I think my snake loves me

So, ok, my snake may not love me in the sense that my cat would love me. But I think there is an understanding that he may have. He knows I don't want to hurt him; he doesn't try to escape when I handle him, he doesn't hiss or bite, and he curls up and falls asleep often when hes laying on my stomach or against my ribs. Maybe it's just conditioning and lots of time being handled, but he does't react aggressively towards people. Like I said, it may not be love or any special attachment, but I think that for an essentially wild animal he shows a lot of tolerance for human interaction. Besides, I adore him so I delude myself into thinking he feels the same. ;)

I found this intersting. IMO snakes dont feel love or anything like that. However I know for a fact that snakes tend to be "comfortable" around us. Its about building trust. Today for instance I went to go handle one of my balls. All I had to do was open the enclosure and he came right out, slithered up my stomach and into my arms. This has only happened 2 times before and I thought it was really something. Now this happened infront of my gf and she thought that the snake "loved" me. They feel physical pain and they operate strictly on instinct. We are the ones that feel affection for them but not vise versa.

Although I think snakes are definitely independent by nature, there's no way we will ever know they have emotions simply because they lack the muscle and tissue to express them, aside from biting and hissing, of course.
However, I definitely believe even the ball python will learn to recognize people.
For two weeks, my yearling ball didn't eat. I thought it was due to fasting. My second and smaller ball python wasn't as enthusiastic as she usually was either, didn't strike her food at all, and didn't eat until later in the day (or rather, the night) when the (dead)rat was just dumped in the terrarium. I've never had this happen before, however, during these two feedings, my sister and and my cat were in my room. The second week, my larger ball python seemed real interested too, and started off with her hungry python mode, although she failed to grab the rat, lost interest and went back to hiding. This week, I decided to focus on getting them to eat- alone. I don't have much to say, other than both of them became the aggressive eaters I know them to be. Time of day was irrelevant too, because during this third attempt, it was day-time and both pythons managed to, quite enthusiastically, successfully grab and eat the rats they were offered.
I'm quite confident in saying that most, if not all reptiles will at least learn to recognize and trust individual people.

Reptiles do seem to know who their main carer is and will usually head for them if given the option between a few people. My bf keeps boas and all of his ones go straight to him, even if I'm holding them, but the newer ones we got are happier being with me for longer but will still end up smelling him out and heading that way too. It's surprisingly hurtful to be rejected by snakes lol.

As much as I say "oh my snake loves me because [insert reason here]" I do know that they have limited brain capacity and the area of the brain capable of emotion isn't developed in them like in mammals/birds. But it is nice to feel wanted by your pets lol. I think it's just human nature to want to be loved by the lives we take care of on a daily basis.

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Originally Posted by pythonminion

there's no way we will ever know they have emotions simply because they lack the muscle and tissue to express them, aside from biting and hissing, of course.

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They actually lack the part of the brain that processes and deals with emotion. So that's a pretty good indicator that they are not emotional. They are rather primitive in which they are very instinctual simple creatures.


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I like to think my snake loves me but put it this way: he defiantly knows his Mommy (me), everyone tells me that. But that's him smelling.... but when he had a RI he knew who gave him his injections (not me- Brrr I hate needles!) and would try and avoid them if they came in the room when I was holding him etc... He defiantly remembers stuff and whether someone is good with snake/panics whatever. But now I'm rambling so yeah!!

I wish my snake loved me... how cute would it be to see your babies all excited when you handle them!!

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Originally Posted by CaitJaye

So, ok, my snake may not love me in the sense that my cat would love me. But I think there is an understanding that he may have. He knows I don't want to hurt him; he doesn't try to escape when I handle him, he doesn't hiss or bite, and he curls up and falls asleep often when hes laying on my stomach or against my ribs. Maybe it's just conditioning and lots of time being handled, but he does't react aggressively towards people. Like I said, it may not be love or any special attachment, but I think that for an essentially wild animal he shows a lot of tolerance for human interaction. Besides, I adore him so I delude myself into thinking he feels the same. ;)

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When you say he knows you don't want to hurt him how do you gauge that when you can't tell what it is thinking or feeling? Just because something doesn't attack doesn't mean it feels safe.

He never never tries to move away from you while holding it? That would be hard to believe. It moving away from your direction could be taken as it trying to escape.

How do you know he is asleep in your lap? Snakes might not move hen they are asleep or awake. I always wonder how people know when thy are sleeping because I see many a times people mention they know the snake is asleep.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

They actually lack the part of the brain that processes and deals with emotion. So that's a pretty good indicator that they are not emotional. They are rather primitive in which they are very instinctual simple creatures.


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I rather agree with this as I have heard it before. They act from instinct not feelings. But do you have proof of this? I have jut heard people say it and it sounds more realistic but in have never seen actual proof/studies of it.

Considering how we're just recently discovering actual intelligence in snakes' fellow squamates, I actually found this video mildly interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlflGmGG3Vg

I honestly don't like the poll options- I'm willing to bet the answer is somewhere in between. Much like how animals that are naturally and typically antisocial will somehow still recognize their human caretakers- such as hedgehogs, servals, short tailed opossums and blue tongue skinks.
Its also funny how the more snakes that someone has (and therefor the less time they have to observe one particular specimen) the more inclined they are to say they're no more intelligent than a tarantula. Whereas someone who actually spends some time with their snakes, they tend to pick up on all their little quirks. And the snake has more time to "get to know them" too. Anyone ever consider that?