will check back again in a bit to see if there are any replies.
 
i've been there with ball python.

Just be patient and keep an eye on it. if someone is constantly moving around the snake may just hide.

I got the snake the next day as it came out on its own and curled up under my seat.

Good Luck!
 
Do you think there is any hope of her surviving even if I drive the car? It's been about two hours, and we've seen no signs of her. We're tried just sitting there, and we've tried pounding on the car too with no luck. I unfortunately cannot find anyone with a screwdriver so that I can try opening up the dash to look for her. The mice I have in there are now probably disgusting since it's 70 some odd degrees out, so I'll probably stop in the store and get another pack on the way home and hope that will lure her out if she is still in there. She is most likely very hungry, and was very active when we were making our way out to the car.
 
try to get the car in a garage if you have one.....that way if the snake is still in the car she won't get to far
 
This happened to me with an iguana. He came out a day later- actually I saw his tail hanging down from under the dash and nabbed him.

I think banging on the dash would make the snake freeze and not move.

Good luck.

Nanci
 
Attempting to scare the snake out isn't going to work...it's only going to make it curl up tighter and deeper into whatever hole it has found for security.

I also wouldn't recommend driving the car. If the snake is even remotely cold it will try to find warmth and may end up in the engine compartment where it will most likely be killed.

Of course, with that being said...I really don't have any useful advice for finding a snake in a car...
 
I had to drive the car because I was on campus, and I needed to come home. It's just my luck that my dog got into something last night and got himself sick, so I had to come home and clean up his crate. I tried to keep an eye out behind me to see if she came flying off, and luckily I didn't see her. There was also nothing useful going on sitting the parking lot. Unfortunately, my professor handed me the keys to the classroom this morning, and then her and the one who's class I had a test in had to leave to go somewhere. If there was any hope of anyone doing me any favors, they were it. The snake was staying in the one's classroom, and the other one I helped out earlier in the semester when she locked her keys in her car. I tried getting a screwdriver to take apart the dash, but it's sort of empty on campus. Tomorrow is the last day of exams, so a lot of people have left already. Everyone I found didn't have one. I bought a nail clipper and little flashlight in the bookstore in the hopes that the back end of the nail clipper might be the right size to unscrew the screws in may dashboard, but no such luck.
I also got another pack of mice at petco on the way home, and a bottle of soda that I chugged. So, I set up the three mice, one under each seat, and I shoved on up under the dash on the driver's side.
I didn't really expect pounding on the car to work all that well, but if she was loose, there was a slight chance I could have knocked her out. At the very least, it did help relieve some of the frustration i'm feeling with my stupidity.
I'm thinking my best hope of finding her if I didn't cook her on the ride home (and I am crossing my fingers and toes that I didn't cook her on the way home) is that she is quite hungry, having not eaten since last Thursday.
There is also the chance to she came out from under the car while we were in the parking lot, and we missed her. I know for sure she didn't go up and into the dirt, because there were no tracks there, but she could have gone out across the blacktop. In addition to feeling like a dope for taking the screwdriver out of the car the other day when I cleaned it, i'm also feeling dumb for having taken out the roll of masking tape I was required to have for one of my classes. I thought I wouldn't need it anymore. Little did I know I could have used it today to make a box around the car to catch the snake.

Also, I don't have a garage, and my parents do not know I have the snake. I was going to hide her, and a friend agreed to take her if I got caught, or felt uncomfortable hiding her. The car is parked out front of the my house, and I put the sun shade in the window. That's the best I was able to do. Luckily I don't work tonight, and I don't have to go anywhere until about 3:30 tomorrow, so I can hopefully leave my car sitting there until then.
 
Nanci you were right, she did stay in the car. She was in the glove box. I don't know whether or not she was there the whole time or not, because we had been checking there periodically, but I never thought to take everything out until now. I don't even know why I thought to look in there now though, because I had really just gone out to check for her in the bottles. She's inside now and in a humid box because she's shedding again. She's clearly very hungry, but she'll have to wait until I go out tomorrow and buy her a mouse, since I used up 5, the two I had left at school, and three more that I bought on the way home, trying to get her out. Knowing her, she probably would eat today even though she is shedding, and I banged her around a bunch, but I don't wanna chance it. I've fed her before after moving her to another place or while she was in shed, but never both, and certainly not after banging around like that.
 
Wow, congratulations! Was this her first trip home? I was an animal hider, too, until my mom was eventually worn down by so many wild animals she didn't care any more...

Nanci
 
No, she was at home before for a few days, but not for long. I bought her on a Saturday, and took her in to my class that Thursday. She spent the semester on campus being our class pet.
I've never hidden an animal so to speak before. I snuck rats in once. My dad said I could have them, so I snuck in a cage, supplies, and the rats. I carried them in in my coat pockets. Those were harder to hide since I really couldn't keep them in a concealed container. The snake is in a smaller container in side of a larger one, so she'd be pretty hard to find. Even if she were to get out of the one container, she'd be stuck in the larger one (after I remember to go tape up the hole I cut in the bottom of the bigger container to put the cord for the heat pad through.)
I set up a back up plan for if I get caught with her even before I brought her home. My friend will gladly take her, and I think she is sorta disappointed that I decided to sneak her home, because originally I was just going to let her keep the snake. I should be leaving soon because I graduate in December, so i'll hopefully be getting a job and my own place, and continuing in school some more, shortly after that. Then the snake can have a nice cage and be out where she can be seen, and I can have a few more snakes too.
 
thanx everyone. I hope her adventure bores her soon and she comes home... but in the meantime griffinej5 lets see a pic of your wanderer. :)
 
Along the same lines... I was coming home from the Indianapolis Reptile Expo with the snakes that didn't sell. I had a rubbermaid tote that I put all the individual snake containers in. When I closed the lid to this outer container I must have popped the lid to one of the inner containers that contained 7 baby Butter Motleys. I did not realize it until I got home to Chicago two plus hours later. I spent the rest of that week finding baby Butters. The best find was the one that came out from under the roof liner right by the rearview mirror! Luckily I got them all back. Patience and checking the car a lot especially at night and first thing in the morning seemed to do the trick. Congrats to the finders and good luck to the still missing.
 
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