firstly an email I received from Mark: Hi Dave, Last year when I first got my children's python (he only eats when rat pups are fish scented!!), he went missing from his viv one day. After hours of searching I gave up and decided to wait and see if he showed up. we eventually found him INSIDE the light unit that WAS in his viv, I never imagined he would be able to reach it let alone climb inside!! Anyway one year on and now in another viv, he goes missing again, this time there is no light unit for him to climb in so we stripped his viv bare and he was nowhere to be seen. we turned the living room upside down but still could not find my little pal. Later that day I had another look in on of the cupboards and saw the light unit that used to be in his other viv lying at the back. My wife joked "oh look, that's the unit he hid in last year!!!!" Imagine my shock when I picked up the unit and saw the little sod's tail hanging out from one of the holes. So he had escaped from his viv, found his way into another cupboard and then found his favourite light unit and climbed inside. Is that wacky or what???

From Mr Carter My first snake was my motley corn he was doing fine in his first tank, then when i upgraded to a bigger ( id seen a bargain in the local paper ), i noticed it had air vent holes in the roof. Thinking there was no way that he was going to escape i didnt bother blocking them off. One morning my wife woke me to say she couldnt find mitch in his tank, I was half asleep and slowly got out of bed to take a better look (thinking my wife wasnt looking properly). I couldnt see no sign at all either, In a panic off come the lid, out came the accessories and i raked through the substrate. It hit me Id lost him, the doors inside our house are kept open to hear the kids so it meant he could be anywhere. I took the day off work and searched the whole house shutting the bedroom door behind me. I was close to tears and was about to give in when we thought wed try the bedroom one more time. I moved the wardrobe away a bit and my wife yelled "there he is", and ill never forget the relif on my face when i saw him. Thankfully he was fine. But the moral is never under-estimate your snake i did and NEARLY paid the price.

My friend Aaron had a small aqaurium that he used for a Darwin Carpet Python's 1st home and it had a bar that was connected to the box and the snake loved it there. So when he got a new aquarium for it he put it in there and one time it was missing so he checked all over his house and he found the snake in its old aquarium curled up on the bar in the basement up stairs.

We rescued an adult ball python from a wife who claimed her husband had been starving him. Sure enough, he was skin and bones. The ball was never taken out of his cage and hadn't been touched in more than 8 months. I was given the snake with the warning that he might bite...and we all know that after she walked out the front door...I was checking to see if she was right. Anyway, first off, I took him out and handled him a bit. He was a great snake, just really really thin. I though it might be nice for him to get, not only free range, but more range of motion. I filled our bathtub with warm water and dipped him into the water. He immediately detached from my arm and swam around....and hissed if you tried to take him out of the water!! Needless to say, the few times that he did manage an escape, we could always find him...in the bathtub...waiting for the warm water to be turned on...