My Dog And The Rat Snake

[The Real Hawkeye]

My dog's been engaged in a serial conflict for weeks now with a good-sized rat snake that lives under my house. The black rat snake daily comes out for the morning sun and sits soaking it in, and my dog decided it's her job to keep this activity in check, so she challenges it, which often leads to a standoff where the two are reluctant to see who's actually top dog between them. Ultimately my dog would back off and the snake would go back under the house.

I liked this, because I like the idea of a rat snake under my house, since I've typically had mouse issues in the late fall and winter, and so far I haven't this year, which I've been attributing to the rat snake that's taken up residence under there.

Sadly, though, when I took my dog out with me this morning for my usual routine with the chickens she did her usual thing of first checking to see if the rat snake was out. It was, but this time there was no stand off. The rat snake took its usual threatening posture, but my dog just grabbed it, first by the middle back, and instantly whipped it against the rocks, then chomped it behind the head, instantly killing it. Damn. I was a little annoyed about losing my mouser snake, but I had to give her some praise for bravery rather than let her know I was unhappy.

I tossed the freshly killed snake into the chicken pasture but, surprisingly, none of them seemed to think of it as something to eat. That's odd, since I've seen them tear up live juvenile snakes and full grown lizards on many an occasion. In fact, they tear up anything made of meat that I put out there. Maybe they weren't quite sure it was dead yet, as they certainly took notice of it, but didn't get too close to it. Maybe eventually they will realize it's completely dead and will have a feast on its remains. Hope so. Hate to see it wasted.

 

[arjay]

Chickens are carnivores ? [emoji33]
This city boy just learned somethin new [emoji4]

 

[Hillbilly77]

Chickens are carnivores ?

They sure are. Remember, they are still birds.
Ours have killed several mice and moles that turn up in the outdoor pen.

I have also seen chickens pick at the fat on a deer carcass.

 

[Iggy]

Birds are descendants of the carnivorous dinosaurs. Think miniature Tyrannosaurus Rex.

 

[Jim R]

When I was maybe 9 or 10 years old our family was up visiting my aunt and uncle that lived on our family homestead. Besides my aunt and uncle there were 7 kids one girl, and six boys.

Now me and the two oldest boys went out to the wood shed to get some stove wood. My two cousins who were just a little younger than I were showing me how to cut kindling. It resulted in Kermit loosing about half his little finger.

When that hunk of finger hit the ground a chicken picked it up and it disappeared in a heartbeat. Nobody thought it was unusual. It is just what happens on a farm. BTW my cousin got a new name that day, since then all he has been called is stub.

Yep, chickens eat meat.

 

[The Real Hawkeye]

When I was maybe 9 or 10 years old our family was up visiting my aunt and uncle that lived on our family homestead. Besides my aunt and uncle there were 7 kids one girl, and six boys.

Now me and the two oldest boys went out to the wood shed to get some stove wood. My two cousins who were just a little younger than I were showing me how to cut kindling. It resulted in Kermit loosing about half his little finger.

When that hunk of finger hit the ground a chicken picked it up and it disappeared in a heartbeat. Nobody thought it was unusual. It is just what happens on a farm. BTW my cousin got a new name that day, since then all he has been called is stub.

Yep, chickens eat meat.

LOL. Reminds me of when one of my chickens finds a vole. She'll grab it and run, with all the other hens close behind, and she'll be too busy trying to get away from the others to ever really get a chance to eat it. Often it will change possession a few times too, before enough of them get tired of the chase and let one of them escape to eat in peace.

 

[Salty RI]

Looks like it's time to get a cat.

 

[kozmic]

I got rid of a few rat snakes two weeks ago. I sold 3 albino Everglades Rat Snakes that we hatched out this fall for my son while he's away at school.

 

[sipowicz]

It's all God's fault...if he had put a rat in the Garden of Eden instead of a snake, we'd all feel differently about them.

 

[shouldazagged]

Damn shame about the snake. They're beautiful and useful, contributing importantly to the fact that we aren't up to our glutes in rodents.

 

[shouldazagged]

It's all God's fault...if he had put a rat in the Garden of Eden instead of a snake, we'd all feel differently about them.

I think there's a lot of truth to that.

 

[LVSteve]

Good dog!

