Beefy":1rgciacy said:my cats love to play with snakes. the snakes eventually high tail it if they make it and dont come back.
Sometimes they don't get away. Present from the cats.
Beefy":1rgciacy said:my cats love to play with snakes. the snakes eventually high tail it if they make it and dont come back.
starlinka":265cwb2a said::shock: Just because you hate snakes or have ophidiophobia does not mean this is wrong. Rat snakes are a LOT less dangerous to people than cats, dogs and other "cute" animals. But if my pictures bother you that much, I'll remove them. :roll:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OphidiophobiaA typical ophidiophobic would not only fear them when in live contact but also dreads to think about them or even see them on TV or in pictures.
Wewild":co808jz7 said:Beefy":co808jz7 said:my cats love to play with snakes. the snakes eventually high tail it if they make it and dont come back.
Sometimes they don't get away. Present from the cats.
I removed it yesterday because I thought people didn't like it. But I might put it back! The snake was REALLY gentle and if I had not caught it myself, I would thought it was a pet snake (I also washed the snake before I let the baby play with it). People, who think it was wrong, can check out these linksGMN":bu68hnjk said:Don't remove them, not everyone on here dislikes snakes, I myself am fascinated with them.
GMN
kerley":1v7raezx said:Starlinka, You are correct, dogs will play with other dogs.
kerley":1v7raezx said:Children also play, but not with snakes.
ToddFarmsInc":3a4cn2hz said:Here's a shot I took a couple years ago just right outside my back door. This is a pair of mating black snakes.
I also have chickens, and I don't mind if snakes eat a few eggs, but I have 14 birdhouses and a lot of birdnests in the bushes and I can't allow them to eat all those baby birds This is why if I see a snake this time of year, I relocate it. I wouln't keep one in the house because I also have pet birds.Lammie":pyz7k2w2 said:If I didn't have the chickens, I wouldn't mind the snakes, honestly. And as long as they stay away from my chickens and eat the mice, then they can stay.
starlinka":3b3j3irc said:I also have chickens, and I don't mind if snakes eat a few eggs, but I have 14 birdhouses and a lot of birdnests in the bushes and I can't allow them to eat all those baby birds This is why if I see a snake this time of year, I relocate it. I wouln't keep one in the house because I also have pet birds.Lammie":3b3j3irc said:If I didn't have the chickens, I wouldn't mind the snakes, honestly. And as long as they stay away from my chickens and eat the mice, then they can stay.
Here is another picture of the snake I found in the birdnest. He ate one baby, but because I had a video camera in the nest, I saw it happen and was there in time to save the rest.
starlinka":4rygwrjm said:Wewild":4rygwrjm said:Beefy":4rygwrjm said:my cats love to play with snakes. the snakes eventually high tail it if they make it and dont come back.
Sometimes they don't get away. Present from the cats.
It's just a baby rat snake. They are ONLY dangerous to mice and good to have around. I don't think the cat would be that brave with a real poisonous snake. Myself, I don't think cats should be used for "snake control". They'll kill the good snakes, along with birds and other small animals, but the really bad and dangerous snakes would still be there.
But unlike snakes, cats are not in their native habitat!Wewild":v82kx4jn said:The cats do what they do just as snakes.
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/speaker3.htmlthey differ from wild predators in three important ways: First, people protect cats from disease, predation and competition, factors that can control numbers of wild predators, such as bobcats, foxes, or coyotes. Second, they often have a dependable supply of supplemental food provided by humans and are, therefore, not influenced by changes in populations of prey. Whereas populations of native predators will decline when prey becomes scarce, cats receiving food subsidies from people remain abundant and continue to hunt even rare species. Third, unlike many native predators, cat densities are either poorly limited or not limited by territoriality [19]. These three factors allow domestic cats to exist at much higher densities than native predators. In some parts of rural Wisconsin, densities of free-ranging cats reach 114 cats per square mile. In these areas, cats are several times more abundant than all mid-sized native predators (such as foxes, raccoons, skunks) combined. With abundant food, densities can reach over 9 per acre, and cats often form large feeding and breeding "colonies" (81 cats were recorded in one colony, and colonies of over 20 are not uncommon) [20, 21]. Unlike some predators, a cat's desire to hunt is not suppressed by adequate supplemental food. Even when fed regularly by people, a cat's motivation to hunt remains strong, so it continues hunting [22].
TexasBred":12z520q2 said:When a dam snake is in my yard he's not in his native habitat either
starlinka":2mqc5c81 said:TexasBred":2mqc5c81 said:When a dam snake is in my yard he's not in his native habitat either
You're confused - The snake IS native here, and unless you are a Native American, you're the one whos not in your native habitat. I would not let a poisonous snake stay in my yard either, but I would not kill a harmless animal (rat snake, etc.) and then be proud of what I had done.