I have a 16 y/o female who has only ever been fed in her cage. I worry about her the least when it comes to sticking my hand in the cages. As long as my hands don't smell like rat, I've got nothing to worry about.

All the rest of my snakes get fed in their cages. I like opening the lids to see their little faces come up to see if I've brought food. I wait for the excited ones to calm down and tongue flick (meaning that they can smell that there's no rat nearby) and then I pick them up.
I don't know about other collections but none of my ball pythons will eat with the lid open on their tub. The boa will eat anything, anywhere, anytime, as will the kingsnake.

I haven't been bitten by one of my own snakes in several years...and the last time one of mine bit me, I had been handling a rat just a minute or two before opening the cage.

~jenny
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

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