Owner awareness?

[Marshallarts]

Today my mom was holding Marshall, and he reached out for me and held onto my hand until I walked away. He will let me touch his head but not anyone else. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Derek1]

I know snakes don't love us per the debate not long ago. But my Cal King knows me and my 5yr old. She knows who it is and is calm and cool. With others she is jumpy/flighty. Never strikes or bites, but she knows. With the cold weather I wear my college hoodie a lot and she likes to hang out in the front belly pocket, but I only handle her once/twice a week.

[Minkness]

I think it's a kind to recognition and trust than 'love' per say. Reptiles have more intelligence than I think most give them credit for.

Like I have had fish that greet me at the front of their tank, and geckos that chill with me, ect. But not all of them do XD

[Marshallarts]

Yes I wouldn't call it love, but trust. And I find they like to interact.

[Minkness]

Yes, some deff like to interact! Lol

[millertime89]

I don't know if it's a trust thing so much as we're a familiar object, akin to having a preferred hiding spot. I think it's a comfort thing. They like to retreat to something that they know when feeling stressed. You have to really break it down to the most basic of instincts with these animals.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Marshallarts

Today my mom was holding Marshall, and he reached out for me and held onto my hand until I walked away. He will let me touch his head but not anyone else. Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes. If someone is holding a snake and I put my hand near it's tail it will instinctively grab ahold of it for proper support. Your mom most likely wasn't doing this.

Snakes live on the ground (well most do) and even though some enjoy climbing when they do they very much make sure they are "grounded" in some form or fashion. Most ways are to wrap the tail or a part of their body around a "tree limb" so if they fall they will catch themselves.

Has nothing to do with awareness of an owner.

[Jrich]

Could it be how warm or cold someone's hands are? I know it's strange but I try to warm up my hands as much as possible before I get one of my snakes out because they seem to hang around longer/not move as much rather than try to get away/explore. I could just be silly.

[Marshallarts]

Interesting you say it's not owner awareness at all, because Im not the only one to say this. I've heard of other people's snakes doing similar things, like if hey put the snake on their friend it will slither across the couch to its owner. Not a heat thing, my moms hands were a lot warmer than mine. Comfort is a good point. That would make sense.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Marshallarts

Interesting you say it's not owner awareness at all, because Im not the only one to say this. I've heard of other people's snakes doing similar things, like if hey put the snake on their friend it will slither across the couch to its owner. Not a heat thing, my moms hands were a lot warmer than mine. Comfort is a good point. That would make sense.

The snake is just being curious and those people are interpreting it as "the snake is showing affection". It's called anthropormorphizing. It's wrong. HOWEVER, aslong as the snakes are well cared for I could careless if someone thought rainbows shot out of it's butt and it smiled and purred when they entered the room.

[jjhill001]

This may sound crazy but there is such a thing as being bad at handling reptiles. This would explain the head thing. Chances are to go towards its head you are slow yet deliberate. Whereas most peoplw who handle reptiles are herkyjerky and shake around like nimrods. Slow and deliberate doesn't scare as much as fast jerky movements. Also reaching out to you mostly involves the way that handling colubrids usually goes. They get to the end (your moms hands in this case.) If she stops moving her hands to create more crawling room the snake will "reach out" looking for some other stuff, which in a situation where its just you and your mom standing there is going to be you.

There are a few things that I've noticed that will cause some things like this, some snakes will shy from smokers and people wearing lots of cologne. But then again, most people do that with the second one anyways so they aren't really alone.

People say reptiles don't love like its a bad thing, no animal we regularly keep as pets loves. A cat looks at you like a subordinate and a dog looks at you as its master or in the case of small childeren as a something to be herded. A dog doesn't listen because it loves you.

[MDT]

Originally Posted by Marshallarts

Interesting you say it's not owner awareness at all, because Im not the only one to say this. I've heard of other people's snakes doing similar things, like if hey put the snake on their friend it will slither across the couch to its owner. Not a heat thing, my moms hands were a lot warmer than mine. Comfort is a good point. That would make sense.

A lot of people used to say the earth was flat, too....still didn't make them right

[Mikoh4792]

I would not say it's owner awareness. I would say it's usually you who holds the snake, so it's gotten used to "your way" of handling. I'm guessing the experience of being handled by other people feels alien to them.

I however, have not had such experiences with my snakes. They do fine whether being held by me or anyone else. Though I own semi-arboreal pythons so that might be a factor since they need less "support" than ball pythons and such.

[CosmicOwl]

Ask yourself why a snake would care who its owner is.

[marvelfreak]

I believe it as to do with Scent. We all have our own scent your snake recognizes your scent and associates this with security.