Carpets and Cats

Very recently I've taken notice of carpet pythons and think that one would be a great addition to my (currently) very small collection.

What I was wondering however, is whether the smaller carpets (Irian Jayan, Jungle) would be a serious threat to an adult cat.

The original condition from my wife for when I first decided to get a snake (and wholeheartedly agreed to by me) was basically "Nothing that can harm the cats or the dog if it somehow escaped".

Not particularly worried about my dog (black lab) or my older cat (healthy sense of self-preservation), but my younger cat's fight-or-flight reflex consists largely of duck-and-cower :rolleye2:

I say the risk is small, your cat doesn't smell like a typical meal so the snake is likely not going to want anything to do with kitty, if there were ever any problems I guarantee it would just be kitty getting a defensive strike for getting too close.

I've got a younger boa and a full grown borneo, both show zero interest in my cat.. funny story, I wouldn't trust sticking my hands in my borneo's enclosure, and the other day I grabbed a poop out of there and he was clearly showing interest in my hand, so I went in real quick.. I didn't bother to close the sliding door when I tossed it in the garbage as I was right there, I look back and I see my cat shoving her face in the enclosure, snake shows NO CRAPS about it. -_- Meanwhile if that were my hand, I'd get tagged.

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You should be fine with a jungle or IJ. I've seen a couple of videos of coastals eating cats but they were some monster coastals. My snakes don't pay much attention to my cat but they almost never interact together. If you're even slightly interested in getting a carpet I strongly encourage you to do so. They're really fun to keep.

Its probably ok with snakes and cats together, they seem to stay clear unless their hungry. That said though my neighbour has two maine coon cats (massive breed) and my 20-25 year male Mediterranean spur thigh tortoise has treed them and mercilessly winds them up. So tortoises and cats I wouldn't recommend.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

You should be fine with a jungle or IJ. I've seen a couple of videos of coastals eating cats but they were some monster coastals. My snakes don't pay much attention to my cat but they almost never interact together. If you're even slightly interested in getting a carpet I strongly encourage you to do so. They're really fun to keep.

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Zig is pretty spot on here.

Probably, at least the first 3 years your cat is more of a threat to your snake.

A good keeper rarely has escapes. You will be fine and so will the other animals.

An IJ would need to be HUGE to think of a cat as prey. My coastal mutt is about 6.5 feet long and a cat with claws would destroy her at this stage.

As Zig stated, its the larger, older snakes that could possibly be a threat.

I think a lottery win or a lightning strike is about the same odds as your cat being constricted by a snake like an IJ.

I doubt you'd leave the cage open anyhow.