CAT??? with snakes?? and rats???

[reaxion07]

I have rats, a cat, and a snake. She's actually a kitten, and not much bigger then the rats. She got bit pretty hard by the really big one, and hasn't bothered them since. The snake tried to strike at her once, so we keep her away when he's out.

[rabernet]

I have rats in a rack, but the two cats are more interested in stealing the lab block so that they can chase it all over the apartment. Apparently lab block is an awesome cat toy. So awesome, that I had to put a cereal box on top of the bottom bin feeder, so Sammy would quit stealing it (plus it hurt to step on it if you didn't see it in the dark).

Lexi is the younger of the two cats (less than a year old), but she's learned the word "NO!" and stops in her tracks. She likes to sit next to me when I clean snakes, and has more fun chasing the paper towel I'm using to rub down the tub (from the outside of the tub, while I'm wiping down the inside) than messing with the snakes.

When she was younger, she did want to "play" with the snakes when I had them out, but a quick "Lexi, NO!" was a good deterent. And Diamond the dog doesn't care a bit about either.

[frankykeno]

Remember though even the most laid back housecat is still a predator at heart, even more so than a pet dog. Do keep an eye on your cat around the snake or simply keep them apart as much as possible or teach the cat to avoid the snakes completely. Using a spray bottle, a sharp handclap or NO, shaking a can full of small stones at the cat, even imitating a cat's angry hiss - all those things can condition a cat to avoid something.

I do have one rescue here that was badly clawed as a young snake when her previous owner's pet cat, who liked to lay on the snake's enclosure mesh lid, fell through it when it collapsed one day. One of our cats likes to lay on lids like that but a handy spray bottle is teaching Sebastian that he can't do that in our house.

[Slim]

I keep the GF's dog in a seperate room when I have the BP's out. I don't know that anything bad would happen, but I'm not willing to take the risk, or stress the snakes because the dog is pretty hyper.

[southernboagurl]

I now have 1-6ft boa and 1-2ft(maybe) ball. My roommate has two cats. Whenever I have the snakes out, I usually shut them out the room that I'm in with the snakes. I'd rather just shut the cats out and play with the snakes than have something terrible happen regardless of how much you think you can suspect when a cat wants to play/attack a snake.

[angie7]

We lock our cats in the bathroom and gate off our dogs when the snakes are out. Don't want to take any chances of either getting hurt.