After our little Mexican wakes up and starts moving about his home, he will often spend a good bit of time pressing his nose against the glass and begins following his reflection. After we take him out and handle him for a while, he'll do the same thing for a time after returning him to the vivarium.
It does not look like he is looking for an escape route, for he'll stay in one small area and go back and forth with his nose planted firmly against the glass. I read years ago that snakes cannot see the glass real well, so to them it may be an invisible barrier that they keep trying to go through.
After about 15-30 minutes of doing this, he will lose interest in the reflection or glass and explore the vivarium, burrow, etc.
Anyone else have a snake doing this?
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
Our Mex obsessed with his reflection
Replies (1)
Yes,....this is very typical for snakes to do. Although it looks as though it's following it's reflection, it is not,...snakes are "programed" to see movement, and use this stimulus in conjunction with scent particles in the air that they continually monitor with their tongue. Every time the tongue is retrieved, it goes across an organ in the roof of the mouth known as the "Jacobson's Organ", this acts like a miniature computer and tells the brain of the snake what to do, and how to react to any given situation.......your snake is basically unaware of the glass because of the lack of scent stimulus. It can only be attracted to movement on the other side. Also, since it's own reflection is following the snake around with it's every movement, and moves when the snake moves, this makes it impossible for the snake to detect. If the snake was lying motionless, then something moved in front of it, the snake would instantly be attracted to the movement and flick it's tongue to collect particles in the air to be analized. The snake would then be able to know if what is moving is a possible meal, or if what it saw moving is a possible threat, and is something to flee from. Your snake is simply looking for a place that it thinks it wants to go to, this is just the way that snakes are "programmed" to be, a simple brain, for a simple animal. ..............hope this helped some............Doug
-----
Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!
