eyes

[Snake lover 3-25]

i got to thinking last night wile i was baking cookies for an old teacher of mine who was retiring... till 3am... and i was wondering....:rolleyes:

when a snake goes into shed and their eyes turn blue can they see????:rolleyes:

what do you imagine it's like a blindfold? sunglasses?

is it possible for a snake to go blind???:rolleyes:

they see in heat right?? like one of those thermal cameras???

:D:D:D

[Elliot]

Pit vipers see in infared I guess you could say, but garters don't. There vision probably isn't amazing and it's probably motion based.

[crzy_kevo]

as far as i know yes they can detect heat but they can also see but when they start to shed i would imagin its like putting a blurry piece of blue glass in front of your eyes

[SpyrotheGartersnake]

they can't detect heat like pythons can they can detect vibrations and probably can picture of what it is in there mind from the vibrations

[adamanteus]

When their eyes go blue the vision is impaired, but not lost. The blueness is caused by a natural secretion that is squeezed between the old and the new skins to cause them to separate. The fluid is excreted from two tiny pores in each scale, and it is this which makes the sloughed skin feel damp at first.
It is possible, of course, for a snake to go blind... as it is with any creature.
They don't see 'in heat', they see like us.. only not so well.

[crzy_kevo]

wow james u sure know alot

[infernalis]

This is why snakes become unsettled during shed cycles.

The vision is clouded, here is a simple experiment, next time your snake has blue eyes, leave it undisturbed, then use shadows through the glass to see if you can get it's attention.

http://www.reformedsniper.net/1/alien.jpg

[adamanteus]

On the subject of 'seeing' in heat.... that's quite misleading. Pit vipers, boas and pythons can detect minute temperature differences, but it nothing like seeing...

Imagine you are in your kitchen, someone drops a spoon on the floor behind you.. you hear it, you know what the sound was because you recognise it, you even have a pretty good idea of exactly where that spoon is now... but in no way did you 'see' it. This is how the heat sensing works, it's an additional sense. On the TV they always use thermal imaging to represent the process, but it's actually a pretty inaccurate way to illustrate it.

Another slight digression:rolleyes:.... When a pit viper picks up the warmth of it's prey through it's sensory pits, it gains enough information to locate the prey and commence the striking action.... but of course during the strike the prey animal is still moving, and the viper's heat pits are pointing to the sky! So, the viper has additional heat sensors within the mouth to enable it to make subtle adjustments to the strike to ensure a good 'hit'. Not many people seem to know about these additional heat sensing organs in the mouth...... but now you do!:D

[infernalis]

I kneel before thee oh wise master:D

[crzy_kevo]

lol he knows too much get him mwahahaa

[adamanteus]

I kneel before thee oh wise master:D

No need for that, Wayne.:) Although any kind of adulation is always welcome.:D

[ssssnakeluvr]

I don't think their sight is movement based.... they can see, just not as well.

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow!!! cool!!!! i have always thought that they see ONLY in heat!!!!! and that they couldn't see at all when their eyes went blue.... apparently i knew ALOT less than i thought!!!!

so they can't detect prey by heat at all then???? hmmmm.... that's what everyone thinks!!!

but meadow must have VERY poor vision.... esp. compared to sooty and her son... she may even be blind...:(:(

[ssssnakeluvr]

garters can't detect heat, they rely on their good eyesight and sense of smell

[Snake lover 3-25]

but james just said they had poor eyesight!!!!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

well...I don't think its that poor...

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol okay so they can't see in heat... they have a good sense of smell and okay eyesight...... and they are good detectors of vibrations....

how good of a sense of smell do they have??? as good as a hunting dog???

what about hearing???

[ssssnakeluvr]

very good sense of smell, not sure if as good as a hunting dog...hearing...none...no ears.

[Snake lover 3-25]

really???? they can't hear at all????:eek: wow!!!!

[Zephyr]

Wow.
Interesting AND informative. kthx James. XD

[infernalis]

As for detecting vibrations, we lived next to a set of train tracks for a year, the snakes knew the trains were coming long before we did.

They would get really unsettled for a while every time.

[adamanteus]

Vibrations are picked up through the ground and 'resonated' in the lower jaw... this is as close as snakes come to hearing.
Garter snakes have good vision compared to many snakes, but not so good compared to us.

[Snake lover 3-25]

cool!!!

james,
how do wou know so much about their senses?????

[infernalis]

James was a snake in his past life, I thought everyone knew that:D

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol he sure sounds like one!!!!!

[adamanteus]

James was a snake in his past life, I thought everyone knew that:D

There are those who would say I'm a snake in this life!:rolleyes:

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol i can see that!!!!