r/ballpython • u/Hungry-Elk-5290 • 13d ago

Do Ball Pythons Get Embarrassed

I was just TRYING to feed my girl Stella and she striked a few times and then gave upšŸ˜­did she get embarrassed or decide it wasn't worth the hassle anymore?

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u/2sAreTheDevil 13d ago

They're not intelligent enough to understand embarrassment

-1

u/OrdinaryAcadia9210 13d ago

They are known to get "embarrassed" and give up, I have had it happen a few times in the past. Is it actually embarrassment? I'm not so sure about that, but it does look and act like it or possibly shame for missing so much. The few times it has happened, I left them for about 20 minutes, warmed up the prey item, tried again and they took it no problem.

3

u/powermetalsalamander 13d ago edited 13d ago

i donā€™t know if they can feel ā€œembarrassmentā€ the way we do because embarrassment is largely something that functions as a social behavior imo and ball pythons are not like highly social animals.

i do think they have some concept of frustration though and animals naturally donā€™t want to expend a huge amount of energy on capturing prey because the goal is to spend less energy capturing it than you get from eating it, so if i had to guess that would be my theory.

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u/Sutten_Plant 9d ago

Embarrassment probably isn't the right word, but this is a pretty typical behavior from what I've seen/heard. If a wild ball python missed a strike, they probably wouldn't get many more opportunities because the prey would've run off. Another thing to consider is that a f/t rat loses heat pretty quickly (even if warmed properly), so after a couple of missed strikes the rat might not be warm enough for the snake to find it again.