Are boas the smartest snakes?

I have spent most of my time with ball pythons but i have had a chance to work with boas and i must say they really are growing on me. They seem more curious and intelligent than balls, to me at least and each one has a personality. anyone else notice this?
if not boas, what snakes do you think have the most personality?

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Originally Posted by djansen

I have spent most of my time with ball pythons but i have had a chance to work with boas and i must say they really are growing on me. They seem more curious and intelligent than balls, to me at least and each one has a personality. anyone else notice this?
if not boas, what snakes do you think have the most personality?

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I'd have to say a Retic is the smartest snake.. Just My opinion though...

i think retics have attitude/presonality just my opinion also kingsnakes are very cool

I've read in several places that King Cobras are the smartest snakes, however I think it's mostly subjective because I don't think we've been able to come up with an accurate method to determine the intelligence of snake other than observation. Other animals are quite a bit easier to determine their intelligence because you can test responses with food or other rewards, but obviously snakes don't respond the way most animals do.

I've heard Indigo snakes are pretty smart too....I read somewhere that one breeder actually potty trained his snake to go into a flower pot

Personally I think every snake is exactly as "smart" as nature designed it to be to perfectly fill it's niche. Boas may react differently than ball pythons because they evolved to fill a different role, they hunt in completely different manners, they live in different styles, they deal with their world from different perspectives. When humans interact with these snakes I think we simply "read" these differences through our own human filter. :)

I am of the mind that conventional testing for intelligence does not work for many snakes. Maybe ball pythons are extremely adept at one thing, while boas are better at something else. How are we to tell?

Can you gauge "smart" in different species... as stated they are all so different in nature. One of my big female BP's is much more "aware" and "curious" than the others.
I will say, that Sonja my Blood... is monster alert. She does not take her eyes off me. Kinda creepy! :oops: I catch myself talking to her a lot more than my others. "Now, I'm just changing your water bowl"... "Stop hissing, you'll get over having new substrate"...lol
I have never owned a retic, but they "look smart"... if you go bye the eye connection they make... :twisted: I'd love an albino tiger? maybe a white phase? one day... :rolleyes:

I just got an Albino Lavender Tiger Retic. And I gotta say sometimes I think he knows whats going on more than I do LOL!

They are very intelligent/different compared to other snakes I have kept.

But I don't believe we can gauge there intelligence.


Mike

I don't think it's smarts so much as sneaky! I have a 12' retic that will stay completely still in her enclosure for cleaning and such but as soon as you turn your back to her she is pushing at the door....then you look back at her and she looks at you and slowly lays her head back down......creepy(my little 13yr brother swears she's just waiting to eat him!):snake: