My BP is a weirdo

[KingWheatley]

I woke up this morning, and as BPs usually do, Wheatley poked his head out. I opened the tank and called out his name as I usually do when I do not have food (when I have food, I make noises with the tongs and make noises similar to a mouse). He disappears into his hide, so I figured I startled him on accident. I moved my hand away and started checking the temperature of everything. The whole tank is at 70, however the hide has an UTH and has a cool spot at 80, and a warm spot of 90. (I have the substrate set up in a way that it's uneven, in case he plays hide favorites. He comes out again and looks up at me. I lower my hand and he boops my finger with his nose then lays his head on it. I had to go to work so I rubbed his head before leaving, and he stayed there a second while I closed the tank and went right back in his hide.

Since snakes aren't mentally capable of affection, or love, I realize that this wasn't at all what was meant... however Wheatley did a weird and cute thing. And I just felt like sharing.

[KingWheatley]

^^

by the way, it's cold outside and my roommate hasn't turned on the heater. That's why the rest of the tank is 70. If I turn on the lamp, though, everything in the tank gets too hot.

[piedlover79]

Very cute. But you do know snakes are deaf to all but the loudest sounds right? They hear through conduction with the ground.

[KingWheatley]

Very cute. But you do know snakes are deaf to all but the loudest sounds right? They hear through conduction with the ground.

Really? Oh boy. I thought for sure the tongs would work. I guess it's just the smell, then...

(and here I thought I was being clever...)

[shadow reaper]

Very cute. But you do know snakes are deaf to all but the loudest sounds right? They hear through conduction with the ground.

What?!? You just changed my world, good sir. I'm a brand new snake father (haven't even hit my one week yet) and I've done so much research to be a good dad, including time spent lurking on this site (hence this is my first post) and I never knew snakes were almost all but deaf. I've been keeping the TV lower, talking in a lower voice, freaking out about my dog barking, all because I didn't want to stress my little guy out.

Had to use my first post to say thank you so much for the info!

[piedlover79]

Haha. Yup. Check your snake for external ears and you will find none. They sense vibration in the ground through transduction through the bone (fun fact this works on humans to, you can get silent headphones that conduct the sound through your skull and an advertising agency in Germany installed this tech in the windows of a train so when you rest your head against the glass you can hear the ad through your skull!).

Reseachers suspended some rattlesnakes in vibration proof glass tanks and set off noises to see if they would react and the sound had to be loud and low enough to vibrate the whole snake before they cared.

[Yzmasmom]

Yuppers, deaf as a door nail. Remember the Simpsons episode with Whacking Day? They had to lure all the snakes to safety with big speakers flipped onto the ground and blasting Barry White. It's all about he vibrations.

[Coluber42]

But if you want to make a sort of rodent-ish sound that the snake can notice, scritch at the side of the enclosure your finger to imitate the effect of a rodent gnawing on something, or gently drum your fingers along the bottom edge like the patter of little feet. Since those sounds are transmitted through the solid material of the enclosure, the snake can detect them and it's very effective at getting their attention.

[Ax01]

i think they're all pretty much dorks and wierdo's.