My ball python will be 27 this year. There’s also a rescue king living with us.

Dogs and cats, even piglets, calves and lambs, are friends, family even. Rabbits, guinea pigs etc (all the small / round hairy pets) are skittish, snappy, and friendly only sometimes. Pretty much everything else is some animal you keep in a box and feed.

Our snake Ruby (12 foot, 80lbs, red-tail boa) has been to kindergartens, old folks homes, random family reunions, and about 100 pet stores. She has never wrapped herself around anyone, hissed, or done anything aggressive. It sounds like your friends with snakes don’t take very good care of them. Or they got troubled animals.

I don’t actually keep snakes because I’ve never had a living situation that I felt was healthy for them until after I no longer felt I could handle them to my standards. But I love the little buggers. The big buggers too lol.

Snakes don’t really have friends. They have friendly associates. They come to trust people, and as long as you respect that they aren’t social creatures, can be quite companionable despite not really having friends. Mutual respect and trust go a long way towards serving the same role as affection.

They can even enjoy human company. It’s just that the same kind of bond you get with social creatures isn’t there. It’s like the difference between a work buddy that you get along great with, but have no interest in outside of work; and someone that you have a deep connection to. Snakes are work buddies.

If a snake is voluntarily climbing around your neck, it ain’t going to choke you unless something weird happens. Usually, if it’s well socialized, you can pick it up and put it there, and nothing will happen. But you do run into snakes that aren’t used to being handled like that, or aren’t familiar with someone getting scared and reacting. But they still aren’t trying to kill you, they’re just reacting to fear. Kinda like if you run up to a stranger and grab them from behind. Most of the time, you’ll just get “hissed” at (which snakes don’t really do in this situation), but every now and then you get slapped.

People talk to them because people like talking to animals. It’s a monkey thing. I talk to my chickens all the time. They maybe understand ten words, but they like being talked to for whatever reason. Snakes aren’t as into being talked to, nor are other reptiles. But they tend to recognize a calm demeanor as non threatening, and may be soothed by a steady voice. But there’s plenty that could care less what we monkeys chatter about.

People that keep them have any number of reasons for doing so. But what I like about snakes is that they’re no bullshit. They’re gonna snake, all day every day. They feel nice to the touch, and sometimes enjoy being touched, and will give you plenty of warning if they aren’t in the mood. They’re also gorgeous.

I still vividly recall my first real exposure to a snake. Some guy went around local schools with exotic, but “safe” animals. And they must have been because nobody ever had any problems with his critters

But he had a massive snake. I can’t recall what kind it was. Boa or python, I’m not even sure of that, much less what kind. But this big ol’ gal was bigger around than my arm now and I used to lift regularly. She was cool to the touch, and curious about us little baby apes. She’d sniff with her tongue, and move her head to look at whatever kid was closest. You had to be super good to be one of the kids holding her while the guy talked about her, but if you were, and you were at the head, she was prone to hiding her head under arms. Which tickled, but was just awesome.

He had smaller snakes too, and those were almost as chill as that big one. I had one crawl up my sleeve once. It worked it’s way across my shoulders and pokes its head out of my collar. The guy was worried, but I was grooving on it, so the snake just stayed there until the end of the thing.

I dunno if schools would allow that kind of thing nowadays though. Which, as an aside, he didn’t just bring snakes, it was all kinds of critters; spiders, turtles (terrapins), scorpions, hissing cockroaches, mantises, all kinds of stuff. not all of that was handled by students obviously. But he always had snakes, and they were all super relaxed around kids.

Like I said, the only reason I don’t have one is that I couldn’t provide a healthy and optimal environment for a snake. I made the mistake years and years ago of trying to take care of an iguana. This house doesn’t have the space needed for a proper enclosure, so I ended up passing the iguana to a guy that was super dedicated to reptiles. Nowadays, I couldn’t do the work involved anyway, even if I had the room. Chickens are hard enough

Best pet I ever had was a ball Python. She was the absolute cuddiest creature I’ve ever met. If she didn’t know your smell she wouldn’t budge from her current spot, but if she did she’d slide right up your arm and ride on your shoulders all day. Unless you have boobs, then it’s straight to the bra.

She never bit anyone in the years I knew her. She even had a preference for movies, if you played something scary she would hide but if you played kids movies she’d move to your lap.

I have two; a male common corn snake and a male hognose. They are definitely not cuddly animals, as you stated. However, they absolutely can and do get to know their handlers, and learn how to be relaxed when handled - and they obviously enjoy it, since they often seek out being handled of their own free will (I usually open the enclosure when they’re “surfing” up against the glass and let them decide whether they want to slide into my hands). I’ve had them for a few years now and I have been bitten, but never out of “malice”. All biting incidents were my own fault due to inexperience, and the snakes mistaking my hands for their meal. A snakebite from a non-venomous or very mildly venomous snake is no worse than a bee sting. If you have cats, you’ve probably been through worse than whatever a snake can do to you.

All in all, could recommend!

Snake tax:

I have one and love her very much!!

I don’t have time to elaborate on all questions at the moment, but snakes definitely don’t ever try to kill people out of aggression. Little nips can happen if your snake is defensive/ fearful or mistakes you for food (which, food for them is usually the size of a rat), but there is never malice behind it.

Most snakes aren’t really social, so they probably don’t even recognize different people as anything more than warm trees that smell slightly differently. Which for me personally is perfect, since I couldn’t care for a social pet whenever I fall into depressive episodes. It’s also just nice how clean and low maintenance they are. My snake only eats every 2 weeks or so, and poops maybe every 2-4 weeks. If I go on a trip for a few days, she doesn’t even notice that I’m gone. Plus, she’ll live for 20-30 years.

edit: more snake pros I just remembered:

• They just hang around, so no zipping after a hyperactive pet. I find it quite calming.
• They don’t bite or scratch anything in their enclosure, so you don’t have to constantly change out decorative items (you should still rotate them for enrichment)
• Completely silent, except for the occasional fart at night
• Probably can be kept solitary, I’m actually still waiting for the scientific consensus on that. In comparison, having a solitary rat, bunny or guinea pig is just plain unethical because they’re so social.
• They’re trainable! Not to the extent that a dog or a horse is, but you can teach them basic shifting behavior which really helps reduce stress from handling. Lori Torrini is the biggest resource on snake training right now, it’s amazing what she achieves with her own snakes!

Quite a lot of perfectly harmless snakes around, including most pet snakes, and even the non-harmless ones usually won’t try to actively kill humans.

I’ve never had a snake, but I’ve had pet insects before, who I’m pretty sure didn’t have the mental capacity to like me or even realize that I’m caring for them. With those kind of pets, it’s not about having a companion or building an emotional bond them, they’re just interesting animals to observe. It’s a different kind of pet.

With every snake I’ve handled, maybe a dozen species of domestic pets and wild ones, they’ve always been more afraid of me than I am of them. Even the rattlesnakes on hiking trails. One small part of their body is a defensive weapon while I have four limbs and tools. They can’t see well, they’re pretty dumb, and their mouth might not even be large enough to bite me.

They don’t really have mammalian affection but snakes do seek warmth. My chainlink kingsnake was almost 2m long and he wanted nothing more than to hold onto me while I did things. He could have constricted but I wasn’t posing a threat and he was fed regularly on a predictable schedule. On feeding and shedding days I didn’t handle him to minimise that conflict. The reward of having that pet was peaceful coexistence with something I have a mild phobia of and being able to see the behaviours that humanise it. They’re all the fun of an aquarium but you can hold the fish.