Snakes and Cats

[Wishes]

Hey!

I used to have 2 lepoard Gekos and 2 cats and found no problems however .... I now have one young cat and have recently adopted a fairly young Corn Snake (3 years maybe). Now I have no experience with snakes but my cat seems to have more interest in him then my other cats had in my lizards.

To cut it short ... is there anything I can do in the begining to help them get along with each other? I think getting it right from the start is better then having them scared of each other!

[Herpo14292]

Cats are predators, naturally its going to want to investigate and "play" with the snake.
Then theres allways a risk of the snake striking at your cat.

[Samanthaa]

Just keep them as seperate as is possible

[SilverSteno]

Keeping them seperate is the safest thing to do. Make sure there is a lock on the vivarium so the cat can't get it open and when you have the snake out keep the cat out of the room. Some cats are more inquisitive and predatory than others so you can't really base things on the behaviour of your previous cats.

[Ron Magpie]

Yeah, they do vary, and vary in what they might go for! My cat has a passing 'benign' interest in my reptiles (she likes to watch them if they are doing something interesting, but shows no sign of predatory intent) and is positively intimidated by my parrots- possibly because they were there first. On the other hand, when I looked after a friend's hamster, she was right up at the cage within seconds, practically licking her lips. I had to move the hamster to another room. My ex' cat on the other hand (my cat's son as it happens) catches everything up to and including rabbits when he goes out, but completely leaves the household pets alone.

[Hissy Missy]

my fellas sisters cat was an evil ginger little . He used to wind my beardies right up, try and scratch them through the glass, even head butt the glass to try and get to them. I used to pray for my beardies to turn into savage cannibals one day and eat him.

[sammy1969]

I have two cats and six snakes and the reaction of the two cats is very different to my snakes and lizards. One only shows a passing interest in the snakes even if he is present when they are out of the viv being handled although i do watch him intently for any predatory behaviour but so far no problems at all. The other however is a different story and I have to be very careful with him. He willsit and watch and paw at vivs when the snakes are inside and I cannot have him present when I handle the snakes I have even have him help one snake escape through a vent that was a little to big, thankfully I was present and saw him flick it out of the viv and wondered what he was doing. The snake was undamaged and the two were kept apart So You can take what ever you can from this post I think it depends on the particular cat I think I am very lucky wiht the one and the other is just doing what cats do
SAm

[BeckyL]

Your cat and your snake are not going to be best buddies, sorry - the most appropriate action is to keep them seperate and supervised at all times.

Cats are unpredictable hunters and can suddenly turn even when they appear to be acting friendly. I don't know if you've ever seen a cat suddenly go for something, but they can react a lot faster than you can.

I have four snakes and two cats - they are absolutely never allowed to come in to contact with each other and if a snake is out in the same room as a cat the snake does not leave me and is supervised 100% of the time.

It is perfectly fine and doable to keep cats and snakes in the same household but they can't be expected to "get along" with each other. I'd far rather the animals be wary of each other than to risk someone getting seriously hurt.

Hope this helps

[Ron Magpie]

Yeah, since he is already 'showing an interest', best to err on the side of caution. So long as your viv is secure and the snake is never out unsupervised, you shouldn't have a problem- but they are never going to be chums!