• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

What would an indoor cat do if a snake got loose and was running wild?

J

JjSnake

New member
Would the cat usually try to eat the snake? Would it be afraid of the snake?

I'm sure the answer would be different depending on the cat and depending on the snake. My cat is an indoor-only cat, and is very friendly. He doesn't even know how to eat a mouse. He kills the mice, but then he just lets them sit dead on the floor.

The snake I'm getting is a corn snake.

I hope he never gets loose... But as you all say here - you never know! :)
 
99 times out of a hundred, that snake will die if it doesn't hide fast enough. Your kitty as already shown its natural prey drive.
I have four cats. Two are pretty laid back and tolerated my pet rat running loose in the living room. But my other two would go nuts and had to get put away when it was ratty play time.
But there's something irresistible about a tiny, slithering reptile to cats. My youngest cat yowls and sniffs loudly when she knows I'm holding my little hatchling. She sleeps on top of the snake tank all day long, and spends a lot of her time awake just staring down though the screen. Whether the snake is awake or not.
 
Brieana - thanks a lot for the reply! :) Your description of the "staring" behavior reminds me of what my cat does to my parakeets! It's like his life-time goal to eat those birds.

Because your description reminds me so much of my cat (and since you said there's a big chance of it happening), I'll just assume that my cat would kill the snake if it got loose. Well, of course I was planning to be extra careful anyway, but at least I'll know now that if the snake disappears - the prognosis is grim! :)

Thanks.
 
Unfortunately I have to agree that the cat would kill the snake- due to experience. The cats look at them as moving strings, she chewed him up and by the time we found him he was too far gone and passed away over night. Just make sure to get an escape proof cage and you won't have issues!
 
House Cats are one of the most successful hunters in the entire animal kingdom. And as noticed by many, they don't always eat their prey - they kill for the "sport" of it. Unless it is a large, or venomous, snake, a cat will quickly impose its will.
 
Wow. Thanks to you guys for all the warnings!

Alicat - good analogy about the "moving strings"! My cat body-slams moving strings! LOL. :)
 
I would have to agree with everyone here. I have had 2 escapees. One was gone for over a week with a large cat (very similar to yours in that it kills mice and then leaves them) and found it at the other end of the house hiding under some pillows and there wasn't a scratch on him. The other was dead on the floor before I even knew she was missing. So ime, it's a 50/50 shot. haha!
 
All of these stories about snakes escaping are starting to scare me! :)

Please tell me: When you guys had snakes escape, was it because you made obvious mistakes? Was it something where you slapped yourself on the head and said: "Why did I do something so stupid?!" or was it completely unexpected?
 
The cat will be a cat, the snake will be a snake. The cat will see the snake as an animated string without batteries. The temptation to swat at it will just be too much! And having had to take a recaptured snake to the vet for puncture wounds from a cat and then laser therapy to get the hellacious wound to close up, it can get kinda involved and $$$$$$$.

Invest in safe lid clamps and be paranoid about closing them properly every time you go into the tank!

Devon
 
My only escapee was because my daughter didn't put the lid back on the tank correctly. Never did find that little Sinaloan Milk...
 
Mine was because I ignored my instincts that my corn could slip between the glass panes on his cage. I kept saying "I think he can get out." But my ex was so insistent that he was a reptile master and he was absolutely sure he could not get out. I should have trusted my instincts! My other escapee was my very, very first snake, and she got out the night I got her- this was in a tank with screen lid. I had books piled onto it and she shouldn't have been able to get out, but she did. I never saw her again and I never used aquariums again.
 
Snakes are some of the best escape artists. Where their head fits so will the rest of their body. So you have to look for every possible way they could get out. My most recent escape was a hatching in a new tub that I didn't notice the tiny opening around the latch, never did find that baby again.

However happy cat and loose snake story, I didn't latch a tub fully when I had a male and female together for breeding and I guess he got bored and left. Well I started watching the cats and sure enough one was staring around the corner in the hall so I darted down and grabbed my boy by the tail as he was going under the door into the furnace closet.
 
My cat has come to tell me about two separate escapees!

He gets freaked out and knows that the snakes belong in their vivs, so he comes and tells me when he finds one. I have rewarded him with lots of treats.


Maybe you could train your cats to see a snake on the floor and come to you for treats?
 
AliCat - I'm glad you're giving me all these warnings about the aquarium-type tanks with the doors, because now I'm super paranoid! Well, the snake has been in there for a day and a half now, and he seems fine. I can't IMAGINE that he could fit through the cracks of the doors. They're so small! But I keep an eye out, nonetheless. He seems to come out of his hide every couple of hours just to examine the surroundings. And it seems he's pushing on the glass and the top screen trying to find an escape route. What strange creatures! :) Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of escaping, they would say: "This is my home and I"m comfortable here. Why should I leave?"

cmalchow - that's an awesome story about your cat! I was thinking that if my snake ever escaped, I could use my cat as a "radar" system also.

Naagas - that's an awesome idea about training the cats! :) Thanks for sharing it. If I see that my cat ever does something like that, I'll definitely give him tons of treats!
 
My corn snake escaped once and was gone for a day or two. Found him unharmed slithering around in the bathroom. Either he hid before my cat could find him, or my cat just didn't care. I'm not sure Binx even knows how to kill. (lol) He very rarely kills bugs, just meows at them. He once found a house gecko which I caught and released outside. Oh, and at one point there were a couple of rats living the wall and crawling around the cabinets. Even saw it poke it's head out. I had to kill them, the cat is not a mouser at all. XD

So yeah, depends on the cat and the snake. The cat may or may not be interested, or be able to kill, and the snake might be able to defend himself if he's an adult.
 
My cat doesn't even notice when I hold my baby. It might be that the snake is too small to notice in my hands, but as my cat has gotten older he doesn't play nearly as much as he used to. The cat definitely comes by me when I am holding the snake. I mean he freaking walks in my lap, but he either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
 
Well, my snake, touch wood, has never got out.

I usually only handle the snake when the cat is out of the house - but the one time I made a mistake, I was holding the snake (maybe six months old) and the cat came in the room. Sat down a few feet away, watching, not seeming too concerned. Suddenly, with no warning, she LAUNCHED herself at the snake, all claws out, and I am holding the snake above my head with the other batting the cat away.

So I have no illusions on the likely fate of the corn if it ever gets out, and the cat finds it first ...

That cat is, on the other hand, and indoor/outdoor kitty and is a savage hunter ... :D she has been known to kill weasels and chase foxes.
 
I have four cats, and if I have my snakes out they like to come over and look, but they don't seem overly interested...They also watch the snakes in their tanks. But my king escaped and I found him 3 months later, cat-harm free, so if your guy ever does get loose it's not necessarily the end of the world (though try to avoid it!)
 
My cat would kill me if she could (and I'm not kidding). Mouse has a crate, though, when she gets rowdy (which is ALL the time, LOL), so I don't worry about her. If we're not in the room, she gets put up. She'll jump on the snake cage and attack our Bearded Dragon through hers - It gives EVERYONE a heart attack (except Mouse, the devious devil cat).

She's so cute tough, we can't fathom getting rid of her (she's almost a year old, none the less).

Cats love hunting. Especially house cats.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top