My BP hates me!

[citysnakes]

on feeding night, after the lights go out and the snake room has been pre-scented with frozen, thawing rodents, most of my ball pythons are seen in the striking position at the front of their tub awaiting their meals.

that seems like a conditioned response to me so i would assume that ball pythons have some capacity for learning.

[mykee]

"that seems like a conditioned response to me so i would assume that ball pythons have some capacity for learning"

There are decades of hard science that prove you totally wrong.
It's nice to think that though.
As an egotistical species, we as humans find it hard to comprehend with our limited mental faculties that we would keep pets for our amusement that are dumber than us.

[citysnakes]

Originally Posted by mykee

There are decades of hard science that prove you totally wrong.
It's nice to think that though.
As an egotistical species, we as humans find it hard to comprehend with our limited mental faculties that we would keep pets for our amusement that are dumber than us.

and i may be completely wrong but the fact is that conditioning is a form of learning and if a response can be conditioned in a ball python then it has some capacity for learning.

but thanks Mike, here i was thinking my ball python enjoys watching tv with me....

Originally Posted by infernalis

No disrespect Julian, I have seen this with my Royal, and my colubrids.

They are responding to scent, another pre-progammed response.

It's most apparent with my Garters, bring a stinky trout into the room, they all start looking for food.

They are responding to the scent in the air, nothing more.

My hand looks nothing like a fish, tastes nothing like a fish, but if I touch a fish and then open a garter snake viv, I am going to bleed for sure, it's unavoidable.

Even my sweetest most docile ladies will try to eat my hand when they smell fish.

Wayne i completely agree with you in that the scent of food in the air will trigger a feeding response in hungry animals. obviously this is only natural.

what may be conditioned is the tendency to take position at the very front of their tubs ready to strike at anything coming in when it opens. i dont see many of my balls positioned at the back or side of their tubs waiting to strike in a random direction. the majority of my hungry ball pythons are ready to strike in the direction of where their food always appears and thats wherever the enclosure is opened.

this is just an observation of mine and maybe others with much larger collections than mine dont observe this but my observation tells me that these animals remember the direction of where their food comes from or are conditioned to position themselves in a direction where food is most likely to be located after picking up its scent.

if they where to randomly be positioned in their tubs waiting for food to come from any direction then i would believe that no form of learning has occurred but based on my limited observations i believe this not to be the case.

as i said i could be wrong but many believe some form of conditioning can occur in ball pythons and the debate will continue i guess...

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by citysnakes

on feeding night, after the lights go out and the snake room has been pre-scented with frozen, thawing rodents, most of my ball pythons are seen in the striking position at the front of their tub awaiting their meals.

that seems like a conditioned response to me so i would assume that ball pythons have some capacity for learning.

No disrespect Julian, I have seen this with my Royal, and my colubrids.

They are responding to scent, another pre-progammed response.

It's most apparent with my Garters, bring a stinky trout into the room, they all start looking for food.

They are responding to the scent in the air, nothing more.

My hand looks nothing like a fish, tastes nothing like a fish, but if I touch a fish and then open a garter snake viv, I am going to bleed for sure, it's unavoidable.

Even my sweetest most docile ladies will try to eat my hand when they smell fish.