Do your snakes remember you?

If you were to handle your snake twice or three times a week do you think it remembers your scent after a while, and will become use to you handling him/her?

Nope, there eyes are to bad to recognise physical characteristics, also snakes lack the mental ability to even differentiate your sent from another large heat sorce's sent.

They just don't have the mental capacity for it. Sorry :(

I've wondered about the scent thing in connection to handling. I guess so. I mean I think you would see three distinct reactions if for instance it scented you, a rat or a perceived potential predator like a dog or cat. I know sight comes into play here to some extent also along with heat emmisions. So I guess really we are talking about conditioning.

I don't know. I'm just a Muggle though (it's a forum joke thang - don't ask). Perhaps someone who knows really what the, uh, heck they are talking about can answer better.

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Originally Posted by David802

Nope, there eyes are to bad to recognise physical characteristics, also snakes lack the mental ability to even differentiate your sent from another large heat sorce's sent.

They just don't have the mental capacity for it. Sorry :(

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Heat source is one thing, but what the Jacob's organ is picking up and sending to the brain is another.

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Originally Posted by mrmertz

Heat source is one thing, but what the Jacob's organ is picking up and sending to the brain is another.

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And the jacob organ helps recognize the difference between are sent and the sent of food, the question is not can the snake recognise the same sent over and over again, the problem lies in the snakes inability to remember that sent and connect it to a person.

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Originally Posted by David802

And the jacob organ helps recognize the difference between are sent and the sent of food, the question is not can the snake recognise the same sent over and over again, the problem lies in the snakes inability to remember that sent and connect it to a person.

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Okay, then I misunderstood the OP. If he was asking can a snake scent an individuals discreet scent, then no - I don't believe they can.

My apologies if that last post came off rude, I as in a hurry.

At the OP. your snake will never recognize you personally, how ever it will learn to recognize the scent of humans and learn that we are not a threat. Whether this is considered learning or more of a temporing seems to be up for debate.

edit : It should also be noted that from what I understand CB snakes are handled almost from the beginning of there life, so most CB's are somewhat tempered/trained when purchased.

Here is some reading on the basics of brain function, reading up on the R-complex really helped me understand just what is going through my snakes head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain

I wish I had more reliable sorces but... :P Enjoy!

Now that you mention it, I guess they do. One of my corn snakes that I raised about 6 years ago just called me. We talked for a while, he's had a few clutches, he's very proud of his one bubblegum morph. Talked about her for 10 minutes.:D


Now, to get a little serious, I don't know if they recongize you in the human sense, but there may be a time when your snake realizes that you are the one picking them up. Could have a lot to do with the scent of that person. My male pied seems to be much more relaxed when I'm holding him than anyone else. My male albino is super calm when I'm holding him, but is a little restless when my son holds him.

I guess we'll never really know!
Jim Smith

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

Now that you mention it, I guess they do. One of my corn snakes that I raised about 6 years ago just called me. We talked for a while, he's had a few clutches, he's very proud of his one bubblegum morph. Talked about her for 10 minutes.:D

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LOL...I only wish I had thought of comeback like that!

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Originally Posted by David802

Nope, there eyes are to bad to recognise physical characteristics, also snakes lack the mental ability to even differentiate your sent from another large heat sorce's sent.

They just don't have the mental capacity for it. Sorry :(

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Now is this for all snakes? Do they all have equal mental capacity? I know that with fish there are some which can recognize a person across a room from a tank, whether it is due to better eyes or bigger brain I don't know, (or maybe it is just the ideas of those hopefully fish owners thinking their animals are the smartest things in the world!). On the other hand, there are lots of fish that are just mindless zombies and don't seem to grasp anything.

Do we know of differences in intelligence with snakes? Might some know who you are eventually?

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Originally Posted by mr. s

Now is this for all snakes? Do they all have equal mental capacity? I know that with fish there are some which can recognize a person across a room from a tank, whether it is due to better eyes or bigger brain I don't know, (or maybe it is just the ideas of those hopefully fish owners thinking their animals are the smartest things in the world!). On the other hand, there are lots of fish that are just mindless zombies and don't seem to grasp anything.

Do we know of differences in intelligence with snakes? Might some know who you are eventually?

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K so the brain of a snake has 4 parts. The brain stem, the basal ganglia, the reticular activation system and the Midbrain.

The brain stem connects the rest of the body to the brain.

The Midbrain is connected directly to the brain and controls movement/visionsmell and all of those things.

The Basal Ganglia controls action selection, I.E. the decision of which of several possible ways to handle a situation.

The Reticular Activation System handles Breeding and sleeping/waking up transitions.

This is considered the basic primal brain or the R-complex (reptilian-complex), it runs purely on instinctual behavior patterns associated with self- preservation. It is considered by many scientists to be the basics of all brain development.

So in answer to your question. No I do not think any snake has the ability to recognize a person as you asked. While a snakes mental capacity will definably fluctuate based on its brain mass (the bigger the better :P). All of the snakes brains have this same basic setup and there for know snake has the ability to do what your asking. :P

I would say my snakes definitely recognize me. I know they do because when I take them out, they are completely relaxed. But when I hand them to a new person they are very apprehensive.

Now this isn't recognition like they know what I look like or who I am or anything. They simple don't register me as a threat because they are used to me.

This only applied to my older snakes who I have had for couple years.

In some ways I think they do. Not the way we do, like hey I like you, but enough that they understand you're not a threat.

I know my balls don't mind my handling them, and don't shy away if they see me walk by...however, if someone else walks by they go back to being stressed.

Their brain function is not anything like a cat or dog, but I think it's a little more than people give credit for.

I tend to think they pretty much identify scents as threat, food, non-threat. Once they identify your scent as non-threat, then they are more relaxed around you. But they also pick-up on the chemicals we release when stressed as well. So if you are trying to handle a new or aggressive snake and are stressed about it, your established collection will pick-up on this and possibly be uneasy as well...