• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Hey, science nerds!

Kels88

Kels88

New member
A bit of intro to the question: there was a study in the 30s with rats where 100 were stroked for 5 min. a day from the time they were newborns. 100 other rats were the control and lived regular cage lives.
Then science took out all of their thyroid glands
After the 1st week, 13 untouched rats were still alive (not too shabby, considering the importance of the thyroid gland)
And 79 of the "loved-on" ones were still alive.

Study after study relates physical touch to health in rats, monkeys, children, etc., but I don't think one has been done on reptiles.

Finally, the question:
do those of you with lots of snakes, especially old ones, notice any health differences in the ones you handle regularly?
Do snakes that are handled live longer?
 
Purely anecdotal, but I haven't noticed any difference.

Also keep in mind that the animals that have seen this phenomenon are animals that have social structures, some fairly complex, that are known to be integral to healthy individuals. All of these animals are also raised and cared for by their maternal parent.

Snakes (at least none that I know of, but please someone correct me if I'm wrong) are not cared for at all once they hatch and don't have social structures like the mammals you speak of. So I would hypothesize from that alone, that they wouldn't have similar reactions to touch that mice/rats/monkeys/people do as its not part of their "normal" development.

Just my 2¢.
 
What does the thyroid gland have to do with it?? An easy way to make their health fail?
 
Yes, Nanci, I think that's it.

Dunno about social contacts in snakes but handling is probably also associated with giving the snake a closer inspection for well-being, and for a cornsnake, giving the snake some exercise moving thru your hands, or hanging on to your arm, and both of those would be beneficial to the snake's health too.
 
Nanci, you're right. Removing the thyroid was just a quick way to make the health consistently worse.

Matthew- that's the page I was on and why I asked. But I'm wondering if it's more than an "I need a friend/parent/mate" thing and more of a "physical contact is just healthy" thing.

wstphal- I definitely see the benefit for exercise and a brief "check-up" but I'm really curious about the effects in dramatic medical recovery or long-term well-being.

Thanks for the insight everyone! I'm a curious soul :)
 
Hmm... snakes are not social, so I can't see them enjoying the experience having to do with it. However, if there was a difference, I would think it had to do with exercise and mental stimulation, not necessarily happiness.

I think it WOULD make a positive difference, though.
 
Kels88 said:
Matthew- that's the page I was on and why I asked. But I'm wondering if it's more than an "I need a friend/parent/mate" thing and more of a "physical contact is just healthy" thing.

wstphal- I definitely see the benefit for exercise and a brief "check-up" but I'm really curious about the effects in dramatic medical recovery or long-term well-being.
Click to expand...

For social animals, contact has a HUGE impact on health & well-being. I don't know about snakes. It would be interesting to test 1-3x weekly eyeball checks + 1-3x weekly hook-to-exercise (no human contact) vs 1-3x weekly human handling in a clutch of corns, and very doable -- breed a pair of healthy corns, any common morph, hatch the clutch, sex them, then coin flip the males to handling vs exercise, then coin flip the females ditto, then carry it out for a year, look at weight, length and overall condition of snakes at 1 year.

Maybe if I get some babies next year I will try it!
 
I'd love to hear the results if you did! I haven't got the space for a clutch right now though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top