Venomous snakes and tortoises

[Megatron's Mom]

Ok so to start all tortoises are safe and bite free.

My daughter brought up a good question. What do we do if for some reason a snake venomous gets into our yard and bites one of the tortoises?

/knocks on wood - We have been very lucky and have never seen any danger noodles. It could be because we have some pretty good size king snakes keeping them at bay. I hope it stays that way too.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

A tortoise is definitely not on a snakes menu and highly unlikely it would attempt to bite but rather just slither away from the super fast tortoise 😄 tortoises also have some pretty good armor so the snake would have to hit the perfect spot

 

[Yvonne G]

I think it has something to do with tortoises being cold blooded and snake seeing heat related prey. @Tom. has talked about this before.

 

[Megatron's Mom]

A tortoise is definitely not on a snakes menu and highly unlikely it would attempt to bite but rather just slither away from the super fast tortoise 😄 tortoises also have some pretty good armor so the snake would have to hit the perfect spot

Very good points. Thank you

 

[Megatron's Mom]

I think it has something to do with tortoises being cold blooded and snake seeing heat related prey. @Tom. has talked about this before.

I don't know why I didn't think of that. My daughter has snakes and when she thaws mice or rats for them she also has to heat them up in hot water.

Thank you

 

[Tom]

Ok so to start all tortoises are safe and bite free.

My daughter brought up a good question. What do we do if for some reason a snake venomous gets into our yard and bites one of the tortoises?

/knocks on wood - We have been very lucky and have never seen any danger noodles. It could be because we have some pretty good size king snakes keeping them at bay. I hope it stays that way too.

I don't think anyone knows how the venom from all the various native snakes near you would interact with a foreign tortoise species. What I do know is that snakes don't bite tortoises. In Florida the rattlesnakes live in the burrows of the gopher tortoises with the tortoises. At my ranch I have tortoise pens all over the place. I catch two or three rattlesnakes a year on my place, and another dozen or so at neighbor's ranches. None of my tortoises have ever been bit. I'm not going to say it is impossible, but I will say its improbable. If it happens, it doesn't happen very often. I've never heard of a single case of it.

All the reasons have been pointed out. Everything previous posters listed are valid points.

My best guess is that if a venomous snake did bite your tortoise, and somehow managed to get past the armor and inject venom into the tortoise, then the tortoise would likely die. I hope none of us ever has to find out.

 

[Megatron's Mom]

I don't think anyone knows how the venom from all the various native snakes near you would interact with a foreign tortoise species. What I do know is that snakes don't bite tortoises. In Florida the rattlesnakes live in the burrows of the gopher tortoises with the tortoises. At my ranch I have tortoise pens all over the place. I catch two or three rattlesnakes a year on my place, and another dozen or so at neighbor's ranches. None of my tortoises have ever been bit. I'm not going to say it is impossible, but I will say its improbable. If it happens, it doesn't happen very often. I've never heard of a single case of it.

All the reasons have been pointed out. Everything previous posters listed are valid points.

My best guess is that if a venomous snake did bite your tortoise, and somehow managed to get past the armor and inject venom into the tortoise, then the tortoise would likely die. I hope none of us ever has to find out.

Thank you, I'll keep my fingers crossed that I never find out too.

 

[Shelled]

I think it has something to do with tortoises being cold blooded and snake seeing heat related prey. @Tom. has talked about this before.

Plenty of snakes eat other snakes or lizards, but I've never heard of a snake eating a tortoise or turtle. It might happen, but it will be rare.

 

[SPILL]

The St. Louis zoo keeps box turtles with rattlers. They used to anyway, I haven't been for a few years.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I know Chris @HermanniChris keeps corn snakes (non-venomous) with spotted turtles, or at least kept: