Wild black snake in house

[Hexel]

I found a newly shed snake skin in my basement. I live in a small old remodeled farmhouse not the tightest house. My inside doors have enough Gap under them for a snake to skinny through. I have a towel stuffed under the basement door for now. Hoping the snake left or is still in the basement. I'm working on finding out how they get in. This is the 2nd one I know of. I have an inherited Amazon I love. I'm afraid if the snake makes it upstairs he might eat my Amazon. Just ordered a snake trap for the basement. Going to buy hardware cloth to try to snake proof my bird cage.
Any suggestions for keeping my bird safe from snakes? Are their snake proof cages to be bought? Will an Amazon kill a 4 to 5 foot black snake before the snake gets it? Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[SailBoat]

I found a newly shed snake skin in my basement. I live in a small old remodeled farmhouse not the tightest house. My inside doors have enough Gap under them for a snake to skinny through. I have a towel stuffed under the basement door for now. Hoping the snake left or is still in the basement. I'm working on finding out how they get in. This is the 2nd one I know of. I have an inherited Amazon I love. I'm afraid if the snake makes it upstairs he might eat my Amazon. Just ordered a snake trap for the basement. Going to buy hardware cloth to try to snake proof my bird cage.
Any suggestions for keeping my bird safe from snakes? Are their snake proof cages to be bought? Will an Amazon kill a 4 to 5 foot black snake before the snake gets it? Thanks for your thoughts.

Since you did not provide even a general region in which you are located, one can only guess at what 'black snake' you are talking about. So, is this a Black Rat Snake? or what. That snake can kill your Amazon!

If you have doors and other openings that will allow a 4 to 5' snake into your home. My guess is that you also have an active mouse /rat problem, which would interest the snakes.

So, is this your home or is this something you are renting?

If you are renting, contact the Landlord and request they take care of the problem with not only the snake(s) but the many 'things' that they are feeding on! ASAP. Laws vary depending on location, so you may have to go though an agency to assure action.

If it is your home. You need some serious work done to assure your peace and safety and also that of your Amazon! Contact a Critter Control Group to get the snakes and other stuff out and have a good contractor to complete the work needed to have a safe home!

Hardware cloth is a very short term problem solver! You need to do this the right way and that is eliminating access for all of them!!!

 

[Ladyhawk]

Depending on where you live, it could be a black racer, some kind of rat snake or an indigo snake. Any constrictor over four feet long might be able to kill an Amazon. If we're talking that size, it probably couldn't eat your bird, but that is little consolation if your bird ends up on the losing end of a battle. There's a chance the Amazon would put up a valiant fight and kill the snake, but I would do what I could to prevent that from happening. Constrictors are incredibly strong. Even being wrapped in coils for a couple of minutes could damage your bird's internal organs.

Get in touch with a wildlife relocation group. There are lots of good catch-and-release traps for snakes. I've made a few myself. Snakes prefer to crawl along walls and stay hidden from sight. If there's a warm area in the basement, I'd look there first. If you're desperate, you could get some glue traps and put them along walls in the basement. If you do this, make sure you know how to get the snakes free and release them unharmed. Dying in a glue trap is a horrible way to go. I have never used glue traps because they seem cruel, but if my Amazon's life was on the line...yeah, I'd do it. So, I don't know much about glue traps except I'd only use them in an emergency.

 

[itzjbean]

I'd take the bird out and burn the house down!!!

LOL, kidding, but seriously I would freak! Great advice given already...good luck!

 

[Ladyhawk]

I'd take the bird out and burn the house down!!!

LOL, kidding, but seriously I would freak! Great advice given already...good luck!

That's too bad. I actually love snakes. I kept some for awhile, but they were all too small to harm my 530-550 gram monster. Just a short while before I got Kizzy, I had a remarkable encounter with a rattlesnake during my usual walk. (I can't wait to return to that trail with Kizzy in the Pak-o-Bird I just ordered.)

If you hate snakes, maybe you won't want to watch, but I really enjoyed spending time with this rattlesnake. When snakes become pests, I'm for catch-and-release if it's at all possible.

[ame="https://youtu.be/zlettiWbCFs"]Ladyhawk Tracks a Rattlesnake (Mild Swearing) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[SailBoat]

Solve (eliminate) the reason and access that are gathering the snakes and you will stop having issues with snakes. If getting in is difficult and there is nothing to eat, why waste the time?

 

[wrench13]

If you're judging the length of the snake by the stretched out and measured skin, you'd be off by quite a bit. 4 to 5 foot skin is likely a
2 -1/ 2 to 3-1/2 ' snake, still big enough to be concerned about. I would concentrate on removing the food source, mice, rather then trying to hermetically seal the birds room (s). Every skull bone is double jointed allowing snakes to squeeze thru some amazingly narrow spaces. If you get rid of the mice, most likely they will move on. They tend to want to feed on what they are used to; most bird eating snakes are arboreal (live in trees), and not living in basements and have evolved longer teeth in the front of their jaws to get past the feathers. So it's unlikely your visitor will seek out and try to kill your parrot. But I would take the advice and precautions suggested above. I saw a small boa constrictor eat and vomit up a Cockatoo that was way, way too big for it. Good luck !

 

[Kentuckienne]

Snakes can also come up from the sewer line and appear in the toilet, swear to god. But probably yours came in under the door or through an opening in the basement wall. Sometimes there is a gap along the sill plate. They like warm things...you might be able to attract it with a light bulb near the floor which would be easier than searching for it.

 

[Scott]

Unfortunately, snakes scare the crap out of me! I'd seek professional advice and implore them to use humane methods to remove and release. Seems snake-proofing is very similar to eliminating entry for rodents - both can squeeze into small spaces.

If snakes are plentiful in your area, I'd focus on snake-proofing the home and possibly the cage. Ideal bar-spacing for an Amazon will allow entry into the cage of many snakes. Might be possible to obtain a cage with either narrow spacing or line with a sturdy mesh?

 

[sonja]

Hexel - I hope you come back and fill in the questions people have - mostly, where are you located? There are many people, myself included, who will come and relocate snakes from houses and yards where people don't want them.

What kind of snake trap did you get? Please don't use glue boards - they are incredibly cruel to whatever critter gets stuck on them.

And I second the info from Wench about the size of the snake - if you are measuring the shed at 4-5 feet, the snake is quite a bit smaller than that. While I certainly think it's worth taking measures to remove and prevent further snake visits, I also don't think there is any reason to panic. And, if the snake did happen to enter the bird's room, the bird will likely put up quite a loud fuss, so you would be alerted to go see what's wrong.

 

[Birdman666]

An amazon is also powerful enough to do some serious harm to a snake. Unless it's a really big snake I'm not sure they'd (a) come out in an area where human traffic is frequent, or (b) mess with a bird with that kind of bite pressure.

THEY DON'T GENERALLY COME ACROSS LARGE PARROTS IN NORTH AMERICA. They generally go for easier prey... smaller birds and rodents.