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just how "smart" are they?

Zombiegirl

Zombiegirl

New member
So ever since the mite infestation I have been extremy paranoid about my snakes...so much so that I've been feeding everyone in their vivs (for what reason I have no idea...bear with me), and today I put kiyos mouse in her viv on her paper plate (again...bear with me) and she found it, and started eating it tail end first....me thinking "greeeeat..."... But she spit it out and went to the nose and started again...are they smart enough to know the difference? "Hey this isn't right...let me start over" or do they condition that way?
 
Yeah I was watching her thinking I was going to have to help her, but she was only noming on one leg...got to the tail and said newp
 
Past 2 times Cheesy tried to start form the middle lol

She always figures out she is doing it wrong, but hell this last time she not only tried to start from the middle but ate suspended from the plants. She stayed dangling until she finished it then disappeared into her hide lol
 
None of mine care much, or aren't that smart! They start wherever they sniff first. They do move around to an end if they start with the middle, though. I give them a C+ for overall eating performance!
 
Most of my corns are smart enough to know which end is the head and which is the tail, and some will even inspect their meal before starting in on it to make sure it's going down the right way.
I dip the hind ends of my thawed feeder mice in a little bit of vitamin powder, and one of my yearlings really likes the smell of the vitamins. I thought she just liked eating the mice tail first, but i tried powdering the face of her meal instead and she ate it head first like a normal snake. If i don't powder her mouse at all, she'll pout a bit before eating and eat a lot slower.

I also have hognose snakes, and one of them is big enough to eat hoppers but i prefer to feed her pinks because she tends to eat mice from the middle, attempting to fold them in half and swallow them sideways. I figure pinks are a lot safer.
 
both of mine will eat from either end and have no problems at all getting it down either way. I have noticed though that Hades will investigate the SECOND pinkie (this is after hoovering the first) and stick his head in the pinkies mouth then eat it head first. Spec usually does start in the middle. She grabs from the middle and then moves then adjusts it to one of the ends. She vary rarely starts from an end. I really love watching them eat!
 
GoRabbitGo, what kind of vitamin powder do you use? If your little one enjoys it, maybe some other babies will like it. Might be a good thing to try with a few non-feeders ;)
 
I find that mine will usually eat from either end when they're eating pinkies, but they almost always eat head first once the mice have fur.
 
Ours grabs the mouse and holds him awhile, even though it is FT. Just to make sure it's dead I guess. If you sit and watch him, he won't start the swallowing process. He just holds it, and stares at you. He doesn't even blink. lol You have to ignore him, or set the lid on the box. The moment you do, he turns it and swallows it. He likes to eat in private I guess.
 
I use Reptivite w/o D3 mixed with Repashy Superpig. I'm not sure if it'll help anyone else, because i have about 30 snakes and that one is the only one who actually seeks it out, but it sure won't hurt i guess?

For non feeders, i raise Western fencepost lizards and i'll just rub a f/t pink on one of the lizards. They get lights, heat, and all the cockroaches they want so i figure occasionally having a mouse rubbed on your back isn't too bad a trade-off.
 
I love this thread because mine had to scale back to a half-pinky the other day (after a regurge) and she attacked it from the side for quite some time unsuccessfully. Not the brightest bulb in the box!

I do wonder how smart our snakes are, and how much they know of who/what we are. Mine is perfectly content being handled and yet when I'm not handling her she seems terrified of me... it's interesting. I'm hoping that shyness gets weeded out over time as she grows up, but who knows? She is who she is.
 
Todd120 said:
Ours grabs the mouse and holds him awhile, even though it is FT. Just to make sure it's dead I guess. If you sit and watch him, he won't start the swallowing process. He just holds it, and stares at you. He doesn't even blink. lol You have to ignore him, or set the lid on the box. The moment you do, he turns it and swallows it. He likes to eat in private I guess.
Click to expand...

Mine is the same exact way... she'll only eat if she's alone. I feel so guilty when I come back to check before she's done and she just stares at me with a mouth full of mouse, as if to say "Excuse me, do you mind?" :mad:
 
As Peaches is not only my first reptile, but, due to the fact that prior to holding her, every snake I'd ever been physically close to in my life were in the wild and poisonous, she's also the first snake I'd ever been close to that I didn't kill on sight. So, I'm used to dogs, cats, and birds. At first, I tended to judge Peaches' behavior based on the loving nature of those pets. I had a vet friend reason through my error with me and help me change my approach and expectations. I didn't know anything at all about snake psychology; if they "love", if they bond with those who show them love and take care of them, etc. I didn't even know if they had distinctive personalities. Peaches (and this forum) answered many of those questions in just over five months of her presence. I think time will answer any that remain, as well as any that arise later. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the experience of having her.
After experiencing love-at-first hold with Peaches, the only question that truly eludes me is this: Why didn't I do this 40 years ago????
 
Snakes have been around for over 150 million years, so I'd say that they're 'geniuses' at what they do and how they do it. They don't have the same ~kind~ of intelligence that mammals and other 'higher' life forms do, but their brains/minds are perfectly suited to what they do to survive and thrive.
 
You should see my Blacktail Cribo eat. He'll grab the hopper from any angle and just start consuming it as he thrashes it around his tub. Once he started tail first and used the side of the tub to force it into his mouth and ended up blowing the mouses guts out. Seriously the most disgusting eating habits out of all my species.
 
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