Socialization Vs. Learned Helplessness?

so a kinda odd question, when looking into animal psychology there's a behavior called "learned helplessness"- basically when an animal dislikes something, but it realizes that there's no way out of it, so it puts up with it. but when looking up how to socialize snakes and have them be ok with being handled, the advice seems to be "handle them every day and don't reward bad behavior by putting them back". enrichment seems to focus on giving a captive animal choices, and thus some control over its environment and itself- studies on humans show that giving people control over their environment can improve health, longevity in the elderly, and mental disorders like depression, while learned helplessness- or a complete lack of control over an environment- can cause anxiety and depression in horses and rats. granted, i don't know if snakes are complex enough to experience learned helplessness, but the question is- is there a way to socialize snakes using positive reinforcement, or do we just have to handle them however often despite them not liking it at first and hope that it's not a factor?

I'm not entirely sure snakes are developed enough in that way to learn in the same way that mammals do, but they certainly can learn that striking will get them left alone if the owner/keeper allows that by backing away. I'm not sure if call it a learned helplessness though because, in my experience anyway, my snakes are relaxed when taken out, and it always seems to be a positive experience. I would assume there would be stress involved with learned helplessness, though I've never read any studies on it or even looked into in any of my classes. That being said, I'm not sure if say snakes are technically "socialized" either. I think they just become accustomed to handling, which isn't technically the same thing. Granted we haven't exactly defined out terms here... That's just my take on it


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Snakes just relate events to events, so when they strike at the keeper and the keeper backs off, the snake begins to relate striking with being left alone. That, and naturally that is a secondary defensive method, behind, obviously, balling up.

I haven't seen any evidence of ball pythons being nearly intelligent for positive reinforcement. That would require them to correlate events. Do snakes move when they are getting burned? or a rat is eating them alive? I would imagine pain would be something you would deal with if you could figure out what was causing it. Then even if they could, what would be seen as positive? An asf scented meat cube? Even their feeding habits are very primal, I don't see us being able to do something for them that gets their happy brain chemicals flowing. I also don't see them being able to correlate bad behavior anyways, so if you want to put your snake back after a bite, imo go ahead.

I don't even know if handling them a bunch is even necessary. I mean sure snakes with more interaction seem to handle better than ones that have less interaction as a general statement. However I do have snakes that their only interaction is cleaning cages and feeding time and they handle just as well as the ones I take out more. I find more that the older the snake is plays a bigger factor than the amount of handling. I just always assumed that was because the bigger they are the less threatened they feel. Besides that the other difference between my snakes would just be their personalities. I have snakes that hide all day and then I have snakes that pace the front of their cage begging for food, even if they ate the day before. The ones out and about tend to handle better.

I'm not saying handling them more often wouldn't make them handle better overall, but size and personality seem to be much bigger factor in my experience.

I'm all about environmental enrichment for herps by providing more complex enclosures that allow them to make choices, but I'm not really sure how to apply that to handling, or where positive reinforcement would come into it. How do you reward a snake? Treats aren't an option. I suppose our warmth is sort of a reward. Regular, gentle handling sessions, brief at first, may help the animal associate the experience with warmth and comfort instead of danger.

I don't really agree with "don't reward bad behavior by putting them back." I think that if you want handling to be a pleasant thing for the snake you need to know how to read them a little. I don't think it's helpful to force a panicky animal to endure stress for extended periods of time. Keep it brief and positive!

With snakes I don't think there's a way to use positive reinforcement like giving a dog a treat, but I do think that you can make handling meet one of their basic needs. Snakes do have the capability to associate two events; their responses might not always be logical (such as balling up when being attacked by a rat rather than killing it) but Hebbian Principle- the ability to form associations between two unconnected stimuli- can be observed in any animal, down to flatworms (in fact it was first successfully demonstrated in flatworms). I have one snake who went blind, and I managed to teach him how to eat in a different way using basic associations as he was losing his sight. Given, it's an extremely simple system; touch to the neck in a certain spot is food. But still, for an animal with such a limited brain capacity it's kind of impressive.

All animals will, at some point, display seeking behavior. In the wild this is when a snake would come out to actively search for a mate, food, or better living conditions. I think that, once the snake catches on that you're not a threat, they can begin to associate being handled with fulfilling that 'seeking' need. This is MUCH more pronounced in my garters, which have extremely fast metabolisms for snakes and therefore have a much higher seeking drive, than in my BP. In fact, it's almost nonexistant in my BP. She basically just finds a warm spot, hides her head in my hoodie, and chills when I take her out.

All that being said, I wouldn't say snakes ever really 'like' being handled. I think that most just tolerate it, and a few like some of my garters may even find it interesting since it allows them to explore, but IMO it's never going to be a 'positive' experience in the same way it is for dogs or rodents.

I used to have five garters that all had different behavioral characteristics. Two would voluntarily seek interaction -like climb into a hand to go fishing. Others stayed nervous. They all liked to be out and even when they escaped would not hide but spent the time cruising. The nervous ones never got less nervous. But then some people are just nervous too. Ball pythons too, some seem relaxed others tense but it is hard to figure out how to motivate them. I do believe that for active species, activity is a motivator and they can associated humans with pleasant activities. I handle ones that seem to get something out of it. Ones that prefer to be left alone I leave be except for occasional handling to keep them acclimated. I do think that snakes can learn simple things.

thank you all for your opinions!

i'm pretty sure snakes can form basic connections- there are PLENTY of reports of snakes handled less often snapping when their cage is opened just because they associate it with food. and though i've seen some keepers insist their snake "wants" out when it taps on its cage a certain way, that doesn't seem very objective... so i'm tempted to do a bit of an experiment. i'm thinking of suction cupping a small bell or rattly cat toy on a string to the wall of her tank, and jingling it a bit whenever i take her out, so she'll start to associate sound with being handled. eventually i'm hoping she'll start to mess with the jingler and, when she does, i'll take her out to be handled, too.

so the association chain is, sound=handling, snake can cause sound, snake will make sound when she wants to be handled. that or avoid the jingler completely. either way this'll either change nothing or i'll train a snake to "ask" to be let out, so i can't see much of any risks associated with it. thoughts?