Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Before I purchase a snake, I would like to know if it is safe to house a snake and a caged parrot in the same room. One of my friends is worried that if the snake escapes it will injure the bird. I thought this would depend on the spieces of snake. I was thinking about getting a milk, corn, or kingsnake. Would any of these snakes lead to a conflict? thanks

i would think that the bird would put up a huge fuss over the snake.
why not put the snake in another room?
on the plus side,when the snake gets large enough u can always supplement its rodent diet.

I have a Bourke's parakeet (Zippy) who can see a snake from his cage. He actually tries to sit on the herp cages. I'd imagine the bird would just get used to it. Zippy takes more offense toward the dog, who actually tries to eat him. For the record, I guess, he is a nervous and sensitive bird. An escaped snake could hurt a bird, but it would take a largish snake to hurt a full sized parrot. You may want to get a cage with bars too close together to admit an adult corn or kingsnake.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Conversely, I might be a little bit worried that if the parrot escaped, it might go after the snake. I don't know if parrots would be considered predators in that regard, but other birds certainly are. Just something else to think about, but as long as all parties are securely contained, there should be no problem.
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MichaelB

I grew up in a household that was full of both. my mother did wild bird rescue andbred Parrots and of course...I had snakes. They get along very well (the birds found it entertaining) as long as each stays where they belong. A large parrot will kill a small snake and we all Know what big snakes eat. The greater danger comes from the larger Parrots who are not above taking a bite or two out of whatever the snake puts in it's cage (There is good reason why so many wild caught snakes have peck marks).
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

I think everything will be fine unless one of them gets out of their cage. A Kingsnake could most likely eat a bird. The bird could also fight back and injure it badly. I have this friend who used to have two parrots, one parrot got out one day and fell into his turtle's tank(it has like 3 adult RES) the turtles ate it. Not a snake but I wanted to share it.
Michael Fedzen
Helmz614@aol.com

Wow guys, thanks so much for all the opinions! I think i'll do it, I'll just be careful not to leave a cage door open.
-Elliot

I would worry far more about the parrot hurting the snake. a medium sized parrot like an amazon or a congo grey could easily snap an adult cornsnake in half. one nip from your parrot and the snake would head the opposite way... quickly. unless you have an extraodinarily small conure or something like that, the snake would never get large enough to look at it as food, and would have no reason to go into the bird's cage.

-kyle
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Edited on December 20, 2003 at 19:34:00 by phwyvern.

I’ve really got to disagree with Kyle's statement that “the snake would never get large enough to look at it as food, and would have no reason to go into the bird's cage.” I think that snakes rely more on senses like smell/taste (and in the case of those with pits, heat), than they do on eyesight to initiate a feeding strike. And corn snakes are expert climbers which can scale trees to get at birds in their nests. And I’m sure most of us can recall instances where we offered snakes prey items that were just too big, where the snake might have attempted for an hour or more to consume it before it finally gave up and backed off.

Years ago, I was feeding a bunch of recently hatched Burmese pythons on the floor at the same time that I was thawing out a 5 pound chicken for their mother. One of the little hatchlings released its mouse and crawled over to the chicken, bit into part of a wing, and tried mightily to wrap its coils around that big bird, but succeeded mostly in constricting the wing.

As people have pointed out, a large parrot could easily kill the species of snakes you mentioned. But would the initial reaction of a seed and fruit eater be the same as that of a bird of prey or other snake-eating bird? I’d bet the advantage would go to an adult rat snake or king snake whose first inclination (assuming it had followed its sense of smell up to the cage in the first place) would be to strike, constrict and kill, then figure out afterwards it had snagged a too-large meal.

Also, although I know some people cage snakes and feeder animals like rodents in the same room, I wonder if doing so doesn’t make those snakes more prone to consider anything that moves as the food source they can smell so prominently nearby. And I can’t imagine that the constant presence of a potential predator would be all that great for the bird. But perhaps for both, sensory overload kicks in at some point and they stop being very aware of each other.

-Joan

My parrot (a Yellow Nape Amazon) is absolutely terrified of snakes. Your parrot may go insane with fear when it sees the snakes. Parrots are very smart animals; it will be difficult to hide the snake from yours. This whole plan doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. If one or both escape it could end in disaster. A snake and a pet it could eat should not be kept in the same room. I had a friend who owned a red-tail and a ferret, kept in the same room. They both escaped at the same time. Ferret wounded snake, snake ate ferret, snake later died of infection in its wounds.