how do you know if your snake is happy,or if she/he enjoys being held? :lol: :shock: , have any of you tamed your ball python, because i heard you can! dont any of you wonder if just because it not a dog,cat, or ferret, if your snake still knows your or enjoys being in his enclosure :roll: if any of you know anything let me know! thank you!!! Trina C
Babybub just recently made a comment on this. Snakes don't really feel emotions as we do, but I think they may like being handled to a certain extent. They don't really get 'attatched' to a person. They may just like the warmth of our hands or getting to explore a bit. As far as taming. Taming has a different meaning, then teaching tricks and such. In the herp world it pretty much means, not biting our hissing. Getting used to human is considered 'tame'. So taming just comes with time.
I also think it depends on the snake to a certain extent. I have a female that is very curious and out a lot. She has plenty of hides and her temps are ok so it just seems to be her. My male, on the otherhand, is very antisocial and would much rather be curled up in one of his caves until the lights are out and nobody's home lol.
Right, the individual personality plays a big role in sociality with humans. But the snakes will never 'love' humans. To tell you the truth, snakes aren't very smart. They don't feel many true emotions. To them it's just good, bad. If they are nice and warm in a cozy little hide, then they probobly feel good. If they are with another snake, competing for a nice spot, while hungry, it is probobly not in the best of moods. But I don't think they feel things as much as a person would.
Thanxz cornyguy....im glad to see someone else agrees with my theory.... as much as we humans would like to think that our animals love us in the same way we love them, its just instinct. If they know its safe no reason to run...
Dont ever forget that these are wild animals. They may be the sweetest most docile animals for ten years, but the day you let your guard down is the day they will prove to you that they are not domesticated.
i agree... snakes are "smart" in an instinctual way, but by no means are they smart in an emotional or intillectual way. a "tame" snake is used to your scent, used to your handling, used to it's surroundings, comfortable with you... but not tame in the way a dog or cat is. they're not thinking "this is my owner, i love him", but they are instictually understanding that when they are handled in the way they are used to, by the person (with the scent) they used to, they are safe.
Right, Diablo. But I don't think they even think they know we are their owners. We are just people who they know, won't hurt them. They are, as shrap stated, wild animals. They don't know the meaning of 'owner' or 'pet'.
yeah, that's what i was saying... they don't know "pet" and "owner" but they know familiarity and safety.
guys im sorry, but i disagree, god made all animals with feelings and emotion, so i can prove it,like all animals some ball pythons, love their eggs and take care of them, and then others reject them, and then sometimes they stay with mom a few days after birth even, same to rattlers, dimond backs give birth and stay with their babies for 3-7 days, or somet kind of other rattler, but i just asked because i dont want my snake bieng deppressed, so basically saying snakes dont care if they have big enclosurs, small enclosures, they dont feel happy, sad , mad glad, or anything, like my snake talks to me, she hisses when she doesnt want to be held,is there any one els who agrees with me, thats good advise, but theres got to be more to a snake than breeding and eating! dont you think
oh ya and , they sence fear, and they scence emotio, so hears a story, i heard on the animal planet, there was this guy hand he was feeding bermeeze and ball pythons, so he was cleening the enclosure and his back was turned from the bermeeze and he just stopoed and planced to make sure the snake remained there, a second later, he was attacked and died, but cpr brought him back!, it was that one time! if your scared theyll get scared back, if you trust them, dont you think theyll trust you back????
Ok first, the reason some mother care for their eggs is to ensure that their genes continue on. There is really no true altruism in nature. Its always for a calculated result. Its ultimate cause- the idea that their genes must pass on. Yet, neither of us is wrong or right. We cant be sure. Since our ideas about "relationships" and "connections" between others is different than animals, and since we cant communicate directly, then we will never be completely sure.
