#the twitch

[scoriarose]

Your blog came up in a Google search about the twitch. All of the other ones say it is a mating behavior, but your two young females twitch at each other?

This is a greeting. We will wave to say hello to a child we don't know, and we'll wave to say hello to our adult bootycall. A wave is not in itself sexually explicit- it's a greeting. The hognose twitch is not sexually explicit- it's a greeting. Sometimes they go into a sort of trance and just twitch so hard they'll force the air out of their lungs in little hisses while repeatedly bumping into the other with their nose. Still not sexual in nature.

A child will hug its mother to express affection. Sexual partners will also hug one another to express affection. A human child hugging it's mother is not trying to have sex with their mother, just like a young hognose twitching at an adult/baby or slithering over another hognose is not trying to have intercourse with them.

Hognoses are not the only ones to use this physical display as a greeting. See this adult rattlesnake inform multiple other snakes passing by (most are babies) they are friendly:

 Some respond in kind, another snuggles with them. Snake culture involves a lot of cuddling, and I think that's wonderful! ❤

Adult hognoses will greet other adults and may try to initiate coitus afterward, which includes much more than just a twitch. It usually involves the male stimulating the female in her erogenous zones and she may choose to accept or reject him. Twitching is not this stimulation or attempt at intercourse.

It is social behavior that only occasionally leads to romance between adults, and friendship/playtime/cuddletime for babies.

[and-i-stare-at-your-hands]

THERE IS A MONSTER IN ME AND YOU PUT IT THERE

Wentworth // 8.19 // Last Stand //

[thirstybtsthoughts]

👀

[soulmusicsongs]

The Twitch - Danny White (The Twitch / Why Must I Be Blue, 1963)

[elsinore-snores]

I wrote a really good novella in June but it's too depressing to publish ever but wow! Guys it was good!

[scoriarose]

In your past posts you've talked about "The Twitch" not being just for mating, but everything else I see says it is part of the mating behavior. Do you have any sources?

Aside from being a first hand source and seeing it from my own girls on a daily basis since they were only months old (which has only ever led to playing) it's pretty common knowledge that is easily observable. When startled they sometimes do this with their keepers, who they are not trying to mate. She got most of her twitches out of her system before I started filming, but you can see my Sakura do the twitch for me after being startled (she is reacting to being frightened):

The Rattlecam often documents "the twitch" and mating behaviors of snakes. I'd love to have a wild hognose cam, but until then we've just got similar species to learn from. Here's documentation of the twitch between an adult and multiple other individuals:

You can see they are just saying hello, and they do not attempt to initiate mating behavior demonstrated in other videos below. When you see the other clips, and see this often in the livestream you'll see most of the time the twitch is just a hello and does not escalate. Most of the communication in the above clip is between an adult and babies.

Here is a video of gartersnakes rubbing themselves on a female- it's gartersnake mating season so behavior like this is often seen on the live cam. Hognoses do similar, and if you look up breeding videos that go on longer than just the introduction you'll likely see the male trying to shoot his shot in a similar way.

The video below of one of the more well known Rattlesnakes demonstrating mating behavior- or well, the attempt which the females do not reciprocate his amorous feelings:

You can see him do a twitch as well as rubbing his body on hers. She tolerates his antics but he is not successful at wooing her. While Thor's attempts are romantic in nature, babies climbing over adults aren't. Look at these babies with their trusted caretaker in the video below:

This is Thea, a female rattlesnake. These babies are piled on top of her and also touching one another are platonically bonding. Think of it like the skin-to-skin human mothers do with our own newborns. But- she's not their biological mother! How do we know? She certainly is acting like a mother, right? She's still pregnant. She hasn't had her own babies yet! It's not physically possible for them to be her babies, yet still she watches over them. Cuddle piles are pretty common.

If you are looking for more scholarly articles, I encourage you to do your own research and see what you can find. It's good to not stop at one source as multiple can often give you a fuller picture not limited to one researcher's possible bias.

[scoriarose]

Hognoses do the twitch to say hello! Some think it is exclusive to breeding only, but that's not true at all. She saw her sister in the log and is saying hello. For more info on the twitch check out the description in the video!