Quote:
Originally Posted by AliCat37
I thought that too until I got one of my corns. All of mine will eat mice that are room temperature, with the exception of one. If the mouse is not hot, she will slither away. I also have had a few try to bypass the mice and go for my hands, presumably because that's warmer than the mice. I guess what I am try into say is that even though they don't have any heat sensing pits.. They still are able to detect heat.
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I believe they can use their Jacobson's organ to smell the different chemicals released from a warm mouse from that of a cold mouse.
In order to sense something an animal must first have a physical sensory organ to detect it. We taste and smell because of the associated sensory buds. We hear because we have ear drums. And reticulated pythons can "see" the infra-red heat of their prey because of their heat pit sensory organs. Corn snakes have no known heat sensory organs except their skin. So, they are no better at detecting heat than we are at detecting hot coffee in a cup before we take a sip.
Corn snakes in the wild track down prey using only their Jacobson's organ. And catch it using a combination of smell and sight. And their smell is so good they really don't even need their sight. When I bring mice into my snake room my corn snakes will become active and are able to smell the mice from more than 20 feet away.