Safety with Centralian Carpet Pythons

[NoodleAppreciator]

Hi, all. Please pardon my ignorance, but I have never cared for reptiles.



My brother is having something if an emergency and may have to come and stay with me. He has a female Centralian Carpet Python. She is relatively old and very much in the larger/longer side of things.



Is there anything I need to know about safety, given I have a four year old child and a small cat in the house? My brother is not in a position to be able to manage these questions at the moment.

 

[Sdaji]

Non reptile people often think of snakes which I would consider small/medium as 'large', so without knowing how big it actually is, it's difficult to say, but if it's actually particularly large for a Carpet Python, it could potentially kill your cat or pose a danger to a four year old child.

If the snake isn't that large (which it probably isn't), the cat and children probably post more danger to the snake, but they're still a danger to each other. Not to overplay it, even if it's the largest Carpet Python that ever there was, the snake is still far less dangerous than a typical dog, but you wouldn't leave a dog and a cat unsupervised with each other unless you knew them very well, and you wouldn't leave an unknown dog with a four year old child unsupervised.

Either way, definitely keep the cat and snake completely separate, and keep the snake and child separate unless supervised by a capable snake handler.

 

[NoodleAppreciator]

Non reptile people often think of snakes which I would consider small/medium as 'large', so without knowing how big it actually is, it's difficult to say, but if it's actually particularly large for a Carpet Python, it could potentially kill your cat or pose a danger to a four year old child.

If the snake isn't that large (which it probably isn't), the cat and children probably post more danger to the snake, but they're still a danger to each other. Not to overplay it, even if it's the largest Carpet Python that ever there was, the snake is still far less dangerous than a typical dog, but you wouldn't leave a dog and a cat unsupervised with each other unless you knew them very well, and you wouldn't leave an unknown dog with a four year old child unsupervised.

Either way, definitely keep the cat and snake completely separate, and keep the snake and child separate unless supervised by a capable snake handler.

Thank you so much for the reply! The snake is about 3 metres long and over 10 years old (I have no idea what is average for a python).
At this point, my plan is to keep her in the study and keep the door closed. My cat cannot open doors and my son is unlikely to go on there by himself if we tell him not to.

 

[Harpo]

Also the snake is likely to be in it's enclosure all of the time, which it shouldn't be able to escape. You could put it in a bedroom and use the door or a dog/child gate to keep them out.
Most bredli are really chill snakes, a few of us here have a cat/dog and snakes, it'll be doable.

 

[Sdaji]

Thank you so much for the reply! The snake is about 3 metres long and over 10 years old (I have no idea what is average for a python).
At this point, my plan is to keep her in the study and keep the door closed. My cat cannot open doors and my son is unlikely to go on there by himself if we tell him not to.

I've seen countless thousands of Carpet Pythons, probably over a hundred with owners claiming they're 10' long, and maybe five which were actually 10' long. The average length of "10' Carpet Pythons" is about 7'. I've never seen a Carpet Python of this type anywhere near 10' long. But, hey, presumably it's a largish snake so stay safe.

I wouldn't be worried about the cat, but I definitely wouldn't trust a four year old child not to go checking out a snake. Kids do some pretty out there things, and being curious about a snake isn't too out there. The snake *probably* won't attempt to hurt the child even if the child gets it out and play with it, and *probably* won't attempt to kill the child even if it does get scared and tries to scare the child with a defensive nip (which would definitely be very effective!), but if a 10' Carpet Python did attempt to kill a four year old child with no one else present, it would have a good chance of succeeding.

Again, I'd be less concerned about it than I would with a typical pet dog, but I wouldn't let a four year old alone with either unsupervised unless I knew the dog very well, and I wouldn't let a four year old interact with a 10' snake unsupervised no matter how well I knew the snake or child.