Can snakes tell?

[MacWin]

Can snakes tell the difference between individuals? I mean people of course, for example when I hold Nanners now he rarely if ever wiggles his tail and gets cranky he just kinds sits and I pick him up.

Now if the Mrs. tries too he gets all rattlesnakie on her, by this behavior I would assume that he can tell the difference between her and me. Am I correct with this assumption that by scent or heat signature or something he can tell the difference between me or my wife? Just curious what you guys think or if anyone has actual scientific info to either prove or disprove.

I would have given a Bob example but quite frankly he don't care who's holding him he's so laid back. :lol:

[JamminJonah]

Woah - here's a debate ready to happen lol! There are two schools of thought on this.. Those being "Yes" and "No." Seriously though I am of the school that snakes don't get enough credit and though part of me accuses myself of anthropomorphizing (ascribing human characteristics to something not human- thank you dictionary.com) I do feel that snakes get the short end of the stick. Others think that snakes are snakes and they are what they are- prehistoric pets if you will. My guess is the same as yours that snakes could tell by smell, and their limited sight may be able to pick up differences in profile. My idealistic/anthropomophizing says - well how do we know who our friends are... most of my friends don't even smell good but I like them just fine (college students/musicians ... hygiene falls just under band or guitar practice and completeing projects that have been put off until 2am). Who knows, I love my little BP though regardless of whether or not he knows it. Fun question!

[JamminJonah]

COMMENT ON MACWIN AVATAR (of a beautiful Apple G5) I LOVE Apple unfortunately I will not be able to afford one until 2025 haha.

[jotay]

Wow, I just made an observation of this debate myself. This weekend my best friend stayed over and Sat. night when we got home Ozzy was out chillin in his cage so I took him out since she had never really handled him ( she loves snakes). So I am playing with him and he is wrapping thru my hands , crawling up my arm etc normal Ozzy/Jotay behavior. So I give Ozzy to her and he wrapped around her arm for a second checked her out and then was having no part of hangin out with her. It was like he knew she was a different person he didn't know. Other than my son and the vet she is the only other person to handle him.
It appears to me that they do know the difference, I would say by smell and heat.
I agree with Jonah that we don't give them enough credit.

[Ginevive]

My snakes basically behave the same, regardless of who's handling them.
Maybe your wife was wearing something that smelled bad to the snake, such as a perfume or even a deodorant? Maybe she had been cooking something and the scent of that was on her?
I don't think that snakes can tell the dif. between people in a "warm, fuzzy" way, but maybe in a purely smelling/tasting way.

[Marla]

I don't see why they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between one person and the next by scent and temps. The question to me, really, is whether they could or would retain any information related to that to be able to identify the same person next time. What kind of memory do snakes have? Obviously they can remember a particular prey item as being a favorite and identify it by smell/temp, so it's possible they could use the same memory type to identify handlers, but their brains are so small and so focused on enabling them to be snakey that it's hard to say for certain that they'd have the capacity for that. I'd be inclined to guess that they might store information on one or two regular handlers and identify other humans by "not prey/large mammal/not handler" type categorizing.

[Eddie_Z]

I can't really say for sure one way or the other on this one either. Nanci does not really handle Hissy much. She doesn't seem to act much differently with either one of us. One thing I CAN say for sure, is that when I startle her in the picking up process, as soon as she flicks her tongue to smell that it is me, she calms right down. So, she certainly aquaits my scent to the "not a threat to eat me" category. Outside of that, I cannot really say.

[Smulkin]

(asbestos on)

It's generally beleived that some specific species of snakes can differentiate - at least between their (main) keeper and others. Keep in mind the differentiating they do is based on who mainly feeds and handles and the feeding is their key interest. Came across this referenced numerous times in relation to good keeping practices dealing with retics and white-lips (Dalberts) - really not sure how pervasive it is or whether you could broaden that to include more species.

In my own personal experience whith what we keep I haven't seen anything like it . . . but have yet to get that white-lipped.

[MacWin]

Yeah I finally asked a real good question lol.
It's just something I have noticed since I am the primary caregiver of the snakes. I am really the only one who has handled Nanners. The Mrs. has not handled him very much and it "seems" like he knows me more so than her.

By the same token her gecko Cricket to me anyway seems more comfortable in her hands than he does mine. When I hold him he really scampers but most of the time when she holds him he just kinda sits.

[MrsMacWin]

I want to know can snakes sense fear or if the handler is uncomfortable with handling the snake.I know that they are not dogs, but I just wonder. Nanners will sit quitely with my husband but squirm away from me. The reason nanners wasn't too keen on me is because I don't handle him as well as my hubby, also I was messing with his cage trying to find him since he went under the newspaper and I couldn't find him, rotten stinker, that is your snake!