Those are some beautiful photos my friend! How long have you had the pet snake? Pretty snake I must say. Nice work on the photography. Is that a hobby of yours?

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Thanks! Zelly has been with me for lets see... 19 years now I think it is... haha either way a LONG time. It has been quite the experience in my younger years trying to convince apartment complexes to let me keep her. I have had to hide a few times, others were totally understanding and thought she was cool. Yes, she is very pretty. She has been with me through it all. I will give her your compliment lol.

Photography is a hobby of mine that I find is really fun and fascinating. I always look for good opportunities to get out my camera. I have a Cannon EOS M50 Mirrorless camera. I love it, and it does 4K video too! You should check out my post taking photos of the deer in Washington state last year. I got some good photos there too :)

Your snake seems to be enjoying the sun! When I saw the thumbnail I thought I was looking at a wild snake, to which I immediately said "Nope!" Glad you didn't get face to face with an unknown serpent.

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Haha, I think I would have been freaked out too if it was a wild snake, despite being around one for a really long time. Zelly is a total sweet heart and does cute things in the yard like follow me around, curl around my shoes, let me take photos and close ups of her. She is even potty trained to go to the bathroom outside instead of her enclosure which makes me happy, because its less cleaning for me ;)

She get a lot of mixed reactions, and I totally get not everyone is a snake person. So I get it if people get grossed out or do not appreciate her. Yeah she totally loves it outside, so I take her out as much as I can when it's warmer out, but I can't so much in the colder months, unless we have a warm day. She is great to have though :)

My first instinct was the same. Without context, suddenly seeing that in the grass nearby would send me the other way!

What species is she? I don't recognize it.

She is a Darwin Coastal Carpet Python (Morelia spilota variegata). They are indigenous to Australia :)

That would explain why her species wasn't familiar to me. None of the pet shops I worked in ever sold that species.

Oh yeah! That's right you did work at some pet shops. What are the common breeds that got sold at the pet shops you worked at?

I got her from a friend of a friend who was going off to college who could not take care of her anymore. She was way smaller back then haha.

Mostly we sold Ball pythons, reticulated pythons, and Boa constrictors. And stuff such as milk snakes and corn snakes.

"I got a snake, man."

Hehe, and it's a lovely snake indeed. I used to know some swifts and anoles, so I'm personally convinced that there's a form of consciousness in reptiles. Obviously not the same as most human consciousness, but who are we to judge which is legitimate and worthy of life, and which isn't? You'd be the one to ask.... do snakes have unique personalities? To what degree can they rationalize and form judgments? Can they feel emotions? In a way, I'm asking you to describe to me what you think it's like to be Xelly.

Nice pics :D

Thanks! Yes she is. Anoles are awesome too. Their mating expressions are really funny. The ones I used to have did pushups and expanded their red throat fan. Super attractive I'm sure lol.

Hmm, that is an interesting question. They definitely have consciousness but from my observations it seems to be like they have two different kinds. One is more of a "hardwired" kind that drives basic behavior like eating, drinking, resting, crawling, yawning (Yes they yawn), mating, those types of activities, and the other seems much more "active".

The active kind really surprises me for a snake, they are smart enough to hide and camouflage themselves to avoid predation like bury themselves in the sand or grass or hang from tree branches to nab any food that passes by. Mine goes to the bathroom outside instead of in her enclosure, she also crawls up on the glass and will stay there when she wants to go outside. Really weird stuff like that.

I think they can feel basic emotions, because you will definitely know when she is mad or upset or is starting to get that way. They start getting really fussy with loud exhales of hissing, if you handle them too much, and that is a good indication they are getting irritated and to put them back and leave them alone for a while. They have also been known to give warnings too, so I think they show a good bit of intelligence, just no rationalization or seemly any sense of self.

To be her would be pretty boring (or relaxing depending on how you look at it). She doesn't do a whole lot on most days, just crawls around, eats and drinks and occasionally goes outside.

Thanks, good answer... makes sense. Supposedly us mammals evolved through a reptile-like common ancestor long ago. The way I've come to think of it (not sure this is accurate or not) is we've got a reptilian brain, and all it entails (pros and cons), plus we've also got a mammalian brain and a primate brain kinda stacked on top of that, with all the advantages and evolutionary baggage those entail. Your take on it sounds similar to other accounts I've heard, and the opinion of a lot of researchers. We can't really know what it's like to be anything other than who we are, I guess, but we can try to empathize with others. I guess a snake can't really understand how it feels to have limbs. :)

Yeah from what I know we have the archipallium which is the R-Complex or reptilian brain as it is commonly called, then over that we have the paleopallium which is the limbic mammalian brain and over that we have the neopallium which is the new mammalian brain or "neo-cortex" which is found in superior mammals like humans and primates.

Yep, We can certainly do our best to empathize and not commit evil deeds to each other and other species.

You got me curious enough to do some research and found some interesting things. According to national geographic, snakes DID used to have legs. They found some fossils of old snakes that actually had legs.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2015/07/23/a-fossil-snake-with-four-legs/

Crazy huh! and apparently they still carry the genes to grow limbs they are just turned off and would need the right mutations to flip the gene expression back on.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/snakes-grow-legs-evolution/snakes-grow-legs-evolution/

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