I think my snake loves me

[bellaroyal]

i know facts but i disagree even with the facts. my ball Bella won't go to anyone other the my boyfriend and I. If someone else picks her up she balls up and won't move. If we pick her up she roams freely up and down are arms and around our hands.

[sbit]

I voted "my snake loves me" even though I don't really believe this

I can't speculate on whether or not snakes feel emotion. But I do know my snake seems to "know" me and tolerate me over others: he accepts me handling him easily but is very fearful of strangers and quickly flees. Either he recognizes that I am familiar and probably harmless, or there's some quality I have (smaller hands? moves slower?) that scares him less. And that's good enough for me!

[enchantress62]

I'm just curious. What studies have been done to determine how a snake thinks? I mean it's pretty obvious that the general oppinion is that snakes have no emotion and yet "fear" can be considered an emotion. I would really like to read doccumentation if anyone knows of a study that has been done and can show the basis for this belief. I'm not trying to be sarcastic I would really like to know.

[sandra]

well, i know they don't feel love or hate but i do believe they recognized things...cause my ball python acts completely different with different people. it could just be my smell. but i cant say it wants or shows affection cause that is impossible but as i said before, i think they can recognize certain people if they see them almost everyday lol i don't think they think "i want to eat you" to everything. maybe if i smelt like rat or something, cause thats all my python has ever known it can eat.

[ballbuster]

It's kind if scary how many of you believe your snake(s) loves you...

[rebelrachel13]

It's kind if scary how many of you believe your snake(s) loves you...

I was thinking the same. But to each their own!!

[Vasiliki]

Seeing as not too long ago, many people believed (and most still do) that pigs are unintelligent animals... I am inclined to lean towards the: "My snake has emotions, in her own snakey way."

Not long ago people thought Pigs were dumb. Now, after various studies, did you know that the common pig is actually more intelligent than dolphins and apes?

They put a dot of paint on the forehead of various elephants in captivity. The elephants were then shown a mirror for the first time. Instantly they would reach up and touch the dot on their forehead, showing that they had instant self recognition.

Yet, people still don't believe these animals are capable of that kind of unique thought process. Some people still don't believe that dolphins are intelligent or capable of thoughts and unique emotions.

I understand it. Everybody has their own set of experiences and opinions of how the world works, and those within it.

Do I think my snake loves me? No. Do I think she can show her own kind of snakey emotion in certain circumstances? Yes. The same way my cat can show times of super affection, then fierce independence.

We're always learning, and we're always discovering new things about the world. To say that animals don't feel emotions because they don't express them like we do, have the same size brain or brain activity as us doesn't mean that they lack these 'emotions'. It just means that we aren't at a point where we can determine 100% "YES" or "NO".

People still argue that fish can't feel pain, because they don't 'outwardly exprses it like we do'. So, that means an animal must behave like us in order to share traits that we also possess? That seems just a bit silly to me

Nah. I don't think my animals 'love me' in the same way I love my boyfriend or I love them, but that isn't to say they don't recognize me as different from 'strangers'. And that shows some type of ability to differentiate between something familiar and something foreign. If that comes across as 'My snake likes me', then that's just my way of putting to words that my animal doesn't feel the need to completely freak out when I'm near him. Is that love? Some people could call it that. I don't freak out when my boyfriend hugs me, but I do freak out when a stranger does.

I guess it's a fun topic and some lovely grey areas that keep this interesting! As long as my snake doesn't bite me every time I pick her up, I'll take that as 'snakey affection'. Even if all that 'snake affection' means is that she doesn't treat me like I'm going to kill her. That's a win in my book.

[dragonsong93]

I completely agree with Vasiliki ^

Chickens have also been proven to be on par with dogs & cats, and have actually been compared to primates as well (with brainpower). Most people just think of them as the 'stupid' birds that are always on the dinner table Just another one of those unexpectedly smart animals.

But my snakes probably just recognize me as the one who brings food and doesn't cause them harm.

[Miss Brie]

No I don't think he loves me, but I definitely notice that if someone else holds him he finds his way back to me and then settles down. I feel like its more that "ahhh this big warm thing I don't know is holding me it might eat me, let me go find that other warm thing that I KNOW won't eat me" than actual emotion on his part

In the same way that it is tempting to put all our deep emotions on our snakes, its also tempting to hold steadfastly to the opposite ("snakes have not emotions/feelings/cannot recognize their owners"). Both of these are incorrect, if they are held to in the face of observation and evidence; we learn new things every day about how the world works. The fact is, it has happened consistently over time, so to disregard my real world observations would be JUST as silly and wrong as me going "my snake loves me and adores me and loves cuddling." The best conclusion I can make, based on observation, is that some part of him does recognize me and is able to locate me among other humans and seek me out, and on some level feels safer with me than other people. I can't make any assumptions about if he "loves" me, but then again I can't really even say that about any pets I own. I just don't know! But I still love them <3

I saw someone post somewhere on here, but I can't find it, that "proof" that snakes dont recognize their owners at all and can't process thought was that sometimes people can get killed by their large pythons (and "did they just 'forget' who their owner was?"). My problem with this is that large cats are generally agreed to be intelligent, emotive creatures, yet occasionally you hear stories about zoo keepers or large cat owners being killed by their animal. But no one uses these cases to argue that cats are incapable of recognizing people, but rather its just a case of instinct trumps all (which is the same, but stronger, with snakes).

I'm a new snake owner, but my whole life I've had an amateur interest in biology and science. I know that no matter how many books or articles I read, that doesn't make me an expert, but I do still try and be informed. And thats really the best I can do!

[PorcelainxDoll]

Does my snake love me... No. .Does he recognie me and prefer me...yes

Whenever my husnand and i have gypsy out he always ends up coming to me it never fails. We let him on the bed and he always ends up climbing up me and sleeping on my shoulder. Also i know its not because im warmer my husbands,body temp is is at least 4 degrees warmer then me.