Snakes 'knowing' you?

So, I know it's not like a dog knowing who it's owner was... but I've noticed something with Tali. When I handle her or take her out, she balls up for a moment, then quickly uncoils and starts checking me out and whats going on. The times I've had other people handle her (which honestly, hasn't been many- one of my roommates, my parents, and a couple of friends that stopped by), she stays coiled and 'balled' for much longer. I know they can smell, but I don't know if they can smell AND store the difference from person to person (ie, that's mom, mom=ok, that's not mom=STRANGER DANGER OH DEAR GOD). So maybe it's just a difference in how I handle her? IDK D:

I was just wondering if I was nuts haha. Do your snakes react differently to other people holding them?

(also, whats the guesstimate age for an 18inch, 106gram Ball Python?)

Idk about the whole snake knowing you thing. But that sounds like a monthish old

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Originally Posted by SjbReptiles

Idk about the whole snake knowing you thing. But that sounds like a monthish old

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yeah bout a month from what i know... would be interesting to see what others have to say about this "knowing" thing. certainly SEEMS like mine knows me from others, calmer less likely to try n get away from me, prefers my hands to others i.e. more likely to come onto my hand than sisters' when cruisin around idk though

My parents wont handle any of mine, my friends do but not for very long.

I definitely think they can differentiate between unfamiliar scents and familiar scents that have proven to be nonthreatening. My BPs act differently if someone new is even in the room when I'm trying to feed.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

I definitely think they can differentiate between unfamiliar scents and familiar scents that have proven to be nonthreatening. My BPs act differently if someone new is even in the room when I'm trying to feed.

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I agree with Anna here. We all have a different smell, though we ourselves cannot distinguish this I'm sure snakes have a much finer sense of smell.

Smell Familiarity and conditioning i think are the only things at play here

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Originally Posted by Blitzjg

Smell Familiarity and conditioning i think are the only things at play here

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Thats what i was sort of figuring of she did/could recognize my scent- I'm someone who isnt "scary" vs someone new who might be scary and want to eat her or something.

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Originally Posted by SjbReptiles

My parents wont handle any of mine, my friends do but not for very long.

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Its funny, my dads pretty happy to hold her, checks on her, and if I have her out, he'll take her for a few minutes and hang out... mom I pretty much have to be like "hold this" and give her to her haha. She doesn't MIND tali, she just doesn't get the attraction as a pet. She wants me to have a nice little crestie :]

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Sorry, off topic..but how did you come up with your username? Do you dig killer whales?

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I've noticed the same-- if I hand Magnus to anyone else, he stays coiled and unsure for much longer than when I handle him. It's a familiarity thing. He'll also come up to the glass to "greet" me if I'm looking in at him while he's active.

great thread would love to read more about other ppl's opinion on this

Common smells go a long way, but sometimes I think gender smells play a factor as well.

Familiarity/security smell instance: When younger, Oreo(cali king) would be fine hanging out with myself, friends, mom, or my sister. But when I went to give him to my dad, he just turned his head and came back to me. Don't know why but he didn't care for my dad much.

Gender smell observation: I find that Oreo and Wafer(black rat) are more inclined to go to a female stranger than a male stranger.

Trust: Aside from smells, I think the animals have a sense of trust and/or a special bond in their frequent handlers. Letting them have certain freedoms may earn their trust in you more. All of my snakes get an alotted time and place to go and do whatever they want(up a tree, along the carpert in the living room, on the chair in the office, climb up the window and hang on the curtains, etc). You let them have that exercise and they seem to get more comfortable with just being around you because they know the "bigger world" outside their enclosure. It's like when some say "be the snake's tree". Just let them crawl over you and do their thing, you'll see a difference. *

On the whole: I can give any of my snakes to any person I choose and it is the snake's decision if they want to be handled by that person or not. They typically seem fine with my judgement of whom I let them decide to hang with.


*These are my observations and opinions. Do not know if there are scientific facts to back this up.

Well said Pyrate! All great info... lol and people laugh at me when I tell them to spread their hands and fingers to imitate a branch hehe

i definitely think it's a smell thing as opposed to sight.

perfect example: my retic had never once stuck at me (defensively. once was a food mistake when he was little and i was still learning how to get him out). after i had him out and was handling him he was always fine. i'll let friends hold him and he always seems to want to come back to me. one time i had him out in the living room while i was at home by myself and we were chilling on the couch. i'd already become really comfortable with him to the point i was confident we both "trusted" each other. he had crawled to the other end of the couch and got comfy. i was sitting watching tv and i left him alone sitting there for 15 minutes or so. decided it was time to put him up so i stood up and walked towards him and he lunged at me. scared the hell out of me because he had never done that. went towards him a little slower and he lunged for me again. after a little game of "tag" (in which he lost lol) i was able to get him back in his cage.

point being: this was unusual for him to act that way, and i really think it just caught him off guard when some big scary thing (me) stood up kinda quick and walked right towards him standing over him. i know he couldn't smell me, because he's always been completely comfortable around me, and if he had recognized me by sight i don't think he would've gotten scared. not to mention he doesn't go in our living room often where the dogs usually are, so all the smells were new to him, and i'm sure the dog smell in the room was heavier than my scent from 5 feet away on the couch (i like to think i don't smell TOO bad :P ).

