Aussie Pythons and Snakes

Already_Gone · #1 09-Oct-03, 11:04 AM

Hey everyone...
I have a galah and live across from bushland and coming into summer the carpets are gonna start hangin around. Lately I have been gettin worried about a carpet eating her or something. She is in a normal cocky cage but the spaces in the wire are about 1 inch wide and a few inches long. Big enough for a decent sized carpet to get in anyway!!!!

I had a look in the paper and there is a fella down the road with one advertised. Gave him a call and the mesh is 1 inch square. Is this big enough for a python big enough to have a go at her to get through??? If one does get through, how big do you reckon???

Thanks
Liana

#2 09-Oct-03, 12:20 PM

i have had browns get in half by half inch eating my quail and young finches

Already_Gone · #3 09-Oct-03, 12:38 PM

So.. f@*k... im more worried about carpets though. We have never seen a brown aroud here... never even considered it though, but they will be here somewhere... and shes fat!!! i hope its ok... i will have a look... and see what I think... I could see what the mesh is like on it and how difficult it would be to swap it...

#4 09-Oct-03, 12:45 PM

I wouldnt be too worried. I have heaps of birds and I live well its a back fence than all paddocks and i have only had snakes get my mice quail or finches in the nest i think you should be right if your real woried could u move it inside or just with the wire make sure its heavy so it can't chew out

Already_Gone · #5 09-Oct-03, 01:06 PM

I'm sure a decent snakey wouldn't knock back a feed of a smart a@*e galah if it was given the opportunity... better be safe than sorry!!!

lutzd · #6 09-Oct-03, 01:08 PM

Hmmm.... could be a good way of catching snakes though. After it's eaten the unfortunate bird, it would be too big to get out of the cage again! :-)

saikrett · #7 09-Oct-03, 02:08 PM

i had a yabby do thart once, it climbed inside the filter, ate all the crap inside, grew about 2cm and couldn't get back out.

#8 09-Oct-03, 02:14 PM

i ate a heap of yabbys once and then i grew

Already_Gone · #9 09-Oct-03, 02:37 PM

I'm not sacrificing RB for a snake... I would rather buy one and have both

sarahbell · #10 09-Oct-03, 04:29 PM

as bren already suggested if you are that worried take it inside, but really you should have nothing to worrie about

Pinkie · #11 09-Oct-03, 05:58 PM

Last year we had a Rainbow lorikeet eaten by a Diamond python in our flight aviary so I can understand your concerns. You could try and use the smallest possible sized mesh, like 1cm squared, or you could use a type of shadecloth. Galahs are fairly big birds so it would take a relatively big snake to have a go at him.
If you are really concerned, you could bring the Galah inside at night times?

Brodie · #12 09-Oct-03, 08:42 PM

At the wildlife park we get calls to come and pick up snakes from the aviary section all the time..... dont know if they have actually eaten anythng as yet though........

Already_Gone · #13 09-Oct-03, 08:44 PM

Yeah... It's probably paranoia, but better be safe than sorry. I would bring her inside but our landlords have already told us that if we have her inside we will have to move out!!! My friend has a small budgie avairy so I am gonna hit him up for that!! I looked at the other one today and the mesh was more like 1.5 inch... more than enough for a carpet to get in so I gave it a swerve!!
Thanks

morpheus21 · #14 09-Oct-03, 09:48 PM

Hi,
we had one of our galahs eaten by a coastal carpet last year. It was incredibly surprising as we have never seen a carpet python during the 18 years we have been here and also the snake wasnt as big as what i thought it would have to be. We think it happened in the morining at about 8am as we heard the galahs making a terrible noise but thought nothing of it, I even walked past the cage without noticing the python. I guess it was around 2.5m to 3m long but was nice and slender expcept for a large bulge in it's stomach! A few weeks later on the night of my 18th birthday there was a carpet python trying to get into one of our cat pens to get to the kittens. It was smaller about 2m and was quite placid unlike the first which was quite snappy which is understandable as it had just eaten. These two instances where what finally led me to getting my license as I have always been fascinated by snakes and finally seeing two up close like this made me just want to have some of my own. We released both of them in a state forest where they should hoepfully still be safe, when we released the second one it pissed and crapped on me when I was holding it for a photo!

Fuscus · #15 09-Oct-03, 10:43 PM

Birds in cages attract snakes. Most people see their first common tree snake at the bottom of their now ex-budgie cage and a medium sized carpet python could easily tackle a galah. Have a look at this photo here http://150.101.58.70/showimage.php?i..._Python_05.jpg . The photo was taken at Green Mountains, the snake was only about 1.2 meters and its meal was about the size of a very large cat. Hopefully it was a very large cat. (NOTE : The web site is still unfinished and the server is a bit slow so please don't complain too much.)
And if you do keep a galah (and they are great pets) don't keep it in a cocky cage, I think they should be banned and you may give the bird psycological problems (eg. feather plucking). I kept one for years in a large pine packing case with 1/2 inch wire. We were careful to ensure that the bird always had green gum branches (prefably with leaves and gum nuts) to chew on and he never vandalized the packing case. Oh, and keep the bird away from Gin and Tonic, they forget how to fly, get nasty and attack the dogs.

I'll get off my soap box now.