The cage also houses a two-meter-long (6.5-feet-long) boa constrictor, Caruthers said.
The police official said the snake owner discovered the python was missing when he woke up.
"He went straight to the infant's room, a two-year-old girl, and in the crib was this python wrapped around this poor little girl," Caruthers said.
"He took a knife and stabbed and stabbed and was able to take the girl away," the officer said, adding that the snake was still alive when police arrived on the scene, despite the injuries inflicted by the stabbing.
There were snake bite marks on the girl's head and arms, Caruthers said.
"To a reptile, that was food," he said of the infant.
Burmese pythons usually eat their prey alive.
A spokesman for the sheriff's office said the snake enclosure was not properly covered and that the owner did not have the permit required to keep snakes at home.
The investigation could yield a negligence charge, he added.
Around a dozen people in the United States, including five children, have been killed by pet pythons since 1980, according to animal protection organization The Humane Society.
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