Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 2 pets - 1 cat that is about 3-4 years old that was an outdoor cat turned indoor upon my family finding her, and a snow corn snake that is about a year old, am I the only one who may see a conflict, if anyone has any advice on how to avoid this, please help nothing has happened yet, but I don't want somthing to, I have a secure top on the cage- are there any other precautions I can take? besides the obvious meaning closing the door behind me?

I have cats too and sometimes they set on top of their cages. I just shoo them off. So far I haven't had any mis-happs other then the cats setting on top of the cages. I make sure all the lids are very secure.

If I where you I would put a leash on the cat and introduce it to the snake. They might get along, and then you don't have to worry. I introduce my dog to all my pets, and he's never aggressive with any of them, except the birds. He barks at the birds sometimes if they're screaming, but snakes don't make any noise so he's not interested in them at all. Once I found a near-dead baby squirrel in the yard and took care of her for a while, my dog learned to tolerate her after I introduced them to each other, even though he still chases wild squirrels. He seemed to be really jealous of the squirrel though because I fed and took care of her more than I did to him. Sometimes he even gets jealous of the snakes, when I take the corn snake out often he comes over and puts his head in my lap, and if I don't put the snake away and pet him instead he hides in a corner looking depressed.

It is my opinion, that for the majority, cats arent as "loving" as dogs. Cats have a higher hunt/kill instinct than most dogs and therefore would most likely rather "play" with and kill a snake. Not saying that dogs wont, just that I think a higher percentage of cats would vs. dogs.

We had a neighbor while growing up that had 25 or 30 cats running around his property. We always caught them in our yard killing songbirds, chipmunks, rabbits and baby suirrels.

We continually called this guy and asked him to please keep his cats under control, he always said they were free to roam and do as they please.

The sheriff dept said they couldnt do anything about it since it wasnt in the city limits, and the only thing we could do was to "take care of it ourselves".
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Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

Most cats will kill snakes, but there are some exceptions, so I would still introduce them to each other at a safe distance to see what happens.

Now that I think about it cats wouldn't even exist if wern't for their tendancy to kill snakes. Cats were domesticated by the egyptians mostly for snake control, not rodents. But some breeds have been bred to get along with kids and other pets better.

Wait... if the cats were eating the snakes, who WAS eating the rodents? Must have been their little greyhounds....

My dog's got a pretty strong prey drive herself... luckily for us she's tiny, and snakes don't seem to trigger it. She is mortal enemies with the parakeet, though.
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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?

Cats where kept mostly for rodent control later, they became a problem since there wern't so many snakes around to eat them.

As long as they weren't eating sand boas...
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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?

One of the more perverse things I saw with my cat involved a nine foot water monitor. The cat used to sit on top of it's cage and bat the lizard's (foot long) tongue whenever it came out thru the screen.
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Yeah, there shouldent be a problem if you have secure tops. One of my cats is allways sleeping next to my breeder mice cage, and I havent had a problem yet. Just hope your snake never escapes though since the feline will most likely find it first. I think a cat would kill a snake if it found it roaming the house at night no matter if you introduced them or not.-Smokey

We had a cat. She would not leave the snakes alone and she finally knocked my female prairie king's entire enclosure off the shelf and busted it. Never found the snake. Needless to say, no more cat, no more problems!
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Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

>>I have 2 pets - 1 cat that is about 3-4 years old that was an outdoor cat turned indoor upon my family finding her, and a snow corn snake that is about a year old, am I the only one who may see a conflict, if anyone has any advice on how to avoid this, please help nothing has happened yet, but I don't want somthing to, I have a secure top on the cage- are there any other precautions I can take? besides the obvious meaning closing the door behind me?
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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

Bs i have 3 cats over 15 snakes, 9 beardies, a redfoot tortise, etc the cats have been out with all of them if they are introduced properly there is no problem. Our cats catch the crickets that get out and bring them to us. They have all run around togather and are all in the same house all day while were at work. I have caught the cats even sleeping in one of our lizard cages. Also had my very large germen giant, bevo try to mate with our cat tiger, it was funny never the less. Never had even a scuffle or bite, they check them out then get bored and go back to chasing each other around the house. Moral of the story introduce all your pets cause if some one does get out chances are they will be no damage, at least in our house.