The easiest way to start doing this is to just plan on spending about 20 min per snake every other day. When I want to work on acclimate a snake to use in programing, I get it out of its cage in the most gentle way possible. For bulls, this might mean waring cloth gardening gloves, or simply sliping on a pillow case over your hand to pick the snake up, in case its a striker. once it is out of its cage I want to make sure it feels supported as possible, almost cradling it. The last thing a nervous snake wants to have happen to it or to feel, is constriction or being restrained and the last thing you want to do is really grip the snake.



Then find a spot where the snake has no place to go if it gets out of your hands. Sitting on the couch is an example of a bad place to work with your snake. I worked with a very spastic baby Honduran milk by sitting down on the floor in a long hallway where there was no crevices or holes for the snake to go if it got out of reach. Thus, make sure there are no floor vents for it to crawl down into... Then just work on geting the snake to glide through your fingers over and over again and over your arms and hands, so that it smells and becomes comfortible being in your hands and on your arms. This takes practice for you and your snake but the more you do it the more you both learn what each wants and prefers and both of your confidences will go up. Yes you do learn from your snakes- and you must be willing to let the snake teach you what it wants, and it can be really cool for you to see the snake get more and more calm over time.



This is a start, its hard to put all of what I do down here, but thats the basic theory behind what I do. Watch the body language of your snake, and with time youll be able to really understand what it wants. Try to put yourself in the snake's skin so to speak and see your hands as REALLY large and how your arms might be strange but odly comfortible moving branches- be the tree, be the branch.



Working with your snakes can definatly be alot of fun and really relaxing in the process, because you have to let go of yourself and not think about what you want, but what the snake wants, and thats a good mental excercise as well!

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