Im not saying that they dont care how they live. However, our definition, once again, is different then theirs. W eare thinking only on a 3 dimentional level here. Taking our words and trying to fit them into someone elses world. Everything has a right to be respected and cared for. A certain standard of living. And that story is probably one of a few, but that doesnt discourage most of us here in the forum. We are here for the welfare of our babies. We want to make sure that we can care for them and offer the best living conditions available to us. And like Sharp said before, these animals are wild. Running purely on instinct they do things to ensure they are safe. They smell the fear on someone, but even if you dont fear them that isnt a garuntee to not getting bitten. Trusting them probably wouldnt be the best option, but instead trusting yourself to recognize the signs of annoyance and being quick enough to dodge a strike. So be careful when you are with your baby. Although you think she may be tamed or comfortable, something may happen and you can be turned on. Its not only with reptiles that you have to be careful though. This goes for any type of animal. All of them are wild and must be respected. They have minds of their own, but dont work in the same ways that ours do...
sensing fear and anxiety is instictual. caring for young is instinctual. there is zero emotion involved for them. snakes simply don't have the physiological capacity to feel emotion. and, i'm sorry but the fact that some snakes reject their eggs doesn't "prove" anything. it's just a random act of nature or an instinctual reaction to something about the eggs that we are unaware of. as far as enclosures or whatever, it's just nature. an enclosure too large can make a snake timid because all the open space takes away the natural feeling of safety. an enclosure that is too small will make a snake seem "unhappy" because they don't have the space the need to move around. different species of fish also require different tank sizes and some fish need plants to hide in while others just need open space. would you argue that fish have emotions as well? of course they don't, it's just nature and instinct. an example of this instict is the fact that a fiesty croc will calm down if it's eyes are covered. this isn't because it is suddenly happy to have a steve irwin sitting on it, it is because their instinct tells them that a dark place feels safer. i think you are projecting human emotion on an animal that has no physiological ability to have such feelings. their brains are not nearly complex enough to feel such things as emotions. some snakes do different things or spend more time in one position or another and it makes it seem as if they "like" it better, and in some sense the do. but it is not an emotional sense. you can't translate it into human terms.
I have to agree that snakes don't feel emotion. No offense but if you were to go away and have someone else care for your BP, I doubt they would even notice you were gone and if they did, I doubt they'd care. They live to eat, poop, procreate and in the case of mine, drive me crazy lol. If a female rejects eggs, it's probably more that she sensed something was wrong with them.
Well....i think they would notice you were gone...mine doesnt like to be taken out of his home by anyone else...he will strike....but he doesnt mind being handled by anyone if I take him out...i dont know why this is, but i do know that they can recognize you.....but no i dont think they feel the same way we do......
this is rediculous, I agree with babybub, reptiles4me, and cornyguy that snakes are a relatively smart reptile and they can sense the difference between things. But the day you start treating your snake like a dog and trusting your snake like a dog, is the day it's going to attack you. Trina, your story about the burmese attacking the zookeeper or whatever. These snakes can tell when you are watching them and when you aren't, the snake was probably uncomfortable and when they guy wasn't looking, she decided to do something about it. You can only trust a snake so much. Especially one with power, that's just ignorant and stupid. For example, if your dog gets out, and you are close with your dog. Chances are that the dog comes back. You can handle a snake everyday for years and if they get a chance to get out, they will and they won't come back. The small chance that they would come out of hiding or reappear is because they might be in search of heat or water. They could care less if we are involved in their lives or not. Probably, they would prefer not to be at all. The ones that like you to take them out is because they don't like being trapped in a cage and when you take them out, they get to explore and move around. Also, they probably like our body heat, but not us... honestly, it would be pretty nice if reptiles could return emotion to us, but eventually you're going to have to accept that they just can't...
Re: RE: is my snake happy? what about me, lol?!? anyway, i have a feeling that no matter how much we explain it to her she will never accept it. i guess some people just can't accept that their beloved pet does not, will not, and cannot, return their affection. she also made the comment that "god" made all animals with feeling or something like that, so maybe it's a religious thing for her, who knows (btw, i wonder if that means earthworms and mosquitos have feelings too). whatever the reason, she's not gonna change her mind and hopefully she doesn't get herself tagged because she ignores the fact that it is a wild animal and trusts that her snake loves her no matter what.
RE: Re: RE: is my snake happy? I dont know what you're all on about..the Col and I hang out regularly, throw some frisbee at the beach, smoke some cigars over a glass of scotch, chat some philosophy etc He loves me, he said so. .....but then that was after some scotch......
