Can cats tell poisonous snakes from non poisonous ones?

Factual Questions
1

Hello Everyone,

We live on acreage out in the country and our cats leave us presents on our front porch all the time. The present varies, one day it’s a rat, next a squirrel and so on. However, lately it has been snakes. One was a black snake and one looked like a baby rattler (but I’m not sure). Does our cats know if the snake that they are hunting is poisonous or not? I figure if they don’t one of them is going to end up dead by a snake bite. I guess the cats are braver than me as I run screaming like a little girl at the first sign of one of the bastards.

2

I’d say almost certainly not. You might want to police your property if you’re concerned about outdoor pets.

That said if you aren’t familiar with snakes there are a few that folks might mistake for a “baby rattler” that would otherwise be harmless - right down to behavior when they’re alive. A lot of young snakes will drum their tails as a warning and if they are are in a pile of dead leaves or the like it might even sound like rattling. Gopher snakes ( Pituophis sp. ) and certain water snakes ( Nerodia sp. ) in particular are common look-alikes.

3

If they get bit and survive the venomous, many species will learn to avoid it in the future. Most species don’t have the social cognition to learn this from others, but some species of venomous animals are colored brightly, have rattles, or hiss for the precise reason that they want to save their venom for prey and would rather avoid confrontation.

They would probably be more likely to avoid larger snakes. There are all kinds of discussion that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than the adults, and not just for avoidance. Something about not being able to control the dose. I’m not ready to call it urban legend, but I don’t have a definitive cite and many websites say that it is false. But it’s safe to say that cats are not made to react to threats on a species-specific manner but rather on displays of danger, and it depends on how the baby rattlesnakes can display this.

4

And: Florida venomous snakes. Note that the youngins may not necessarily look like smaller versions of the adults.

5

One of our black cats got hit hard in the face. Probably a Copperhead.

His face swelled up big time, he was walking slow and appeared drunk.

Took a vet trip or two, and weeks of draining puss out of a pocket that developed…

Used a big syringe to suck the puss out and it also helped keep things open. We would fill his face with Betadine also with a syringe. Been years and he still wants that side of his face rubbed.

Young cats do this snake hunting the most at our house. ( 8 cats ). They all are death on lizard which we try to discourage but they do not listen well about that. ::: Grump :::

6

Cats are much better than dogs at being able to avoid the bite and kill the snake. A cat is much faster than a rattler as long as he is aware of the snake.

7

No, any instinctive knowledge they may have is unlikely to be much use since the regions where cats evolved and where they are now may be quite different. And for several regenerations, their survival and ability to reproduce has been almost completely dependent on their symbiotic relationship with humans.

In other words, if your region has poisonous snakes and you let them out without supervision, you’re likely to either end up with serious vet bills or a dead cat.
While it’s true that a cat has better than even odds against a lot of snakes, it only needs to get bitten once.

8

The pus and swelling sound like an infection, which could happen with any puncture wound. Bites can be dangerous even from technically nonvenomous creatures.

9

Bit of trivia: There’s a theory that the reason cats evolved to put their ears back and hiss at potential predators is because it makes them look (the triangular head) & sound like a snake, which a lot of higher animals instinctively know to fear…

10

Now that I have had some sleep, I think you are correct.

The face infection was after Demon & PD had their ‘who is gonna be the boss’ fight. PD had him by the face pretty good.

Both of those cats had snake bites says the wife, I remember the leg bandage we had on Demon.

As to which is boss, that is still undecided after several years. They coexist but I never see one having any power over the other.

So not all cats are faster than snakes but 6 out of 8 seem to be.

We pretty much have them protected at night because of coyotes, bobcats & big owls where we used to live.

Here we do it because the road is so close & a couple have no sense about roads & cars. Can’t let 4-5 out and make the rest stay in. That makes for some pissed cats. At least with our bunch.

11

A Cracked from todaylinked to an older article saying this. The external article linked is dead. Sounds a little “Just-So Story” to me. Anyway, cats probably don’t imitate snakes but the ones who “accidentally” did were more likely to survive and make kittens who did the same. Same with the snake-mimic caterpillars.

12

So is a honey badger. :smiley:

13

I think you have mixed up the terminology (nit pick).

There are very few poisonous snakes.

However, there are a large number of venomous snakes (depending where you are).

14

I got bit by a copperhead this summer. I wish the neighborhood cats would kill them! No such luck.

15

That sucks. :eek:

I would be reading to the cats out of the book… :rolleyes:

16

From my college biology course*, a thousand years ago, the reason baby venomous varieties are more dangerous is they haven’t yet learned to not release all of their venom at once.
Only about 1 in 10 bites from adult snakes release any poison at all. It takes energy to produce venom, so if a snake can conserve it to be used on food rather than defense they get more food, live longer and produce more progeny.

*Disclaimer:
Everything changes, even the “facts” in college courses.

17

According to a recent QI, all snakes are venomous, even the constrictors, although some are only very weakly so, not enough to harm a human (or maybe even a cat)

18

Blake and Colibri would disagree with you.

19

A cat is almost sure to beat a poisonous snake, even if it’s a scrawny, mangy cat against a large, heavily-built species such as a bushmaster.

At least according to the script of this old radio show story:

A Shipment of Mute Fate

The radio show was based on a short story in which the cat, although not bitten, unfortunately did not survive the battering it took while clamped to the thrashing shake’s neck. The kittens did survive, and it was implied they were well taken care of forever after.