Do you think if your pet snakes can recognize their owners? Well, it only depends on what you think about the relationship.
Contents
Quick answer to the point
Snakes do not have companions or what you will refer to as bond mates. Snakes don’t even care for their young for too long. Their parental guidance is limited and very brief. So it is obvious they don’t feel any affection or sort of care whatsoever.
However, they do become familiar with the things around them as time goes on. They become comfortable with things and beings around their environment.
Snakes are very peculiar reptiles. And we are on our way to figuring out how to work with their owners.
Everyone loves their pets! And I bet you do too. If you’re a snake owner you will recognize them anywhere. The big question is, do they identify you also.
Can snakes recognize their owners? The answer is YES, snakes can recognize owners! But, it all depends on the way you grow them and how important you are to them.
Aside from that, there is no familiarity if you’re trying to compare them with dogs or cats. In this article, we are going to look at how recognition in snakes happens. Let’s find out how they feel about us!
Think As They Do
To understand your snake, and guess how they’re feeling, try to think like them. Here let’s try it out;
Try to imagine that you are a snake for one minute; how does it feel like to grab food without arms. Or maybe you suddenly have an itch on your skin and ouch! You got no arms to scratch. Yeah, life without limbs will be a difficult situation to handle.
In real life, they only think of food, survival. Therefore, in Captive, they only want food before snakes recognize owners.
When they finish feeding on prey, they go about looking for another until it’s time to mate. But after that, what’s next? More food! With this illustration, you try to put yourself in their shoes.
We are not reptiles, so it’s tricky for us to understand snake psychology. Besides, we are mammals, and we’re social animals, and we desire the company. It is difficult to imagine that we are in the snake world where all our needs no longer exist.
Snakes are not social animals. They only feed to survive and if there is any reason to pair to other snakes that would be during mating.
Do Your Snakes Think Of You Too?
Since snakes aren’t social animals at all, are you wondering how they would recognize you? That’s a good thing to think about. Check out the illustration.
Snakes will not see you as a friend compared to how other pets would. But, that does not mean they don’t know you. The senses of snakes are incredibly developed. If you are close, they already know you’re out there, they can smell you from a distance.
Amazingly, they can tell if you were at the market or the office and can tell how long! They also know if you drove a car.
However, it will be easy for your snake to recognize you through your scent.
Why Your Snake May Not Want You?
Your snake must not be all over you before you can carve out a relationship with it. There are many activities you can do for your snake. Of course you will want it to have a healthy relationship with you.
The first thing you should know is all animals have their responsibilities. As mammals, we get attracted to other mammals. We want to understand them and carelessness of the reptiles.
Snakes are animals like us too. They feel anxiety and fear like the way we do. If a snake is stressed, they become very prone to infections and loss of appetite.
Sadly, what you do to your pet snake will cause it stress and harm without knowing. You find out too late that what you’re doing is wrong and not fit for it. Let’s check out some of these activities ;
Insufficient tank size
Different snake species require different tank sizes. You have to know which one goes well for your snake. Placing your snake in a small tank will make it stressed and very uncomfortable.
Snakes grow long. Therefore they need sufficient room to stretch.
Force handling
Snakes will want you to be gentle on them. You should not just try them into the cage-like it’s a sort of toy. It won’t like you!
You should treat them like you do with other mammal pets and do not go rough on them.
If you are keeping more than one snake, you should get a separate tank for each.
The few points discussed aren’t all. There are other reasons why your snake may be upset. In this case, try to consult your vet.
Snakes don’t like any kind of competition. It causes stress and would make them uncomfortable. Keeping each snake in its tank will improve their mood and keep them away from stress.
If that is a new pets for you, please let they free for a few days. Don’t get your snakes recognize owners as a harmful resources.
Gain Your Snake’s Attention
Since you now know a few reasons why your snake will want to ward off. Let’s see how to win them back
You might have pulled out all the harmful activities that will ward off your snake. Does it still get upset, try these out
Handle them more often
We discussed earlier that you should be gentle with your snakes. But how often do you handle them? Do you make them curl themselves round your fingers and arms more often? Snakes enjoy body warmth, they would love to be with you all the time, and you should do just that.
Let Your Snake Out
Here I am not saying you should take your snake to public places where they will only scare people. Just spend time with them, and don’t let them out of your sight. If you’re in the garden, don’t let them off, they can hide between flowers and scare them.
Change Their Environment
Do you ever have this feeling of changing your room décor or cleaning up the place for a change?
Well then, the same goes for your snake. For the slithers species, they would love it.
The more they see you, the more snakes recognize owners
Try to add some décor to their tank, -hiding boxes, even a fake tree would do to make them very comfortable and pleased.
We just discussed the interaction between you and your snake.
Let’s find out how these snakes see the world;
How Do Snakes See The World?
Snakes don’t understand what we call the world. Although they have the same sense as we do, except the taste of course.
Snakes can hear. Sure, they don’t possess outer ears as the mammals do. They are compassionate. Most species of these snakes can interpret the size of coming animals by the vibrations they feel from the ground.
A snake does not see the way we do. Their sight is different from we humans. A snake has developed eyesight, and with this feature, it helps them get their food.
Snakes possess this sight to help them prey on their food.
Different snake species have different eye sights. Snakes that live underground have fewer compound eyes than the species that stay on land. Also, snakes that live on full bushes spend most of their lives in dark places.
The snakes that stay in bright places possess compound eyes that allow them to see clearly. Bigger snakes like the anacondas or boas have pit organs.
These pit organs help the snake see objects in front of them. This unique feature also helps them sense their prey when they go hunting at night.
So we just discussed above, most snake species have very developed organs, and snakes can hunt their meal.
Snakes may not be social animals, but they are excellent hunters. Snakes are known to be independent and robust creatures, and with their outstanding features, they can survive anywhere.
Conclusion
I am sure you can tell if snakes recognize owners, of course, they do! But how they do it is not the way you think.
With their exceptional features, they can distinguish you from other humans that they don’t know.
They can be able to detect your scent and where you have been earlier before then. But you should know that snakes will not see you like other pets(dogs or cats) would see you.
Because your snake pet does not see you like other pets, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t handle them as you would do with other pets.Try to bond with your snake and create a relationship with them.
Snakes are very friendly to keep and exciting to maintain, ensure you follow the right guidelines, don’t handle them roughly, or keep them in smaller tanks, so you don’t stress them or keep them uncomfortable.
Take care of your pet snakes, and you will be sure to have a great relationship with them.