Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm curious to see how much people physically handle their snakes and the impact it has on the snakes temperment. I don't handle mine very often. To me snakes are more "look at" pets and lots of handling stresses them out. Mine get handled no more than once a week unless its necessary to clean the cage etc., etc. Even then its usually to a very, very short time span. You would think mine would be aggressive, but they are all very tame. Is it the fact that I always handle them very gentle and never confine them that calms them down? Or is it just that I handled them quite a bit as babies? Its very hard not to handle the new additions

I'm sure that people that have only 1 or 2 may handle them constantly, but what about people with 10 or more? Has anyone noticed a profound difference?

Sorry so long. Travis

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1.4 Columbians
2.7 Kenyans
0.3 Ball Pythons
1.0 Borneo Blood
0.0.2 Blue Tounged Skinks
3 Dogs
3 Cats
1 Ferret
1 Wife

I have 4 snakes and handle mine inbetween feeding for 2-3 days in a row,my BP has an attitude since I've had him in Dec and my corns are looking to come out and venture and my Boas, well she's more"leave me alone" type. I take them and place them on branches i've made while i do things around the house, they seem to like the different obstacles to climb on, but handeling my BP as much as I can to try to calm his temper doesn't seem to change things and holding the others keeps them the same as well. Someone asked me if one were to go 3 months without holding, would they be harder to handle?
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When you don’t know where you’re going, you have to stick together just in case someone gets there

I'd have to say it makes a HUGE difference/effect. In my case, the determining factor in whether or not I would work with Boas and whether or not I would keep Mr Attitude.
I had been working with colubrids for several years and most were quite easy to handle. An occassional bite from one of my kings or even less painful, from one of my rosy boas. One of my kings would turn your hand black and blue because she always went through a mock kill, constricting for several minutes before she would release. I decided that I wanted to work with BCI and purchased Mr Attitude from Jim Hopkins. He was only a few months old when I received him. On the day he arrived he tagged me two times when I took him out of his shipping container. Not a good start and over the next few days he did not behave any better. I just kept thinking of how painful it would be if an adult boa bit me in the same manner as that female king. Considering the size difference, I was concerned. I posted here and got the usual Macho replies. I ignored those and got a pair of thick cotton gloves. The first time I handled him with the gloves he bit me 50 times, yes I counted. He was breathing heavy, obviously stressed out, but just too tired to keep biting. I kept handling him every day until I could finally handle him without the gloves. Just a couple of weeks. Yes, he puts on a show sometimes, lets me know "Not Today" but for the most part he is very handleable. He is my favorite and was well worth the work and pain.

I think it depends on the personality of each snake. I have some that were gentle as babies and stay that way. I some that were aggresive as babies and stayed that way reguardless of how much I handled them, just except them as they are.