Can snakes get bored? This is a question that someone asked, a couple people emailed me about it
So it got me questioning it. Do they- do they get bored?
So then I questioned all of you on a poll on YouTube about two and a half thousand people answered and nine percent
Said yes, they do get bored
They're probably bored most of the time. About 60 something percent said they get bored
Sometimes if their enclosure is boring and then the rest said no, they never get bored
But before we get further into the video to try and figure this out a bit more, I want to show you this Franklin pin
It's now available on the go hoping shop the newest piece of merchandise. I really like the colors
I love the design based on Franklin the red eared slider
So it's a great addition to whatever you need to pin on
You can learn more with the link in the description or goherping.com/shop to order free international shipping
So research on this question is kind of lacking. I guess nobody really
Cares, hopefully there's a lot of you studying herpetology out there that can do more specified research like this and get to the bottom of
It now there are very very
very very
Varying answers to this question when I asked you for example mid-atlantic wildlife said no, they're probably bored
None of the time boredom is only experienced by animals of higher intelligence levels
From lack of mental stimulation enough with the personification and then on the complete opposite side
Fair horsemanship said they were smart animals capable of both operant and classical learning which are types of learning
Processes which dogs and humans have too and therefore they should be offered choices and an enriched life where they- when kept in captivity
PS bored may not be the word but under stimulated or stressed may be more appropriate
So yeah, I just went with bored. It's just the most like understandable
So I'll just keep saying bored in this video. So it doesn't sound like a word anymore
But obviously just that right there tells you how much variation there is when trying to answer this question
but the question that comes from this question is
What is
intelligence
Like what does intelligence mean. Is that the amount of memory an animal has or the number of commands it can learn and respond to?
Or the size of its brain. Lots of people mentioned that and I don't really know
Intelligence noun the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills
So because intelligence is a bit complicated to understand overall. What actually causes boredom
well
basically It's the lack of dopamine, which you've probably heard the word
dopamine thrown around a lot because like people talk about a lot like every time you get a notification a
little burst of dopamine chemicals in your brain and it makes it feel good and
Everyone's addicted to technology which not that it's not true
But I don't think it's a bad thing regardless that's not related
But a dopamine is basically that feel-good chemical that naturally occurs is not something you like take
Can you take it? (Subslave: short answer no) But do snakes actually have dopamine?
well
Although I can't really find exactly how much they have or exactly what it applies to
they do in fact have dopamine according to a few studies that I found which means that they can probably
Experience what we consider boredom based on that
I'm just going to assume that they can be bored
But that they're not necessarily always bored for the rest of this video now when would dopamine actually apply it to a snake?
chances are I would guess that as things like
When they go out and grab a meal
They'll get a burst of dopamine their body's happy that it's being fed because the food keeps them alive
Therefore the brain sends some chemicals of dopamine through there
Wherever it goes and they essentially reward themselves for getting that food. So it'll encourage them to find more food in the future
There's probably a chance that they also get dopamine when they say find a safe place to hide and stay away from predators
That content feeling might not be as strong as the excitement of getting food
But you can assume that that's also a bit of dopamine
This is just based on my research and what I'm trying to understand so I don't know if this is all scientifically correct
But hopefully I'm somewhat close. You can correct me if not
But the next question is where's the standard for that happiness versus that boredom?
it's going to vary between
animal species between snake species and even in between individual people
Like some people can just sit there and do nothing all day and will be perfectly content while others
Kind of have to always be doing something in order to not be bored
So it's basically the same between species and between snake species or whatever else an example of this is ball pythons
they don't do very much they got because they
Kind of just sitting in a ball
Why meanwhile look at something like sand boas like somebody mentioned in one of the comments. Sand boas are moving a lot more often
They bro around and explore while the ball python just sits there so you can assume that they're both pretty content
While doing different things. So like if a sand boa was sitting there static like a ball python
Then it might be getting bored a little bit because it's not getting that standard that that species needs
Does that make any sense another comparison you can think about is Vsauce did a video on
YouTube red where he was locked in a white room with just like a
Soylent and a toilet for two days and he essentially slowly went insane
I made a joke about this on Twitter also that this is what reptile tubs look like when they don't have anything in them
So a human in this condition
According to the studies cannot go more than two days without being driven insane
Meanwhile, people keep snakes in these tubs forever and they seem to do fine
or do they
Well, let's say quite controversial debate that you got there, but I'll probably give my opinion on that in just a little bit
But the final thing before we can try and figure this out a little more is how do you gauge the boredom?
How do you know if the animal is bored or not?
Movement is a snake moving around a lot
Content and enjoying itself, or is that just more stressed maybe even worse than boredom?