The only good snake is a dead snake.

I would be totally creeped out by a snake living in/around/under my house.

...aaaaaannndd, we're off!!!

 

[Calaveras Slim]

Aug. 2013, I took my wife to Vegas for a week for my birthday. Your wondering what my gift was? She was happy and that me happy.

Anyway, when we got home she hit the bathroom and let out a scream, came running and saying there was a 5 in. snake in the bathroom. That part was true, it was in the bathroom but it was about 5 ft.

Black chicken snake.

I got it out of the house and we have not seen a mouse or rat since.

 

[arjay]

When my wife and I separated,she continued to live in the house for the 1 1/2 years it took to sell.One morning I heard from my son."Mom called me and said there are three bull snakes in the basement" I may have giggled [emoji56]

 

[Ranger514]

We have a female yellow lab mix that is a pound rescue. Last Fall, we had an unusually long Indian Summer. One weekend, our girl was carrying her Jolly Ball just outside the fenced area of the yard, when she dropped it and started barking rapidly. The hair on her back stood up, and she kept her face close to the ground, barking excitedly. I figured it might be a snake, and after my wife got the dog inside, I went out with my Ruger Single Six .22LR. I did some slow walking in the tall grass before I finally found it. At first, I thought it was a rattlesnake, since it was coiling and posturing like it was ready to strike. I hate rattlesnakes. I blasted it in the head, and then found I'd shot a 4-foot Bull Snake. Wish I'd spent a little more time trying to identify it before I dropped the hammer. My wife is deathly afraid of snakes, so it didn't bother her that I'd killed it. I guess it could be considered a threat to our cats, but I felt bad.

 

[arjay]

I was bushwhacking through some tall grass in the foothills last spring when I tripped across a very fat 5' bull snake.I may have lost a few minutes off of the end of my life looking for the rattle [emoji33]He was on top of a ground squirrel mound, digesting 3 or 4 of em.

 

[brucev]

Being perturbed at your dog killing that snake is understandable. The truth is that such non-poisonous snakes are extremely useful for keeping rodents at bay outside the house and around storage buildings, etc. Also understandable is your not wanting to rain on your dog's parade after it found the backbone to deal with what it saw as a problem.

Once upon a time I generally killed on sight any and all snakes of any kind that I stumbled upon. After maybe 45 years of this sort of things, I don't now what happened, but I started letting 'em go. I still without compunction kill any poisonous snake I find in close proximity to the house. But, if I'm out and about in the woods and field when I blunder up on a snake I let it go, even the ones that are poisonous.

However, honesty compels me to admit that when I blunder up on a snake that startles me unexpectedly, I generally always blast away. In consequence a few innocent snakes have paid the price of such occasional thoughtlessness. Happily most have been free to go on about their business. Early this spring I was out playing golf and, while looking for my golf ball, I found a pretty little copperhead. It was maybe two foot long... and it was stunningly bright in color. I suppose it had just shed it's skin. I took a few pictures but my wife insisted I delete them from the phone. Guess she's just not into snakes on the phone. I suppose she wouldn't like a movie I saw advertised... Snakes on a Plane." Oh well!

 

[rwsmith]

My wife ran in.....

She was yelling,"There's a snake in the garage!" I went to the rescue thinking, "Oh, it's probably a little garter snake or something.' When I saw the thing I almost fainted. HUGE snake that looked poisonous. It didn't like me being there so it went out the dog door and went....and went....and went, the thing looked like a sea serpent going out the door. I cornered it in the yard and told my wife to get the snake book, and the gun. In that amount of time the snake took off through the grass. I got just enough of a look to see it was just a red-bellied water snake. They aren't poisonous, but they ain't friendly either. Thank goodness he'd had enough and didn't come back.

 

[RedNeck Jim]

I got six 2 day old chickens this year and this has been my first experience with raising them. What a blast! They are fun to watch, very friendly & each gives about 6 eggs a week. Even with the shorter days, I'm still getting about 4-5 of the best eggs imaginable every day. And yes, there is not much they wont eat but mine think raisins are like crack cocaine... they go crazy over them.

 

[DeadAye]

Ya can't much blame the chickens....
Rat snake tastes quite a bit like mouse - Yuck!