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What does a snake feel like?

Started by Cassandra LeMay, April 25, 2014, 07:33:00 AM

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Cassandra LeMay

Has anyone here ever touched a snake and can offer me some description of what the scales of a living snake feel like to the human tactile sense?

I might need a few descriptive words for a story at one point, but just looking for a few words didn't seem "big" enough for the literature board.
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Oniya

A snake's skin is cool and dry (not slimy at all, even with water-dwelling snakes), very supple, but muscular at the same time.  The scales are present, but not overly so.  (This may be a little different with larger specimens - the ones I've held were no bigger than two fingers in thickness.) The closest non-living thing I've touched that gives the same feel is woven bead-work using tubular beads instead of the doughnut-shaped ones.
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Friday

Larger snakes feel kind of like a basketball, if basketballs were warm and had flexing muscles.

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Friday on April 25, 2014, 09:21:01 AM
Larger snakes feel kind of like a basketball, if basketballs were warm and had flexing muscles.
Now that is an analogy I can understand, even if I haven't played basketball since my schooldays.

Quote from: Oniya on April 25, 2014, 07:43:21 AM
A snake's skin is cool and dry (not slimy at all, even with water-dwelling snakes), very supple, but muscular at the same time.  The scales are present, but not overly so.
How "cool" would you say is "cool" in this regard? Just a little bit colder than a human's skin, or rather noticeably colder?

(And thanks for the answers so far, both of you.  :-))
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Friday

Snakes are cold-blooded, so they're going to be pretty much room temperature.  (I just remembered that the time I got to hold a boa, it was at an outdoor festival in the summer, hence the warmth.)

Oniya

*points up*  Like that.  Cool in that there is no 'internal' heat to it, not cold like something that conducts heat away.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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Requests updated March 17

Cassandra LeMay

Thanks again, Friday and Oniya, for giving me some ideas.  :-) I should have thought of the cold-blooded aspect. As this is for a character who is actually warm-blooded, but partially covered in scales I guess I'll focus the description on dry, supple, and being just a bit different in texture to the rest of her skin, but not worry about temperature.
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Drake Valentine

Pet store. Some have snakes and I am sure they will let you touch em. Assuming they are not posionous.

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AEvum

Quote from: Drake Valentine on April 26, 2014, 02:17:11 AM
Pet store. Some have snakes and I am sure they will let you touch em. Assuming they are not posionous.
I would assume pet stores wouldn't carry poisonous snakes.

You might want to mention that snakes shed their skin. By that I mean now and then mention that the skin feels more tattered and broken as it gets closer to shedding time and more smooth after shedding.

KatKwik

The one I touched was a two metre python that totally changed my ideas of what I thought a snake would feel like.

She was warmer than I expected, with rippling muscles that moved a little when she was stroked. Her skin was tough but smooth. I couldn't feel the scales at all. The thing that comes to mind is a stress ball, though I don't think she would have liked me much if I squeezed her.
             
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