How common is it for cats to literally dig hibernating snakes out of their burrows in the winter and how do cats manage to find these snakes?

Answer 1

My cat is outside off and on during the day and she will go after mice or squirrels, but never have I heard of a going after a snake. I suppose anything is possible. Cats as you know are generally nocturnal so who knows what the little rat bags are up too. Once my cat dragged in a hefty rat and scared the heck out of me. She hadn't killed it so I think it was just instincts that made her do it (in the house most of the time) and then she didn't know what to do with it once it was in the house. I threw a towel over the poor frightened rat and threw it back outside. Where I live it's unusual to have rats close to homes, but if you live within 1 - 2 miles from a railroad (I do) they will often go after the grains dropped from the box cars and if this is not available they will go to homes and after bird feeders for the seeds.

You have quite some cat there.

Marcy

AnswerMy cat, which is ''supposed'' to be a ''house'' cat, likes to slip out whenever she can to hunt. It's rather distressing to have to rescue baby rabbits, but I have kids and as far as I'm concerned snakes are fine prey.

This past December she dug a young Copperhead out of a hole - my own kids and one of the neighbors kids saw her do it. Fortunately, because it had been hibernating it was too sluggish to fight back and Tenshi (our cat) chewed it up.

Then early this spring she was seen digging a common garter snake out of a hole in our neighbor's yard.

Upon further observation, we discovered that she would prowl the yard during the day - who knows what she does at night - and when she found a hole, she'd stick a paw down in it and fish around. It's hilarious to watch.

Now that it's warm, hopefully the snakes have moved out of their temporary homes. Otherwise, she may be in for an unpleasant, maybe even fatal, surprise.

I wish now that we hadn't had her spayed. I'd love to find some snake hunters and try to breed that trait.

Don't get me wrong I don't hate snakes. I'm not really even frightened of them, except when I'm startled by finding one unexpectedly. But if she's going to keep my yard free of Copperheads...well, I wanna know where to find more cats like her!

AnswerWOW! I've never seen a cat do that. Anyway. the cat probably just smelled the snake underneath it. Snakes aren't very clean animals (frequently rolling in their own poo) so they really stink. I imagine the cat could smell it very well with its better sense of smell than humans.