Can snakes feel and give affection?

[Dano94]

Hi guys,

Bit of a "deep" and random question but I read somewhere online that snakes are mission the frontal lobe of their brain which is what is usually responsible for emotions such as hate, love, anger and they only run on instinct.

How true is this? I know snakes get used to you handling them, but do they actually feel affection for you. For example you open up your snakes hide and he see's you and slithers towards you because he is happy that you're there? Can they take a disliking to other human beings except their owner?

Thanks,

Dan

[anicatgirl]

Ah, the great debate...

[Jhill001]

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer: Reptiles in general have a higher capacity to learn and understand than people once thought but they are still basic creatures in terms of having human like emotions.

[hungba]

My snakes love me!!!!!!

[Dano94]

My snakes love me!!!!!!

But they lack the frontal lobe of the brain which is capable of creating the emotion love for them. They're instinct is that you're not a threat therefore not scary and can be more outgoing with you.

[Miranda2]

I think they can feel familiar or comfortable with their caretaker but thats it. Im pretty sure they recognize people to a certain extent.
I had a boa for years that let me do anything to her but when I sold her the new guy was promptly bitten.
He was a smoker so I imagine smelled funny.Could have been a random action but I do think that snake recognize either familiar scents on people or some other clues.
dont discount the familiar as less then love. I think a comfortable snake is a "happy" snake.

[Skeletor]

They mostly relate smells to many things. I notice they do learn real fast by sight also. My one example is when I place my BP in his feeding tank. The tank is always thoroughly cleaned after every feeding so he knows it only by sight. By the third time I put him in the tank, I can see he gets real alert when he gets put in there. He goes from chilled out and lazy to high alert. He knows what's up. It's real cool to see this reaction from a snake. So they do learn from sight in my opinion and retain the info for at least a week from my observations. So sight and routine triggers something with my bP....it triggers his feeding instinct. I also notice they do like to be handled by certain people....my sons BP...which I supervise because he's seven, seems to favor him.....he feeds him and handles him the most. I say this because the snake doesn't want to let go of him when my son tries to put him back in the cage.

[hungba]

But they lack the frontal lobe of the brain which is capable of creating the emotion love for them. They're instinct is that you're not a threat therefore not scary and can be more outgoing with you.

No they love me they even threw me a surprise party.

[Daigga]

I don't know about affection, but I know mine go through "moods". Sometimes they're good about being picked up and handled, sometimes the flinch irritably when I go to touch them, sometimes they might even hiss at me. I might get certain reactions more from certain snakes, but Ive gotten lots of varied reactions from individuals. Does the presence of moods mean anything about their emotional state? Maybe not, but at the very least it shows me that they are capable of interacting with stressors and other factors and reacting to them, which could mean more than we think it does.

[jclaiborne]

I believe that certain species of snakes are more intelligent than others, which means them can be more observant of their surrounding, smells, etc. Do I bleive they are affectionate, not really, I think its even hard to say they "enjoy" being held, I think they tollerate it, some better than others. Now if we open it up to other reptiles vs. just snakes it gets a little more interesting. If we look at lizards, again some are highly intelligent and others not so much.

Do I think they display affection I really don't know, but I can tell you my Blueys will come to the door when I open the cage, climb out on my arm and perch on my shoulder and just sit while I walk around. If I pull them down they will climb back up, they are very relaxed and will do this with anyone, so it's hard to say thats affection.

Now my tegu is another story. She still confuses me because I would love to know what goes on in her head. She is very intelligent and inquisative. I can open her cage door and she will look around to see if she is getting fed or not. If she realizes there is not food she will come to the opening and lay her head on the track, I pet it a few times and she will crawl out on my arm and free roam. There have been times where I put food on one end of the room and I stand on the other and she comes straight for me and ignores the food. Then there are other times where she comes out of the cage (no food in the room at all, and no scent on my hands), sits on my lap and lunges at my hand in a feeding strike, then backs off and stares at me. She always goes back in her cage on her own. There are other times when I open the door and wait for her to come out and she won't. She does recognize me vs my wife and acts differently with each of us. Again it is hard to say IMO that this is a display of affection, but there is a lot going on in her brain.