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My Snake Says No

WolfKin

WolfKin

New member
My yearling anery boy, D'Argento, seems perfectly healthy, strong muscles, good eater, etc. But sometimes when I have out, he shakes his head back and forth, like he's saying no. What is he trying to tell me? Anyone else hear of this? Thanks.
 
When I take my snake outside the house, he does that too. He's just probably smelling or something. I dont know. Its nothing to worry about though.
 
I definitely notice that when I take my guys outside and they catch a breeze. They sway with it for some reason.
 
P.S. Its not just corn snakes either. My Green Tree Pythons, and my Amazon Tree Boas do it too!
 
They're doing what's called "Scanning" . . . the location of the eyes
on the sides of the head make their veiw of what's around them much
different from what we see. Our site line merges on a point in front and
it makes the things we see more "3 D" . . since their eyes are located on
the sides of the head and each eye facing mostly to the sides, they
constantly move their heads rapidly from side to side to see objects
directly in front of them clearer. . . hard to explain without getting really
technical, but they sort of have a blind spot right in front of them
constantly, so they're just trying to see around that blind or low vision
area.
 
That's so cool! I'd like to catch mine doing that sometime .. but poor little guys having a blind spot all the time, I think that would get annoying haha.
 
Spurticus that is really cool, mine do that only when I take them outside as well, never in the house. What is it called so I can read up about it more, I find it very interesting and have always wondered what they doing.
 
Asbit said:
Spurticus that is really cool, mine do that only when I take them outside as well, never in the house. What is it called so I can read up about it more, I find it very interesting and have always wondered what they doing.
Click to expand...

Called Scanning.

I learned about it from a guy that did a feeding program at one of the
local reptile shows. He said when they're hunting, or moving around
in an unfamiliar place, their heads will occasionally move rapidly from
side to side so then can get a more detailed image of what's directly in
front of them. I noticed it in mine to only when I took them outside to
let them crawl around and get some exercise and sunlight. It ususally
takes them a good five / ten minutes before they start crawling sometimes
because it's unfamiliar territory. They start scanning and move a little, and
start scanning again. I notice even when they're crawling, their heads are
constantly moving back and forth. . . . . . .it's not that they can't see in
front of them, but with us (humans), our eyes are in the front of our heads
and looking forward. Our vision sight is such that it converges on a focal
point and we get a "3D" image of what's in front of us (in detail). It's like
putting a single finger up in front of your nose and then open and close
your eyes alternating one side to the other (open one, close the other, then
alternate the open and closed eyes). The finger seems to move side to
side, but in fact, what's happening is your sight is switching from one
view of the side of the finger to the other. . . .open both eyes and you see
the one finger in one spot, but in sort of a 3 dimentional view. . . . Snakes
can see forward to a point as their eyes can turn forward, but with the
eyes located on the sides of their heads and further apart, they have a
much wider (panoramic) view than we do, but their forward vision is Flat
and unfocused due to basically looking down their faces. By Scanning
they, they get a more better view of what's directly in front of them even
though it's not multi dimentional, it's more detailed.
 
Spurticus said:
They're doing what's called "Scanning" . . . the location of the eyes
on the sides of the head make their veiw of what's around them much
different from what we see. Our site line merges on a point in front and
it makes the things we see more "3 D" . . since their eyes are located on
the sides of the head and each eye facing mostly to the sides, they
constantly move their heads rapidly from side to side to see objects
directly in front of them clearer. . . hard to explain without getting really
technical, but they sort of have a blind spot right in front of them
constantly, so they're just trying to see around that blind or low vision
area.
Click to expand...

Essentially, the scanning movement increases their depth perception. Something closer will seem to move faster than something farther away. Rats do the same thing.
 
Its a good thing you posted this question. Just the other day I had one of the ball pythons out and my stubborn corn Foamy started doing this as he was looking at one of the pythons. It scared me at first and then I remembered this thread. Boy does it look weird to see a snake do this.
 
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