Question about ball pythons eyesight

I have noticed that my Ball Pythons sometimes get worked up over the aroma of the rodents that I bring into my snake room...they will lash out at nothing in their apparent eagerness...they get all wound up....needless to say I am quite careful in approaching them and removing the lids to their enclosure - they are prone to going after anything ( namely ME ) that has a heat signature I think.
EyeLashViper

Mine too seem to perk up when the aroma of rat is in the air. Not to the point of striking out at me or the cage, but i can definitely see a difference in their behavior. Smell plays a gigantic part in their perception of the world.

Heat, smell, nocturnal sight. A helluva lot of variables on peoples personal experience. Doesn't anyone know for sure the exact hunting nature of our favorite snakes?! :mrgreen:

My bp seems to prefer nocturnal sight I've noticed. Whenever I turn on my computer at night, he always comes out and rests on a branch watching for hours on end.

I'm still baffled though. =)

They use heat-sensing pits, taste/smell and yes eyesight as well. THey are more of an ambush style predator as they are not really a high-speed pursuit snake. They ARE nocturnal snakes, but don't really have "nocturnal sight" hence the heavier reliance on taste/smell and the use of pits to zero in on a heat signature.

Here's some gobbledegook on eyesight easily googled up (info included on boa constrictor as well):

Quote:

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The visual pigments of B. constrictor are virtually identical to those of the pythonine boid, Python regius. Three different visual pigments are present, all based on vitamin A1. The visual pigment of the rods has a wavelength of peak absorbance (max) at 495 ± 2 nm. The visual pigment of the more common, large cone has a max at 549 ± 1 nm. The small, rare cone contains a visual pigment with max at 357 ± 2 nm, providing the snake with sensitivity in the ultraviolet. We suggest that B. constrictor might employ UV sensitivity to locate conspecifics and/or to improve hunting efficiency. The data indicate that wavelength discrimination above 430 nm would not be possible without some input from the rods.

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http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...09349/ABSTRACT