Will They Miss Their Space?

[Stetle49]

Well I don't know what you want me to say. There are two very different schools of thought behind these posts.

One is that snakes don't feel emotions. They survive on instinct, and can't feel happy or sad about their enclosure, handler or food. I believe they can feel either stressed and fearful, or secure and content. Whether it's towards their enviroment or keeper. They strive to find a secure setting, and strive to find food because they are basing their actions on their instincts.

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I am of the mind they want to secure their settings by first confirming there are no immediate threats, then they will find a small secure place to hide until it is time to feed or breed.

I understand that people do not think that snakes have "feelings" but last time i checked stress is considered a feeling or emotion. If snakes do not have feelings how can they become stressed out?

If you are going on the idea that snakes have basic insticts then they have flight or fight, they either flee or they bite you, one or the other. So based on that if my snake was feeling threatened by its surroundings because of having too large of an enclosure or offering it too many hides or climbing obstacles then it would either flee, find a place to hide, or it would strike at me or whatever else it felt threatened by.

Also if you want to go along the lines that snakes have no emotions or feelings, do you include other pets along the same lines? such as dogs, horses, cats, ect. ?? Where do you get your evidence or your assumptions that snakes do not have feelings or emotions? Have you talked to your snake?

No I am not saying that a snake is like a dog and is going to go lick your face because he is excited to see you but I am trying to point out that you can't just say that they have no feelings or emotions when you have no proof. You may not like my proof but atleast I have it.

One of my examples is one of my snakes did not particularly like my boyfriend but he "liked" me. He didn't want anything to do with my bf and would try to get away from him but with me he would just chill on me while I was sitting on the couch. He would let me pick him up, touch him, hold him, whatever. Yes you can connect the "Fight or Flee" theory to this example when you try to describe his reaction to my boyfriend but how do you use it to describe his reaction to me????? He did not try to bite me or get away from me.



And again going back to you saying that a snake will go and find a place to hide until it is ready to feed or eat. Yesturday, as I was typing my last post, the 07 baby I had neither tried to flee from me and find a place to hide or tried to fight me. She went from one end of the couch to the other, went over me, up and down my arms and legs. There were many places that should could have hid, under blankets, pillows, in the couch, or she could have tried to get away and would have went to one end of the couch and climbed down but she did neither. She stayed with me and continued to explore her surroundings, climbing over me, the posts, and throughout the blankets.

If you have not had that type of experience with your snake I would recommend trying it. It is pretty cool having a snake, an animal that many people feel threatened by and are scared off, continue to come back to you and let you touch it over and over again. You may laugh at me and say Im pushing my feelings and emotions onto a snake but in the end I know that relationship that I have with my pets most likely is nothing close to what you have with yours.