Snake cognitive ability and affection.

Yeah, I imagine any combination of freezing or overly jerky movements could potentially make them think of either food or a predator.

I don't think any formal study was ever done on it, but there was a big news article a couple years back about a boa constrictor that was a seizure service animal. The owner would wear him around and carry a portable kennel with him, and the snake would apparently slightly constrict when he was about to have a seizure, and give him just enough warning to plop the snake in the kennel and get into a safe position. I'd love to know what exactly it was picking up on.

Those Christmas pics are cute. I think everyone has to have a special photo of their snakes that's their favorite. Mine is one of my garters periscoping and looking directly at the camera; it makes him look really contemplative unless you know that he's completely blind and had been doing that in the pitch dark at 4am right before I snapped the picture lol.

That is so cool, I have never heard of a service snake. I have actually been joking recently that Shesha should be certified as a service snake, just due to what he does for my state of mind and clarity. I mean, there is more truth to it than people realize but I had no idea that had ever been done. It definitely would be fascinating to see some research done on how that was possible, maybe it was slight changes in muscle tension or vibration of some kind. They are highly adapted to do what they do after all. Think of people who lose a sense like hearing or sight and wind up with extremely heightened senses in other areas. Imagine having to sense so much of your world by physical contact and it is easy to imagine that they would be experts in detecting things we could never imagine.

I have a ton of pictures of him that I love, but then there are those select few that I feel give others a glimpse of what I see in him. In some he just looks like another snake, but there are definitely few that I think show how special he is. That is hilarious that your garter looks so alert despite being blind. Maybe he was perceiving something, just not anything visual. Plus, periscoping is about the cutest thing they do. I have yet to catch Shesha doing it, usually is it just excessively close shots of his heat pits as he tries to slither onto the camera. For some reason to him picture time just means he gets a fun new ledge to explore. I have more shots of his nose and the belly than I would like to admit. I always spend too long trying to get the perfect shot and up he goes.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...pslqwkd0xf.jpg

Just another couple tree shots I got, both are cute but the mouse one really cracked me up, just the irony I guess.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...psf3bo4ydj.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps39e37e86.jpg

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Originally Posted by kiiarah

I think this is a really interesting question because my little guy has surprised me at every turn with his attitude and personality. I got him expecting what everyone says to expect, an animal that would only tolerate handling and would likely be skittish and/or nippy at times. It has been nearly a year and he remains exceedingly tolerant, friendly, and curious. He has made a habit of stretching out towards my nose when we are sitting together, he likes to rest his chin on me and for all the world seems to be looking for attention at times. I will make a full disclaimer here and state that I realize that it is easy to read too much into their behavior, but there have been a few instances in particular where he really does seem to be eager for interaction.

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My snake will do that too; when I hold him in front of my face he'll stretch forward and sometimes touch my nose with his tongue.

There is something going on that might be less than what we call emotion or affection, but is certainly more than mere instinct.

Also, agree with DVirginiana about giving the snake positive or neutral reinforcement. When I have him out and it's obvious he's had enough handling, instead of tossing him back in the cage I hold him in front of the open door and let him 'decide' when he's ready to go back in. Sometimes he'll go up on top of the cage and I'll let him stay up there for a while to check things out.
He's never gone from the top back into the cage on his own, but I'm hoping he'll do that some day.

http://i57.tinypic.com/2ah9k45.jpg

At a nursing home I used to volunteer at they had this guy who had all sorts of exotics including a couple medium sized snakes that he would bring by, and that was the most alert I've ever seen some of the residents. You'd think people who had never held a snake before and grew up in a time when it was really not normal to keep snakes as pets would be frightened, but most of them wanted to hold the snakes and iguana and just really perked up. I think part of that is due to the snake not really needing anything from you; with a dog and most cats you feel pressured to interact in an appropriate way, but with a snake you can just exist alongside them without any of that, and for someone who has lost most of their ability to communicate I can see that being really soothing.

Speaking of them sensing things we can't really imagine, that makes me think of an article from the neuroscientist David Eagleman about the 'Umwelt'. It's a German term that basically means the entirety of a being's experience. The article talked about how the human mind can't comprehend another species' umwelt because we have either lost or never attained regions of the brain that are integral to their experience of the world. I think it applies more and more the further removed an animal is from humans in terms of sensory perception. Really interesting read though.

lol, I like the 'Jurassic Snake' picture.

Interesting topic indeed.
I believe as well that they can feel some sense of bond or passion to their owners, but maybe that's dependent of the snake. My first rescue, Ryuu, was in a terrible home. She is(I haven't had her for very long so she still is) a little but over three years old. Her previous owners said she escaped her enclosure- from the pic looked like a storage bin with just some driftwood- didn't see anything that contained water, and I was told that she was missing for bout two weeks and they found her under their drier. PLUS they don't even remember the last time she was feed! When I got her, she had(still has but is healing nicely) a like dent in her hear, and all down her neck especially, and some parts on her back was all scratched up and missing some scales(although, i think i am making this seem worse than she was. It was just a patch on her neck and a few scales here and there on her back that were missing). And she was also so cold, so i held her on the way home to give her warmth. So, she gets in her new enclosure, eats immediately(she was just about a quarter and a half round). Anyway, it's been bout a month now, and I believe she shows more affection than my other BP, Whenever i have her out, she doesn't grip too hard on my neck(which i know not all do this. I've held a friends and he didn't ever grip around my neck, but my other bp sometimes grips too hard) and as i have been told, she plays when she is with me. My mother, and other people have held her before, and she doesn't do much, or tries to slither away(i know they know people by scent and smell). My mother hands her over to me and immediately, Ryuu starts crawling up my face and like its kind of like a peck, sometimes she'll rub her head on mine, and she loves to slither up onto my head or hat, only a few times after quite a while holding her, she starts to "go exploring" is what I call it.
As I typed this, i guess it's hard to explain why I feel some are capable of having some form of bonds or passion.. I guess it's rather not easy to explain, it's just i get this intuition that she likes me more than my other BP- which likes to roam if i have him out of his cage.