Snakes and eyesight

[ProXimuS]

I've got a friend that has a ball python. She told me that snakes can hardly see and need movement in order to see their food. I know that can't be entirely correct because my snake eats dead fish by himself no problem(also he can be a little skittish with sudden movements). I'm wondering if pythons have worse(or just different) eyesight than garters, especially considering they're in different families. It also seems like they have different looking eyes. If I'm remembering correctly the ball python has just like plain black eyes, whereas the garters have brown eyes with a pupil.

Sooo in conclusion....I have 3 questions:
#1 Can they see well?(I'm thinking yes, because mine seems to see very well)

#2 Do they have eyelids?(never seen him with his eyes closed:p)

#3 Do they sleep?(like actual sleep like we do)



(BTW my snake is a gulf coast ribbon)

[Invisible Snake]

Garter snakes have better vision than pythons, pythons have thermal pits which help them find food. Garters rely on movement and smell to detect food. Most if not all albinos of any species have poor eyesight and are sensitive to bright lights. Snakes have no eyelids. An easy way to tell if a garter snake is asleep is if its head is laying down (either he's asleep or dead).

[Stefan-A]

Ball pythons do have pupils.

1. Depends on the snake and what you're comparing them to.
2. No.
3. Yes.

[Stefan-A]

An easy way to tell if a garter snake is asleep is if its head is laying down (either he's asleep or dead).
Or just lying with its head down.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Some Pythons like regius are nocturnal and have evolved heat sensitive pits to detect warm blooded prey such as mammals and birdsalso they use their tongue to detect prey because they don't rely on their eyes to get their prey their vision isn't that great but they can detect movement.Diurnal snakes such as you'r ribbon have larger eyes to search for their prey.their is an arboreal snake called a twig snake that has vision similar to ours,it can spot say a chameleon in the trees without it moving.you ribbon uses it's tongue to detect the dead fish.

[Stefan-A]

Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, Volume 193, Number 8 - SpringerLink (http://www.springerlink.com/content/m20k137110n45g26/)

[ProXimuS]

Thanks yall;) I guess they must all be light sleepers, if they can't close their eyes!

[kibakiba]

Snap was a heavy sleeper, the few times she fell asleep on me. She's get kind of limp and I could pet her back and move her a little bit. Too much movement woke her up, though.

[katach]

Our snakes are pretty heavy sleepers. Sometimes they scare me, because they are so asleep their breathing slows down a lot! I tap on the tank and they usually don't respond. I open it and touch them and they look at me like "What the heck! I was asleep!!". :D

[guidofatherof5]

Our snakes are pretty heavy sleepers. Sometimes they scare me, because they are so asleep their breathing slows down a lot! I tap on the tank and they usually don't respond. I open it and touch them and they look at me like "What the heck! I was asleep!!". :D

Sounds like my big radix girls. They do that all the time. I love it.

[d_virginiana]

I can't tell you how many times I've mentioned that one of my snakes is blind and gotten the response "How can you tell?" :rolleyes: I think they rely a lot on smell to find their food. Houdini is completely blind and has no trouble finding his food in a dish. I've also had water snakes appear out of nowhere while I'm fishing within minutes of me cutting up a fish.

Harley has fallen asleep on me a couple times. Once, she got really agitated because her head kept slipping off the side of my hand as soon as she'd doze off. :D


Our snakes are pretty heavy sleepers. Sometimes they scare me, because they are so asleep their breathing slows down a lot! I tap on the tank and they usually don't respond. I open it and touch them and they look at me like "What the heck! I was asleep!!". :D

My 12 year old male does that too, and he spends a LOT of time sleeping.

[ProXimuS]

Those are cute stories! I couldn't imagine a snake being a hard sleeper. Maybe once my kid gets more settled in, he'll sleep more soundly;)