I think my snake loves me

[YungRasputin]

I agree. Not based on any official study, but just my experience of many years living with & knowing so many snakes. And seeing that they remember & trust me, even when not handled often, & that trust carries over to others when I've shared them, even at the vet's office. None of my snakes have ever bit anyone else once tame with me- I'm not calling it love- more like trust- feeling safe. And it makes sense to me- in the wild, they learn their way around & learn where they are safe from predators- when they're captive pets, we're part of their environment that they learn to trust. If things change around them, they're instinctively unsettled until they learn they're still safe.

I do remember reading that snakes that are rehomed are more likely to get sick- ie. their immune system responds to stress much as ours does- stress negatively affects health. That's why anytime I get a new snake, I try to treat them like a newborn in the ICU- lots of "TLC" while they settle in, & hands off for a while. New snakes- whether shipped from a breeder or from a store or an expo- have often been thru a LOT & exposed to other diseases along the way- so you want them to remain healthy & have their immune system work as well as possible.

i’ve only had 1 non-arachnid/non-snake animal, which was my childhood dog, who was a female pure bred chow chow and i did research once and saw that she as an adult dog had the same cognitive and intellectual abilities of a human child aged 3-5 years old - so it’s like with that, combined with observable behavior that we know eg: how Cuban boas will hunt like velociraptors for bats in caves or how retics will construct nests or how king cobras will mark their territories and recognize the markings of other snakes - i truly think their much more “conscious” than we often think - makes me wonder how things could be if we explored that more because another thing i think about is how our behavior effects their behavior and how if we act all closed off because we assume their mindless instinct machines how that probably adversely effects the relationship between keeper and snake