snake and dog?

Hello, I've not posted in ages. Currently I have an adult male bp, about 3', and an 8 lb toy dog. When I buy a house in the near future and have room, I would like to expand my snake collection.

I've been doing lots of research, as I've not owned a corn in some time. My primary concern is that an escaped adult corn (or large bp for that matter), could harm my chihuahua, say if it decided to coil around him for warmth. I must state that my Bp's tub is very well secured, so I'm not a slouch on safety. But my brain likes to play what-if. And if there's a chance a bigger corn, rat snake-- say a black rat snake, or bp could hurt my dog I may have to stick with smaller species like milks or garters for my own peace of mind.

I do realize these snakes cannot eat a dog and wouldn't even recognize one as food. The dog is very curious when I take my little Mojave out, but I keep them apart to avoid bites and stressing the bp. Thanks.

Maybe that IS worth thinking about. We currently have two 5-month-old kittens we adopted two months ago after losing two 19 year-old cats four months apart (is that a lot of math in one sentence or WHAT?). And I really don't think about the "what if's" mainly because I keep my snakes in a separate, dedicated room, since my wife has always been deathly afraid of them. (A couple of years back ALL THREE of my adult corns DID escape and needless to say, my apartment was an exceptionally stressful place to be, thankfully for only a short time as I was able to find all three shortly thereafter!)

But you do raise a great point in that an ounce of prevention is worth TEN TONS of cure!!!! I will be re-examining my enclosures, especially since separating my 3 adult corns recently and now that I have a total of 4!!!

Uncertain about ball pythons but why would anyone want to chance ANY snake and ANY mammal other than the snake's food of the potential of meeting each other face-to-face? I would hope that we would ensure that the possibility of this potentially unfortunate scenario is eliminated to the best of our abilities!

As far as would a corn or rat snake hurt your dog, I don't really know and hope I never find out! However, I am comfortably certain that someone on this site will know the answer and hopefully, not from experience!

Welcome back!

I would be more concerned that the dog would hurt the corn snake. The snake's initial response would be to flee. Most likely the dog would be very curious...paw at the snake or try to mouth it. A dog can easily break a snake's back or crush it's skull.If the snake can't hide, it will turn and strike, but the damage would be mostly incidental to the dog, unless the snake got in a lucky hit to an eye.

An ounce of prevention ...

Thanks for the replies. I found this yesterday... Not the answer I wanted to hear... I realize it shouldn't be an issue if one is thorough in securing cages and following common sense safety, but I have OCD, so still, I'm dwelling in what-if.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...8060416AAD05Jy

Perhaps I'll start out by adding a checkered garter to my collection, keep researching, and see how I feel down the road.

The other option may be to puchase/adopt a male, considering that male snakes of many species tend to (but not always) attain a smaller size.

Of course, whatever you do, in the end, it'll be the result of your decision regardless of what you read and who says what, but in my humble opinion, I really believe you need to be able to have some trust in your sources of information. When it comes to information about cornsnakes, the link you cited appears to be populated by mostly lay people who spout sensationalistic verbage just for the sake of wanting to say something. Though I am by no way an authority on snakes or reptiles of any kind, I do have a great deal of experience and can say with a certain amount of confidence that (as Dlena points out) a cornsnake will most probably be the underdog (no pun intended) in any contest for survival with even a small canine. Some of the answers to inquiries on Yahoo sound downright wackadoo!

But again, it's only my opinion. Just sayin.

I am new to corn snakes . But I have raised dashounds for many years and they have killed several 5 foot wild black rat snakes . The captive bread corn snake dos'nt stand a chance against a dog of any size even a tiny one.

Originally Posted by yellowfox

I am new to corn snakes . But I have raised dashounds for many years and they have killed several 5 foot wild black rat snakes . The captive bread corn snake dos'nt stand a chance against a dog of any size even a tiny one.

This. I mean, a five foot corn snake is going to get injured easily by hunting a rat. I have no idea how it could not get killed or at least seriously injured if any size of dog attacks it.