I think my snake loves me

I think it's like one of those people that owns a pet bear. The owner trains them pretty well so you can feed them and maybe even can handle and play with them; you think they're tamed like a house cat. Then one day, the owner is dead. At the end of the day, they're wild animals.

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Originally Posted by wnateg

I think it's like one of those people that owns a pet bear. The owner trains them pretty well so you can feed them and maybe even can handle and play with them; you think they're tamed like a house cat. Then one day, the owner is dead. At the end of the day, they're wild animals.

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SPOILER ... gruesome ending. !


That reminds me of the incident in the States about ten years ago ... it was a fairly well known celeb as I recall and they had a pet ‘chimp’ that had free roam of their home !!

One day she had a fancy doo and it ripped the face of one of her friends !!!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

SPOILER ... gruesome ending. !


That reminds me of the incident in the States about ten years ago ... it was a fairly well known celeb as I recall and they had a pet ‘chimp’ that had free roam of their home !!

One day she had a fancy doo and it ripped the face of one of her friends !!!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Yeah, I remember that one too...pretty awful to have to live with that, either as the badly-injured friend OR the guilt-ridden owner.

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Originally Posted by wnateg

I think it's like one of those people that owns a pet bear. The owner trains them pretty well so you can feed them and maybe even can handle and play with them; you think they're tamed like a house cat. Then one day, the owner is dead. At the end of the day, they're wild animals.

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Dogs kill people as well, including their own owners of many years. Cats will eat their owners when they die, and would most likely kill you on a nearly daily basis if they were capable of it lol. People frequently kill other people as well; in most cases, people kill their loved ones. At the end of the day, we’re all at least a little bit that bear. Don’t know that that is very relevant to a discussion of love, sentience, or intelligence. It might actually be more of an argument for intelligence in that my snake and I are capable of killing one another and yet we choose not to on a daily basis.

I think my snake loves the fact that I feed her :rolleyes:

I dont think love in the way we feel it is a thing for snakes, but I dont think my snake is indifferent to me. Its weird because my female BP is very mellow, for the longest time she wouldn't even strike at her food, she would just gently take it out of my tongs. When ever I come by her cage and she sees me she will peek her head out. If I stop and open the door she will peek out a bit more. This happens almost every time. I though it might be that she thinks shes getting fed but she is an incredibly poor eater, when she was a baby she didnt eat for months and even now often wastes the rats and if she does eat them its after a few hours and usually shows little enthusiasm for them right away.

So my current theory is maybe shes just kinda checking out whos at her territory, kinda like "whos there".

Funnily enough she is kinda fat right now and I took her swimming for exercise a couple of times and she was definitely not a fan of that, since then when I come by her cage she ignores me.

TL;DR maybe she doesnt love me but is at least positively curious about my presence.

I know that my snake recognizes me, reacts differently to others, however, I am hard pressed to anthropomorphize her behaviors. I do not think she loves me, I think she recognizes me as a source of food, she is perhaps comfortable with me and handling her, she will almost always periscope when I come home and often will watch me if I am in the same room. Is it recognition, probably, scent possibly, but I am not sure they feel love in the way a domesticated animal does, that has bonded with humans over hundreds, if not thousands of years. See: dogs, cats, predominantly mammals that seem to have been domesticated. It is not impossible, but I do not think it plausible that they "love" you.

My BP went from an occasional stroke when she was around, to she is pretty okay with it (though I do it rarely, maybe once a month), she doesn't show joy, but she no longer recoils and often will poke her head out from her hide and watch me. Much as I have heard two entry hides, say a half log, is something they do not prefer, she now avoids both of her single entry rock hides and primarily uses the two entry spots, the half logs, and I often catch her poking her head out from one side or another, and figure possibly she has a preference to the versatility! Or.. it is anthropomophism.

Just my two cents, the article is an interesting read as well, please see it below:

https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/reptile-emotions/

I dOnT oWn a sNaKe yEt XD

Sorry if this has been said before but I am not reading 61 pages. To the best of scientific knowledge Snakes do not have the ability to show "love" as defined by humans. That being said that does not mean it's impossible for them to have something like "love" in their own way. Lastly Given the rather complex and revelatory state of neuroscience that could all change at any time. Put another way you are mostly (likely to the snake) a giant warm snake the brings a "easy" meal, so it prefers you is what I would say, as apposed to love or like.


KL

I voted yes, but for a reason I will explain. one day I was cleaning my ball python's enclosure and I had him in a snake bag, the bag was far away from me and between me and him was a vent blowing warm air that was around his enclosure temps. the vent was closer to him than I was, like way closer, but instead of going to the vent he went to ME. and crawled up in my lap and looked up at me and curled up into the "my body is my pillow" position WHICH MEANS IT IS RELAXED AND CALM. and yeah every will say "Oh that's because it trusts you" well, doesn't trust have to do with love, like seriously! you trust something because you feel calm and good around them and you love them. and seriously how does the scientist that found out they're missing a part of their brain not know if they might have a different part of the brain that allows them to feel the emotion? and plus, scientists thought they didn't have ears, but they were just covered by scales. and so many people have TRIED to make me think other wise, but what about the time when I was crying because I got to stressed out about something, AND THIS LITTLE NOODLE, looked me in the eyes, and pressed his nose onto mine and held it there for a little bit. THIS LIL DUDE BOOPED ME. and another time when I was upset he went around my neck and started flexing his muscles (keep in mind he's only a year old this wouldn't be some sort of mating thing or whatever) and it was like he was massaging me, he's done it to my dad as well but the things he does, it's so obvious. you can SEE IT, in his eyes and his behavior. and when at the vet they came out and they were like, "he was so behaved! usually they're a bit like 'ew no get away' but he didn't care!"


Again it's my opinion and my proof and so many people can give different things of why he does each thing but honestly I don't see it as anything else because, when your family member is sad wouldn't you hug them? maybe give them a neck massage! also Beans let's me Boop his nose whenever and he let's me pat him on the head and pet under his chin, he'll afterwards even go into the "body is my pillow" formation, believe the stories or not, I know some of you won't, but hey if you don't want to believe me that's your loss not mine.