Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd like to train my kingsnake to push a button that will activate a mousetrap which wll kill a mouse and then deposit the dead mouse into the snake cage through a trap door.

Has anyone done this yet?

Ever heard of Pavlog?

Yeah pavlov and his dogs. However, its more like you can condition snakes do somethings like know their feeding time, move to one end of the cage when its hungry. Basic things like that which revolve around a snakes main incentive, food. It wouldnt be possible to train you snake to move in circles, or give you a kiss! However some people claim that there snakes can reconize them. I find this to be some what true, as when i hold my snakes they are calm and have very little tongue flicking, but if some one else hold them they are all over the place, even people who are well versed in reptiles. Basically you can condition you snake to do some things involved with food. Ive also heard of people who have a foam stick and they tap there snake on the head when its not feeding time, or when it is feeding time, to aviod getting bitten. Hope some of this ramble was helpful-Nick

if you could train a snake to do that, it would be rad! you'd probably have to start the training when it is a hatchling tho.

That would be very interesting to see if it could be done. Experiment, and be sure to post any results. I wouldn't nessecarily say a snake could be "trained" but I did have a ball python that knew when his feeding time was, and would be waiting on the cool side of the cage, where I always fed him. I could get him to climb from hand to another with simple hand movements (doesn't sound that interesting, I guess you had to see it. Basically, I could move my free hand above his head, and he would actually sway back and forth, almost like he was dancing.) He also recognized non feeding days as the time he got to come out, and would climb up the side of the cage when I approached it, and crawl right out on to my hand/arm. I would not recommend this due to salmonella risks, as well as the possibility of being bitten, but as a prank I would do with people the first time they met Blade, I would actually open my mouth and he would stick his head inside, and I could close my lips around him. lol. Definitely had a freak-out factor. But he was beyond tame, calmer than any puppy, and much more cute. anyways, good luck with the training experiment.

Yes, this is very common.

The button with the mousetrap is a bit simplistic, though. Thats fine for most boids but the colubrids are more advanced. I have a corn snake who can now order his own rodents online. Although I only allow him to us a debit card with a very low limit. Last time he had access to a credit card he ordered 8 females of various color morphs. Horny little bugger.

It would be very interesting to see if you could train a snake in the manner you are talking about. I did a research project on learning and memory in black rat snakes and found that they can in fact "learn" to navigate a maze. Other research on corn snakes has produced similar results. It never hurts to try.