Getting a Kingsnake Eating

Oh, since we’re on the subject and you said people read this forum for education, I want to make one follow-up comment in case anybody does actually read this random thread about feeding a kingsnake someday and the multi-animal household situation happens to be relevant to them too:

It may seem weird that the cats apparently ignore the cages in the bedroom but I wouldn’t trust them with one in the kitchen. I think of it the same way as training a horse or a dog. Just because a horse may obey the rider in the arena doesn’t guarantee they’ll be the same outside of it, because there’s new things around that they may decide is more interesting than following the rules. Likewise, just because my cats do fine with snake cages in the bedroom doesn’t mean they’d be equally fine with a cage suddenly being put in the kitchen. That’s something completely different, a change to the routine that they’d want to investigate. If I did that, I’d expect to start over from scratch with getting them to ignore the kitchen cage. (I even set up the new snakes' empty permanent cages in the bedroom long before quarantine is up, to get that environmental change out of the way in advance by desensitizing them to the additions.)

So anyone with multiple other pets should keep that in mind! I think that’s pretty straightforward animal behavior that owners already understand, but it’s worth a reminder just in case.

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Originally Posted by Werewolves

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It may seem weird that the cats apparently ignore the cages in the bedroom but I wouldn’t trust them with one in the kitchen. I think of it the same way as training a horse or a dog. Just because a horse may obey the rider in the arena doesn’t guarantee they’ll be the same outside of it, because there’s new things around that they may decide is more interesting than following the rules. ...

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I'm much more of a dog keeper but I've had a few cats in the past (strays taken in), & personally I wouldn't bet on cats being good in the bedroom...I think it may have more to do with your physical presence than with whatever room it is. I know that dogs are smart enough to do things behind my back that they wouldn't DARE do when I'm home or looking...I think that applies to cats too. I'd rather you (& especially your snakes) didn't find out the hard way. (I've also
spent some years riding horses...so many distractions out side of the arena, they spook easily too when not familiar with trail riding.)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I'm much more of a dog keeper but I've had a few cats in the past (strays taken in), & personally I wouldn't bet on cats being good in the bedroom...I think it may have more to do with your physical presence than with whatever room it is. I know that dogs are smart enough to do things behind my back that they wouldn't DARE do when I'm home or looking...I think that applies to cats too. I'd rather you (& especially your snakes) didn't find out the hard way. (I've also
spent some years riding horses...so many distractions out side of the arena, they spook easily too when not familiar with trail riding.)

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I appreciate your concern, I was just trying to stress that at least some precautions should always be taken in any case. I do use PVC cages so it’s not like a cat would break through the ceiling if they did jump onto it, the concern in my case would mostly be the animals just seeing/smelling each other.