In the battle of dumb and dumber, who wins, ball pythons or hognose snakes? If you had to point to a behaviour that was 10/10, epitome of dumb, who wins and why?
Okay, so, the thing is they're just such different flavors of dumb it's too much like comparing apples and oranges to make a call.
With hognoses, you can tell that the lights are on but nobody's home. They've never had a coherent thought in their lives. I watch my specialist boy Sirius try to eat the walls of his enclosure at every single meal. They get mad at you for re-organizing things. They hiss at their enclosure furnishings. Sirius is scared of phones.
No-thoughts animals
Ball pythons, though...the thing is, they're not, like, dumb dumb. They're just really sensitive. Mentally they all look like this.
Don't get me wrong! They do silly things and they're so absolutely goofy! But most of their silliness is driven by how sensitive they are. Scared of reflections? Confused about how to enter/exit hides? They just have a lot of feelings and they get worked up real easy.
They have thoughts, they're just thoughts that are mostly focused on how unfair life is to them specifically
peanut butter likes to camp on my pulse points, is this because it's warmer there or does he like the feel of my heartbeat or what? he's been sitting here for a few minutes now just doing nothing, and a week ago he sat wrapped around the crook of my elbow for a solid half hour seeming perfectly content to just Hang There
i made sure to have my other hand under him to try and help him feel secure and not think he was gonna fall but after a few minutes of him just not moving at all i stopped worrying about it
Wrists and elbows are just really convenient places for ball pythons to wrap up and hang out! They're areas that feel stable and more secure than the rest of your arm, so I think it's less about being able to feel heartbeats or anything than just being a comfortable spot. Most of the ball pythons I've ever met really like hanging out in those spots, too!