Do snakes have good memory?

My 2 year old female corn, when she's hungry, recognizes the box that I use when I buy live mice from the petshop for her, the moment I walk in the doorway of that room carrying the box, even though her cage is on the far opposite corner of that room. She immediately goes to the spot in her cage where she knows I will feed her, and starts begging behavior.
If she's hungry and she sees me coming with the gray cream cheese lid that I serve f/t mice on, she goes to the rock in the center of her cage where she knows I will set the lid down, and waits for me to set it down. If she sees me coming with the container that she knows means she will get to go somewhere, she starts an excited bobbing up and down behavior that is different from her begging behavior (and the only times I take her visiting is when she's not shedding, I respect her desire to be left alone when she's going through a shed)

All of my corns consistently relieve themselves by their water container at the opposite end of their cages from their main den boxes. None of the other species I have at this time ever soil their own beds, except for the ball python baby who will "go" anywhere.

When I carry my adult female corn around the house and get to the room where there is a bright multicolored ball hanging from the ceiling that she likes, she immediately looks in the direction of that ball. She loves that ball and when close to it, will spend quite a bit of time looking at the colors.

My baby garter snakes have made several visits to the local petshop and after the first visit or two, they clearly remember the place because they are at ease when they get there and I take their cage in and set it down. Instead of hiding as they do if I set their cage in an unfamiliar place, they come out of their box and start showing off for the petshop visitors who look at them!!!!

The more I observe my snakes and try to understand their behaviors, the more signs of intelligence I see. I still haven't yet figured out how an animal who cannot even blink their eyes or close them manages to definitely have different expressions but if you closely observe your snakes and their different moods, you will find they can convey expressions such as curiosity, excitement, and a "dirty look" that means don't bother me!!!!

Originally Posted by Spiritwolf

All of my corns consistently relieve themselves by their water container at the opposite end of their cages from their main den boxes. None of the other species I have at this time ever soil their own beds, except for the ball python baby who will "go" anywhere.

My VBB uses the "toilet" in the same spot EVERY time... which is convenient cause I only have to spot clean THAT SPOT every time.

Cool!!! The more people observe and TELL of their observations of such behaviors in their snakes, the more I think we will find out that snakes aren't nearly as lacking in brainpower as ppl assume they are!!!

Also, the more observations there are of similar or same behaviors seen in our snakes, the stronger the validity of these observations becomes to doubters and skeptics!!!

Cant wait for saturday to come im getting my 1 snake

Well Tatzu seems to like my wife better than me dunno why and Arwen seems to like me better

My snake seems to know that when he goes into the shoebox, he's going to get fed. Lol

I've only had my little corn for about 5 months and I have already noticed that he has definite preferences for people, and remembers them from encounter to encounter.

Having said that, though, he also does some amazingly unintelligent things occasionally, so perhaps he shouldn't join MENSA yet. ;P

I've said this before, and I stick by it.

Snakes have very functional implicit memory. However, I see little evidence that they have much episodic memory at all.

So basically, while your snake might learn that it gets fed when in the shoebox, it doesn't have recollections to "the very first time I get fed in the shoebox" or "that one time, when the mouse was black instead of white".

my girl is the same way....haha I have a carrying cage for her for when I want to take her out in public before we arrive so that I don't lose her and she just HATES that thing! I put her in it and her pupils dialate and she tries her damndest to get out! it has a second lid on top that pops open(in the bigger lid that pops on) and at some point when I had her in there, I forgot to lock it down - well once she figured this out and got her nose out, I got her back in, locked and closed it, she didn't give up!! she pushed at the corners of that thing numerous times, determined! she knows who I am and gives me the biggest attitude sometimes however if I hand her to my hand she's ALL over him and just adores his attention! I think it's safe to say snakes do have a memory as been stated in previous posts about that kind of thing!

Originally Posted by carpathian000

I've only had my little corn for about 5 months and I have already noticed that he has definite preferences for people, and remembers them from encounter to encounter.

Having said that, though, he also does some amazingly unintelligent things occasionally, so perhaps he shouldn't join MENSA yet. ;P

My husband and I always joke about which snakes like us better. For instance our rat snake hates me to no end, but he will be as calm as a corn for my husband. However, our ball python is my baby who has never struck at me once, but he strikes at my husband often.

I like to think the ball python is highly intelligent whereas the rat snake is just a big bully.