I think my snake loves me

[Freakie_frog]

How do you know snakes can't love or hate? Have you ever been given the super human talent of feeling what other creatures experience?

No I haven't. But as humans we like to think that emotion is a trait solely possessed by humans. Is it possible that animals can feel emotion...maybe..but to take a firm stand that "YES THEY CAN" with no more proof than we can offer to disprove the fact is just as naive.

I believe they do "feel" ... hell, i have one bp that's ticked off all the time and hisses any time i stick my hand in the tank and who strikes the glass when i walk by

This sounds like a fear response not an anger management problem. See because we as larger creatures with round pupil forward set eyes are seen in the animal kingdom as a predator. This sounds like when you walk by the cage or stick your hand into it your snake feels like your going to try and eat it. So it tries to keep you from it. Even a long time pet snake with snap into defensive mode if surprised or startled.

and another who while very young, escaped his tank (my own fault) and after hours of looking everywhere, i flop on my bed to cry and feel something under my pillow, turns out my escape artist turned up in my pillow case ... not my husbands, or in a nice warm spot.

As heart warming a thought as this is you must remember your snake had also been dozens of other places before that and had it not been found would have been many more places after the pillow case.

He knows I'm the one who rubs my nails gently down his back - he arches himself so that i don't lose contact all the way to the tail. I drop the mice in his tank. I made him feel better when he had mites.

Please try something for me get your husband to try this with a wooden spoon or just his hand and see if you don't get the same response. Again this is a typical response that I get from snakes I have had for years and snakes I don't even own.

Maybe a snake loves (respects, admires, is thankful for) their owner if they are treated right (and I choose to believe this),

I am glad that you feel so strongly about your pets it is a great thing to be an animal lover and even more so because they are herps. I just hate to think that you have false expectations about what your snake gets out of being your pet.

but any creature who is cared for by another recognizes the caretaker and will usually respond with an affectionate demeanor.

And yet you have one that hisses and strikes and wont even let you in it's tank. So is that because of the caretaker or because the animal is afraid?
Lions that are well cared for and loved by the people that care for them killer their keepers, The family dog will bite if scared or injured even if the person is acting in its best interest.
In the end snakes are wild animals could they survive in the wild maybe but that doesn't make them any less wild.

Cobra's will spit aiming at the eyes of what it feels to be it's enemy (it's a snake, how does it know to spit towards the eyes? It's not human but knows what to do to us to disable us quickly).

If a snake can instinctively know how to harm us, don't you think that if we respect them for what they are and provide them with all their necessities they just might develop a respect (or dare i say a love) for us?

Spitting cobras spit for the same reason balls ball up its how they have over years learned to best protect themselves.

Do i feel that reptiles can learn to understand we aren't going to hurt them, in a word show them that we aren't a predator. The answer is a resounding YES!!!!!

Do I feel they can experiance love as we do or on any level no. As much as I would like to have snakes that missed me when I am gone and cried when I came home from a long trip, its just not how the animal is designed.

Just my two cents