Reptiles forming attachments to inanimate objects???

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

jezflyer7

Not so new Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Location
Victoria
My 14 month old MD python has had a plastic dinosaur in her tank since she was about 3 months old, and she's always climbed all over it, she wraps herself around it when I pick her up to take her out of her tank, and recently she's started sleeping on it. I know this sounds crazy, but I think she's actually quite attached to it. Has anyone else experienced anything like this with a reptile?
 
Shes not.

Dont mean to be blunt but cant really put it any other way, you could remove the ornament and she would never act any different.

You could sell her to someone else and never see her again and as long as her needs where met she would be just as happy.

Reptiles aren't emotional animals.

Ben
 
My 14 month old MD python has had a plastic dinosaur in her tank since she was about 3 months old, and she's always climbed all over it, she wraps herself around it when I pick her up to take her out of her tank, and recently she's started sleeping on it. I know this sounds crazy, but I think she's actually quite attached to it. Has anyone else experienced anything like this with a reptile?

She may not form any kind of attachment to it as scorp said but I just saw your pic of it and its pretty cute. So I can easily convince myself that it does (incorrectly;)) you should too.
 
Last edited:
I am sure we like to think they form bonds with us as well but i think it more of getting familar with things they are used to, i can nearly guarantee that when i let my stimson out she will either head towards the tv or to the spare room where the woma is kept, the woma always heads to the fridge every time, and even after redirecting her a dozen times the woma always heads back to the fridge:)
 
IMO I personally think that pythons, not all, can get attached to certain things, my little guy used to climb all over his rock wall and sleep in the crevasse, when I took it out because he kept getting in behind it, for nearly two weeks or so he just stayed around the back of his enclosure trying to climb up and around the ares his enclosure was in, like he had lost his favorite thing in the world :)
So maybe, if you did take it out, he might just hand around where it used to be? They are all different so maybe some would and some just wouldn't.
 
I think it's not so much emotional attachment as much as feeling secure and relaxed when in his "den" which just so happens to be whatever object he has become "attached" to
 
Shes not.

Dont mean to be blunt but cant really put it any other way, you could remove the ornament and she would never act any different.

You could sell her to someone else and never see her again and as long as her needs where met she would be just as happy.

Reptiles aren't emotional animals.

Ben

Hey all, Following on in the spirit of the thread started by longgi "Can you train snakes" ( by the way longgi that was an exceptional thread, as were the responses) what is the learned opinion or the actual experience from our members in relation to the capacity of snakes having a long term memory, not just feed reponses or location of things like basking shelves or hides, i was blown away by some of the responses that were given in the spirit of longgi's thread so i am hoping we can have the same sort of discusion on this matter. I bring this subject up not just for the hell of it but due to an experience i have recently witnessed, About 6 years ago my older nephew (for Rob's sake) had to get rid of his 6 year old Diamond/Coastal intergrade as he was committed to working away and did not think it fair on the snake to just languish in it's enclosure for a week at a time so he sold it to a guy in Wellington NSW. So just recently he got a phone call from the guy he sold it too asking could my nephew again take ownership of the snake as the guy and his wife were about to have a baby and could not afford to have such a vicious snake around the baby, this confused my nephew as from a Hatchy this intergrade had been placid and well behaved, my nephew asked how long this behaviour had been going on and apparently it had been like it ever since he received it, it was not just vicious with him it was the same with everyone that went near it, so my nephew took it back no probs and from the moment he got it out of the shipping box it was almost like a little puppy wagging it's tail and bursting out of it's skin to be picked up by my nephew, he was a little reticent to start with because of what the guy had said and the intergrade now being nearlly 9ft he did not want to get tagged, but there was no tagging no hissing or sssing, it climbed around on him like a long lost friend and did all but lick his hand, this was not the only interesting thing about the situation ie when he had the snake for the first 6 years it had a green marble water bowl but my nephew had it packed away somewhere so he was using a brand new stainless steel pet bowl the problem was it would not go anywhere near it, my nephew tried about 6 other bowls he had on hand but to no avail, finally he spent the next 3 hours going through all the stuff he had packed away and found the original marble water bowl and gave it a good clean, as soon as he put it in the enclosure the snake went straight to it and started drinking before my nephew had a chance to finish putting it in the enclosure, he rang the guy and asked had he seen Odin drinking from a bowl and the reply was she was in an aviary with a hollow in the cement floor for the water and the snake used to lay in it,

Be that as it may Ben, but recently i put a post in a thread here about a Diamond my nephew has that formed an attachment to a particular water bowl ( as you can see from the above quote from my post) just seemed kinda attached to it from my standpoint :) ..........................................Ron
 
Yeh, I reckon they can. My 1.5yo beardie is attached to a particular piece of wood, and my boyfriends 7mo beardie is attached to a particular rock. Both of them get a little distressed if the wood/rock is removed, and they both sleep on the wood/rock haha.

And aside from random objects, my beardie will not sleep (literally, he will run around his tank and flail against the window) if I don't stroke his head/beard or hold him before the UV light goes off.. Like a needy child :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
One of our Darwins seems to be attached to a particular hide that she's too big to fit into now. No matter where I put it in her enclosure, or what other hides I put in there, she always goes back to that one hide. it's quite amusing to see this hide apparently "floating" an inch above the ground because she insists on trying to fit in it. One of our stimsons is the same, he has a see-through purple plastic box for a hide, it was actually just a stop-gap because I didn't have any appropriately sized hides for him, so I gave him this plastic box with a hole in the lid, but he's taken such a prefence to it that he gets to keep it now :)
 
Snakes and lizards are incredibly different creatures, you can't make those sorts of comparisons. I'd very confidently say that snakes DO NOT form bonds to people or objects, however I wouldn't be so confident to paint lizards with that brush.
 
I am sure we like to think they form bonds with us as well but i think it more of getting familar with things they are used to, i can nearly guarantee that when i let my stimson out she will either head towards the tv or to the spare room where the woma is kept, the woma always heads to the fridge every time, and even after redirecting her a dozen times the woma always heads back to the fridge:)
The Woma heading towards the fridge that's hilarious, I love it. Are the rats kept there?
 
Probably attracted to some sort of chemical given off by the toy that's being released into the warm environment of an enclosure. Plastics can release all sorts of chemicals into the air especially when heated. Many of these chemical compounds seem to mimic hormones found in living things, including humans and probably snakes. Maybe the Dinosaur just makes your critter horny?
I'm just a novice in snake keeping but know enough science to wonder if all the plastic plants, decore and stuff that gets placed in some enclosures is a good idea. China really wouldn't do much research into whether what goes into an enclosure is inert and safe for our animals in the long term.
 
The Woma heading towards the fridge that's hilarious, I love it. Are the rats kept there?

yes that is where her food is kept :) and she goes through 2 rooms to get there, even when i place her in another room within 15mins she is heading back to fridge :)
 
Reptiles aren't emotional animals.

Fair enough not to subscribe grief and loss to a snake. Though Shingleback behaviour on the loss of it's partner?

Never met an angry snake ;)

Isn't it true that even in regard to human behaviour we can only infer emotions from behavioural cues but never categorically know anothers 'feelings'?

I live in a world without certainty, and I'm even uncertain about that :cry:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top