For example, you'll- when you get a new snake or any new reptile
Chances are they will be basically moving around their enclosure a ton for the first couple of days and not really resting because they're learning
The area. Is a new place. They've never been here and they're trying to find the most comfortable places
Some people say that they're exploring and enjoy doing this
Those are saying that they're stressed and just trying to find a safe place to go
It's- I'm losing my snake here, but that's also a gauge that people used to see if some part of husbandry is incorrect
For example if your ball python is moving around 24/7 day after day after day
There's a chance that is trying to find a nice area to rest
Because it's maybe too hot in the enclosure or too cold or too damp or too dry and it's a way to gauge if something
Is wrong in the husbandry. However at the same time
There's tons of ball pythons that love to move around and all of the husbandry is perfect
so maybe they're doing it voluntarily just for fun, or maybe
They're doing it because something is wrong and they can't find a nice place to go
so whether you can use movement to gauge how bored an animal is or how stressed an animal is is
Also, very different depending on the individual animal in the circumstances so is not an exact answer I can give you either you're probably starting
To get annoyed at how few exact answers I'm actually giving you in this video. I'm getting annoyed at least because this is so unclear
Oh god my shoulder fell asleep
now something people like to do especially with lizards not so much with snakes or at least I do it with my lizards is
Change up the enclosure a lot. This- when you do this, they're going to end up exploring around a lot more
The question is are they exploring again?
because they are stressed and can't find a place to go since it's a
Place that they don't recognize or is it because they're exploring it and enjoying themselves either way
This is stimulation for them. And I don't think that they're stressed most of the time while doing this
It might be a bit different for a snake, but when it comes to lizards any stimulation that you can get them
That's like not harmful is probably good because they are working their brain. They're thinking they're moving
They're getting exercise and all sorts of different things. So they're probably not going to be bored in these circumstances
But snakes just have a different standard than lizards
So it's so much harder to say when they are satisfied and when they are bored. Okay, Alex that's enough dodging the question
What's your actual opinion on whether snakes can be bored or not? Can snakes be bored?
Kind of. That's- I know that's not- that's not an actual answer
But let me explain my thinking through this. So when I'm personally bored what I do when I'm bored
I think about all the non boring stuff that I could be doing instead of being bored
Humans are really bad at living in the moment
We always think about the past in the future to the point that it emotionally kills us, Snakes don't do that
I believe that they live in the present. They live in the moment very nicely and I envy that because they do that
I don't think they think about what they could be doing that's more interesting than what they're currently doing when they're sitting in that little
dark, white tub
They're not thinking about how they could be explored goherping's house
they're not thinking about how they could be out exploring the wild and they're
Stuck in this little tub with nothing to do
I think they just deal with it and they just sit there
The difference is once you take them out of that area and put them in something larger and more fun with more stuff to do
They don't
Think back to that tub that they were in instead all of a sudden they are happier
But again, they're still living in the moment. So they just deal with what they got if you compare those two moments
Yes, it's going to be happier outside of that tub than it is inside the tub
But because it doesn't think about either of those while doing one or the other doesn't really matter
Many people are gonna say no because they've keep them in the tubs
But I think that it does matter because you can increase the quality of their life
By giving them the extra space even if they don't beg for that place
Or if they don't miss that open space when you take it away from them
Knowing that you can give them that and knowing that we've seen snakes to do so much better and it's mean to be so much happier
Even healthier whether that's because they get more exercise because it's they get more mental stimulation
I see that as a positive. So the word that everyone threw around the most was being
Content and I think that's a great way to put it instead of being bored
They can be content and uncontent. When a non content? Uncontent. When they're uncontent, they aren't content
They're stressed. They're scared. They might be hissy
and angry and they'll be trying to become content whether that's finding a place to go, finding a place to explore
Trying to escape their enclosure if that's what they're into whatever it is
Hopefully you're not left underwhelmed because I didn't really answer this. But this is another one of my conversation style videos Philip DeFranco style
Where I want to hear your opinion on this, I might do more of these I did one on can snakes
Love their owners. You can watch that here if you want
Spoiler. I don't really give an exact answer again
I kind of do the same thing here and break it down and analyze it and give my opinion, but that's my thoughts
I don't know whether snakes can get bored or not. Franklin pin is here waiting to end up in your mailbox
So again free international shipping if you go to goherping.com/shop. It's available until I run out of them
So who knows how soon that'll be?
make sure you grab one or two or five the more you buy the more money you save and
Posters also back on the site so you can grab those for pre-order. They'll be shipping out in about a week or so
So that's exciting. That's
Yeah
Go give your hopefully not bored snakes a hug and bye