As I pause again, I see him looking at me from the kitchen. From experience I know that when I am late putting out food or they are still hungry, they begin to gather in the kitchen between the counter where I store food bowls and the refrigerator. When I was holding and petting him, and become distracted and stop, he gives me a minute or so, then nipped my chin. That served to get me back into focus on him, and I resumed petting him. Wild vs. Captive Behaviors Ethology is a relatively new branch of science dealing with behavior.
Ethological techniques involve a great deal of observation of natural behavior.
It is slowly narrowing the gap between Bambi-ism and what the animal is actually doing, using observation of the animal's behavior, evaluating it against the animal's natural history and with what is known about similar species or species in similar habitats or organized along similar social structures. Watching our herps behavior is a necessary part of monitoring their health and response to captive conditions. Making incorrect assumptions about the meaning of behavior can be damaging to both reptile and human. A snake who becomes used to human contact only in conjunction with food and feeding times is going to begin responding to human contact in terms of such contact being a preliminary to feeding. This can result in feeding strikes and bites when no food is present.