Perception of pain by reptiles

[Dakota]

Like slowly boiling a live toad/frog? Continue to raise up the temperatures over a LONG period of time, and eventually it would be to the point that the frog is dead before it notices it is was being killed.

This would only occur if it was a slow process, though. If you stuck a 280 degree F heating pad under the snake, surely it would feel it, since it wasn't a gradual process.. besides the heat being transferred via glass floor (or whatever the cage is made out of), in which that would take no time at all.

[Richard.C]

Most burns with lights occur because its a small surface area of heat on a large surface area of snake so rest of snake not touching bulb is cold,so they probably feel cold

In nature they dont have that issue and can easily raise temps over whole body at once

Ive noticed with carpet pythons ,if they put head face near a bulb they feel its hot pretty fast,not so fast with random parts of the body

[Scotts1au]

Are they sensing heat with heat pits ?

[Dood]

Perhaps the 'pain' or discomfort associated with being cold overrides the localized pain of the heat source.

Maybe the rotting food in their stomachs is more life threating than a burn and the snake must make a hard decision of which is worse.

[Richard.C]

Are they sensing heat with heat pits ?

Id say so scott, they do it often when active

[Pascal Paradis]

Like slowly boiling a live toad/frog? Continue to raise up the temperatures over a LONG period of time, and eventually it would be to the point that the frog is dead before it notices it is was being killed.

This would only occur if it was a slow process, though. If you stuck a 280 degree F heating pad under the snake, surely it would feel it, since it wasn't a gradual process.. besides the heat being transferred via glass floor (or whatever the cage is made out of), in which that would take no time at all.

You hold this from'' An incovenient truth'' admit it

[Lea]

It could be that extreme heat or cold causes a type of sensory neuropathy, where a nerve or group of nerves experience a loss of sensation or numbness to the insult, before it has a chance to experience pain. It has been suggested that because animals rarely come across things that are actually too hot to touch in the wild, that the need to develop a "withdrawal reflex" from pain is somehow lessened, possibly meaning that the heat sensors are able to detect a warm place to bask, but they have a slowed response to pain if it gets too hot, for example, because in the wild it's simply not a requirement. Hence, a withdrawal reflex from a sharp pain, not related to heat or cold, would be faster and possibly greater and much more obvious to a human observer.