“I just went to pick up a hat and I saw it there,” she said.

“It freaked me out, it was only a baby, but it freaked me out.

“I put a sausage dog against the door and I went out.”

Mrs Edmondston called Orange snake catcher Jake Hansen who went out to her Cadia Road property and caught the copperhead in the bedroom.

She said she also saw a large copperhead near her tank two months ago.

Mrs Edmondston said Mr Hansen did not believe the mother or other babies would still be nearby.

“He thinks it’s a one-off, thank God.

“It probably just got in under the door.

“It did give me the willies.”

Mr Hansen, of Orange Snake Service, said it was the start of the copperhead birthing season around Orange.

He said the baby snake was probably about a week old, but its venom was already harmful.

“It is just harder for them to deliver it,” he said.

“Copperheads are quite widespread throughout the Orange region.

“[They] are an alpine species.

“You only find them in the cold places with a high altitude.”

Mr Hansen said copperheads were not born in a nest.

“Copperheads are born live,” he said.

“The snake mother just [delivers] and goes.”

He said it was likely the baby found in the house was alone.

However, he warned there would be plenty more around Orange in the next few months as the birth season developed.

“I’ll still be catching copperheads until winter,” Mr Hansen said.