Snakes ARE affectionate

[bigsnakegirl785]

I love my snakes quite a bit, and would be absolutely devastated if they disappeared, and they certainly are not a display animal for me. I believe they can come to trust certain people, people who they've been with for awhile and that have not harmed them. But they are not capable of love. None of my snakes care a single bit for me from what I can tell, they're just as quick to go running off as they are to climb on me. They do things that could be misconstrued as affection, such as reaching up and flicking their tongue on my nose as if to say "hello," but more likely it's just them sniffing your nose because hot smelly breath is coming out of it. None of my snakes come to me unless I am the only thing they can hide under. The garters will come out to the front of their tanks to come see what's going on, but it's not them being like a dog and coming wanting attention, it's merely them being interested in movement. Snakes don't want attention, they merely put up with it.

That said, as long as your animals are well taken care of, and not the reptile equivalent of dressing a dog up and treating it as a human baby, then how you view it isn't harming anyone and you can believe as you wish. Maybe one day we'll learn they actually are capable of some form of affection, I'm sure many members on this forum would like that to be true. But from the scientific studies we have currently, they physically just don't have the structures for complex emotions let alone love or affection.