Steve's Snake Observations

[EasternGirl]

My snakes have all figured out that the glass of the tank protects them too. They will come right up to me through the glass...but the minute I open the tank, they get skiddish or start false striking at me. Sometimes now, Cee Cee and Seeley will sit and let me pet them and not flip out...progress. Hermes will put his little nose up to my hand as long as I am very slow about approaching him...any quick movement and he slithers away quickly.

[Light of Dae]

I have noticed that since I increased the temperature in my Radix (Babs) Tank that she is way more jumpy.
Her tank has always been beside the couch, and she never used to jump and or fall off her 'rock' when I would get up n walk past. Now almost every time I walk past her tank she THROWS herself backwards, tumbling, n flying down from her basking spot n hides in her flowers! The little bit of extra heat seems to have made her FAR more alert... (Or maybe fried her brain... lol) I'm starting to handle her more to try n help her get used to everything all over again.

She will watch me from a distance all curious like. Say when I was making the lid (Sewing on screen) for Georges' tank she was watching every move, soon as I got up BANG she's falling down beside herself!

[EasternGirl]

That is odd. Although my snakes go through weird phases...like Cee Cee was so trusting when I first found her...she would come right up to me and take food from my hand...and she would always put her head right up to the screen lid and come to see me...then one day out of the blue, she started freaking out when ever she saw me. She would jump back and hide when she saw me...and now she even false strikes at me all the time. Steve told me that a small change in appearance or smell...something we might not even think of might cause the snakes to do this. For example, I have noticed that Seeley only recognizes me when my hair is pulled back...if I let it down, he freaks out and doesn't know who I am!

[d_virginiana]

Mine act crazy if they can smell some of my other animals on me, especially if I've been holding the cats. They also don't really like it if I've been handling a wild snake and they can still smell it a bit even after washing. lol Of course, when I've been catching wild salamanders, they're the friendliest snakes in the world.

[EasternGirl]

Hmmm....you know I never even thought about them smelling my other animals on me. I do know they freak out when my dog or cats walk by the tanks. But I never thought about the smell of the animals...

[guidofatherof5]

Today while at the T.s.parietalis (Red Sided garter snake) I saw something that I had to report.

Two males were at the top of the den opening observing me. I was laying on the ground 2 feet from them.
Behind me I heard the neighbor coming out the back of his house. His house was 75-100 yards away from the den. He was loud and I knew he was outside.
I then heard him call his dogs out. During this time the snakes were still watching me and paying no attention to him as he was not in their field of view.(this is important)
It was at this time the two dogs started barking. These were large dog.
The moment they barked the two snakes looked over in that direction.
Is it possible they heard the barks from that distance? If so, I have a new respect for their hearing.

[chris-uk]

I thought their hearing was quite primitive with their other senses developed to compensate. Although this isn't based on any sort of active reading I've done around the subject.
Is it possible that they heard a loud noise and were bringing their other senses to bear to try to identify the source? Rather than knowing it was dogs and looking to see them coming?

[Natrix]

I thought their hearing was quite primitive with their other senses developed to compensate. Although this isn't based on any sort of active reading I've done around the subject.
Is it possible that they heard a loud noise and were bringing their other senses to bear to try to identify the source? Rather than knowing it was dogs and looking to see them coming?

That's what I thought Chris, until I researched it and was surprised to find this :-

Although snakes lack an external ear or ear drum, their skin and bones pick up vibrations and transmit them to a functional inner ear. It was once believed that snakes could only detect vibrations transmitted through the ground, but is now known that they can indeed pick up even airborne sounds this way.

[chris-uk]

Good description of what I understood, I was sure that they could hear sound travelling through the air it's a case of how much they can hear and whether they can interpret and identify what the noise is.
In Steve's case we'll never know whether they heard something and thought, "better look over there and see what it is" or "dogs over there, let's look to see if they come this way".

[Bart]

My Izy sometimes walks onto my hand, when he's cruising around his tank, possibly looking for occasion to flee, lol. I present him a flat hand and after some tongue flicking he climbs on me. Nevertheless, he's still skittish and I doubt it will ever pass.