Humans have to smell, because dogs can track them. I wonder who has a better sense of smell, a GSD/Bloodhound or a snake?

My Indie is super docile and overall amaaazing. But I can see a difference when I'm handling him or my roommates are. He is active and coils around our shoulders and arms and is very curious about his surroundings. He doesn't seem at all threatened. But last week a few kids from my apartment complex asked is they could touch him and see him. So of course I let them, because I think that a persons willingness and curiosity with snakes is amazing and should be encouraged. Anyways, he was docile with them as well when they were handling him, but he pretty much just stayed still and kind of curled up. He didn't explore them or roam up their bodies like he usually does with people that he's familiar with. They even called him "boring". ha. My other ball enso actually goes as far as striking at other people. She constantly strikes at my brother and has even done it a few times with my roommate. I can't say that she really feels more comfortable around me though, but at least she lets me hold her for a while without trying to eat my face off.

I think my snakes definitely recognize me. My BP isn't so active, but my garters will immediately come out and beg when I walk into the room. Anyone else goes in there and they'd wonder why I've got so many empty terrariums.

Another thing I think plays a big role is how comfortable the person is with handling snakes. They definitely know when someone is being hesitant. When I rescued my BP she was up for adoption for being 'aggressive' and everyone in the pet store was afraid to touch her. Within five minutes of getting her home, I manually helped her get off a retained shed, and she started working with me to help get it off. Never even nipped at me. She didn't know me, but just the handling apparently made a huge difference.

I haven't noticed this with my ball pythons but my retics are like this. They are more calm when I'm holding them vs someone else. My girlfriend came to visit and she also keeps retics. I was holding Peanut and then handed her off. She was a lot more squirmy and tried to flee. Once I got her back she settled back down coiled around my wrist.

It is indeed 100% possible that ball pythons (amongst other reptiles) can diferentiate the smells of one human to another and give them certain traits so to speak (i.e. a ball python can tell the difference between you and someone else based on smell) as well as sight and other factors.

For example, monitor lizards - monitor lizards are thought to be the most intelligent reptile in the world, and have even been theorized to feel emotion and to actually think, and I use that phrase in that they can think in the same pattern that we do, it's not all instinct or cunning, but they actually process information and decide on the best course of action (much like humans). There exists a nile monitor that is currently being trained to understand the difference between feeding time, play time, clean-up time, etc. (in some zoo that I can't much remember) Where they use a red/white ball to distinguish what time it is. This is being done on a Komodo Dragon (largest monitor lizard). It has worked so effectivly that its keepers can go in and interact with the animal with their hands without fear of being hurt by the creature. Although it is definitly not a ball python, I believe that the same basic level of thought could be attributed to most, if not all reptiles.

I don't know if my snakes know me. I do know, however, that they act different when I hold them then when friends/family do.
It's even more apparent with my leos.

I haven't had my girl for too long but she seems to know the difference between me and my wife as well as our nieces when they come over. She wanders all over me and when she realizes she's near my wife she'll coil up or just stay very still then come back to my lap. The two older nieces are too freaked out by her and the youngest wants so much to be comfortable with her but her and Orchid sit as still as statues when she holds her.

I think another big factor is the confidence of the person holding the snake. The snake might act more timid and jumpy around friends/family because those friends and family members aren't as used to handling snakes.

I have one friend who doesn't own any reptiles of his own but he claims he's the "ball python whisperer" after lots of encounters with other people's pets, including a time when he helped a friend move her entire house while her snake was around his neck. My snakes act more calm around him than they do around me, and I handle them almost daily! My bitey male baby turned into a complete sweetheart in his hands. The only snake he's ever owned was a burmese python 20 years ago that he pulled out of a car engine.

IMO you're nuts haha.

I pass mine off to my kids, kinda let them crawl from my hands to theirs and all 4 want nothing to do with them.
I have to plop them into their little hands because they take a smell at their grubby little sandwhich clamps and say nope.

I think they can learn who we are, but it is more of a safe person/not sure type reaction. I have spoken to people who keep rattlesnakes, and they report that the snakes will stop rattling at them after they have owned them for awhile and the snakes have become used to there scent and them being around the cage etc (wild-caught snakes as well). However, if someone else comes in the room, they will go back to rattling at at them.