Can Snakes Show Affection...

Heres a topic ....

Are snakes capable of showing affection to humans ?

I recently had a customer that says he had a Bullsnake that showed "affection" to him.

I have had snake for 25 years or more and have never had a snake show ANY type of affection. I would like to see some scientific proof if there is any.

Well if taking a lunge at my face or making me bleed can be construed as affection, my snakes love me to death!

Originally Posted by norsmis

Well if taking a lunge at my face or making me bleed can be construed as affection, my snakes love me to death!

I do not think that would be a loving kind of affection.



Affection, I don't know about that, but I look at things a bit different. I would say snakes show recognition towards their owners compared to others. I have had people notice this and point it out to me when it comes to my snakes. I have one in particular that prefers to be around me compared to others. Every time I take him out for another person to hold, he stretches out to me. I place him on the grass and step back, being surrounded by other people and he comes to me. I would not say it is affection, just the recognition of safety, when they trust you, your smell becomes familiar to them and they will remember that around you they are safe. When they around someone new they do not recognize, they would not feel quite so safe.

Snakes simply don't have the mental capacity to show affection. Dogs, some birds, cats (well sometimes), and even pigs can show what is obviously an enjoyment of being around people, but snakes just do not exist on that level.
Snakes tolerate their owners (usually) and that's as far as it goes. I've seen many times people talking about how their snake loves to be held. I'm sorry, but that just isn't the case.
I read recently where someone put it very well, they said you can keep a snake for 25 years but you leave that cage door open and they're gone. It was said to illustrate the fact that these are wild animals and by their very nature you are not going to form any sort of bond with them.
Snakes are ruled by instinct, it's what controls everything they do. They have three goals in life, to eat, to breed, and to stay alive long enough to accomplish the first two.
People who claim their snakes shows affection or loves to be held are merely anthropomorphizing. They want to bond with their animals so they project that illusion to satisfy their own needs.
To me even calling a snake a "pet" is to use the loosest form of the term.

i agree that snakes just plain are not mentally or emotionally capable of love or affection . i do however believe that they do build a sense of familiarity with those who handle them often . maybe its a recognition of scent or whatever . i think that after some length of time snakes can assocciate a specific person with the needed things in life . this is not to say that if given the oppurtunity to get away they will opt to stay put , i just think are capable of recognizing a normal familiar entity .

that acts completely different around me, than others who come into my snake building.. I think it is associated with scent also!!! I think they associate a safe feeling when they are around a familiar scent (person)... Just my .02 worth.. Have a great weekend. Mike

As many of you know there was a famous lady that kept all the large venomous snakes named Grace Wiley. Her claim to fame was free handling king cobras and forest cobras. She had some huge ones and for many years she kept them. They had become very used to her and her alone. When strangers entered the enclosures they would revert to normal activity and do the typical cobra stuff of hooding and striking etc. With her though they were completely calm and never attemptted to strike etc. Interesting and almost erie, but I personally do not think it was ever a matter of affection etc. By the way she was killed by cobra bite many years later while trying to calm a cobra that had become excited.

I have had snakes over the years that acted in much the same, calm with me and living terrors with anyone else. To me I always have considered it a matter of acclimation and learned response to an extent.

One of my favorite saying is that "if you took the brain of a snake and put it on the edge of a razor blade, it would look like a BB rolling down a four lane highway". While that may be an exaggeration it makes a point I find hard for people to dispute.

Many folks try and assign human qualities to the animals they have in thier world, but in most cases it just does not translate as easily as many would like it to.

Bottom line: Do snakes have the ability to show affection? No I do not believe they can. But with that said, they are feeling and regal animals that deserve the best we can offer them while in our captive care. Which is something all of us strive to provide.

My two cents anyway,

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

I don't know if I would call it affection, but I had a collared lizard that I would regularly hand feed and talk to. She would jump on my arm every time I went into the cage. I could take her out and put her on the carpet and walk 15 feet away into the next room, and when I would get her attention by talking or tapping on the floor she would run on two legs right for me and jump on my hand or run up my pant leg if I was standing. She could have taken off to anywhere in the house (not really, but she didn't know that) but she would come right to me when I "called her", and just shill on my lap looking up at me or at the T.V. until I would walk back to her cage, where she would jump right in. My girlfriend always thought it was the coolest thing.

Originally Posted by PythonWallace

I don't know if I would call it affection, but I had a collared lizard that I would regularly hand feed and talk to. She would jump on my arm every time I went into the cage. I could take her out and put her on the carpet and walk 15 feet away into the next room, and when I would get her attention by talking or tapping on the floor she would run on two legs right for me and jump on my hand or run up my pant leg if I was standing. She could have taken off to anywhere in the house (not really, but she didn't know that) but she would come right to me when I "called her", and just shill on my lap looking up at me or at the T.V. until I would walk back to her cage, where she would jump right in. My girlfriend always thought it was the coolest thing.

I had a leopard lizard when I was younger that did nearly the same thing. He would "follow" me upstairs. I say "follow" because if I turned around and went back down, so did he. Maybe he thought I was a giant cricket, who knows. But my RTB that I used to take to school (stolen on a breeding loan) in the 90's seemed to "enjoy" being rubbed under the chin. If I did it, he would puch down on my hand, and if I took my hand away, he would move his head back onto it. Probably a scent thing. I agree that snakes don't have the mental capacity for affection, but it makes them much more enjoyable to think they do!!!

Gabe

From what I understand snakes have no forebrain and maybe not a mindbrain.. I know they have a hindbrain though which controls the more primitive actions. Scientifically they are not in anyway capable of emotion, which is controlled by the forebrain. Science is never the only way to see something though.