How often do you handle your snake?

[msubigdawg]

This is a question for everyone. I just want to see the differences between everyone. I want to know how often you handle your snakes. I usually handle each of mine once a day. The only times this doesnt happen is after feeding. I usually leave them alone for 1 or 2 days or more, it depends on the size of the meal. I know a lot of folks say it will stress the snake and be bad for the snake. I feel if the snake is use to the handling from young age it will know no difference. Mine seem to handle it just fine and don't seem stressed. So now I just want to know what everyone else does, just to see the difference in each persons care.

[thunder]

i have a lot of snakes, so they dont all get handled often. however, i make sure that they are all handled enuff to be trustworthy. animals that i am still working on taming get more attention than others. plus, a few of my favorites get more of my time.

[Derrick]

depends on my mood and how many kids my daughter drags over to check stuff out. My corns and boas get a fair bit of handling. My JCP's not quite as much as they are on the jumpy side and scare the kids a bit.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Funny subject title.

[Katt]

There are some snakes, I handle almost every day, if just to take them out for a minute and have them crawl through my hands. A few, I'd say once a week.

Handling the snakes is part of the fun. No point having them if you can't handle them or see them.

[mark129er]

Jeff, get your mind out of the gutter !!

[Derrick]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
Funny subject title.

hehe i was going to leave that one alone:) too funny

[Jeff_Favelle]

LOL!!

[Invictus]

hahaha... Jeff, you card.

I handle my snakes as often as possible. When you have 50+ it's not possible to spend time with each of them each day, LUCKILY... ugh, as if cleaning them wasn't ENOUGH of a chore, hehehe...

I've said it a million times, NOT handling your snakes to the point where you completely trust EACH OTHER is doing your snakes a serious injustice. msubigdawg, you hit the nail on the head when you said that the snake knows no difference. I can tell you, some of my snakes, you can yank them right out of their cage and put them on your lap, and they just go "blah....." like you don't even exist. THIS is the ultimate in trust. And obviously the snake is not stressed... which means the handling has done at least SOME good.

[jwsporty]

Agreed Ken, handling them calms them down. Now having said that, let me go put on my gloves, time to give the Dwarf Retic some quality time...hehehe. Otherwise I try and handle everyone once a week when possible

[bistrobob85]

Well handling frequency really should depend on the specie... If i took out my emerald tree boa each day, i'm pretty sure that he would stress out and die on me, or bite tons of bleeding holes into my skin!!! My boa constrictor gets handled every once a week and is so tame i would leave it around my cat ( it's actually my sister's cat, that's why i dont do it, hehe! ). I take my ball python out every once in a week and i take my baby dumeril's boa out every two or three days cause she still needs some taming...

[Invictus]

That's a good point in that some species react differently. When we had ball pythons, we NEVER handled them. And as a result, feeding was much less of a headache.

[Tim_Cranwill]

I rarely handle them for recreational pursoses. Kind of opposite from Ken, I find it to be an injustice to handle them <b>too</b> much. They aren't cats.

I just let them be and enjoy them when I am cleaning cages or checking up on them. I'm not really saying it's wrong at all to handle your snakes, it's just not how I do things. But that's a whole different debate. :)

[Kevin McRae]

I handle mine at least once a week......along with my lizards.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

I have great trust in my boa and male blood python, so much so that I can leave them alone for 1 wk + and take them out without any reaction(besides moving its body) on the snakes part and I feel just fine. During my boa's RI treatment, I was giving him oral meds, and somehow he managed to get his lower lip stuck on one of his front teeth. With bare hands, I was able to put my finger/s into his mouth and get it "un-stuck". He DID NOT even try to close his mouth on my fingers. I consider this absolute trust in that boa. My blood male will hiss occasionally, but I can touch his tail/head/any part without him recoiling, female blood hisses more often and gives the dead man stare on occasion, but is pretty good though she will flinch sometimes. Kenyan female is awesome and doesnt react/flinch at all, male is very jumpy. I normaly check the herps cages daily-every two days, but they only end up comming out once a week or less. Im slowly working with my male kenyan. My friends female blood(stays at my house) is great, occasional hiss and recoil and stuff, but pretty good, never strikes. Pictus geckos come out every 1.5 or so weeks. Pacman frog about every 2 weeks for 30 seconds or so. Scorpion came out every 2-3 weeks or whenever people were over, hes sold now:(. If I get an animal that is problematic, I take my time working with it and gaining its trust, and I try to give my animals some peace and quiet most of the time, so I dont handle them too much.

C.

[msubigdawg]

Folks always talk about not handling thier aboreals because they like to bite. I have never had any aboreal snakes but I hope to have a Green Tree Python one day. I figure I will take the same stance with it as I do with my other snakes. I will get it as a baby and handle it probably everyday. I just figure the more handling you do the better the snakes temperment. Like I said I have never had one but it seems some folks don't handle them because they are nippy and are told that they are all like that and thats why folks don't try. I watched a wildlife show where the guy was grabbing wild ones he caught and they didn't take a strike at him, atleast while they were filming.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Handling baby snakes every day might not be a good thing to do.........

[msubigdawg]

my red tail is about 2 months old and seems to be fine with it and when I got my BRB he was about 3 or 4 months and seemed fine and is doin well a year and half later. Thats just my expierences.

[Lrptls]

i only have 5 snakes. i know which ones tolerate handling better than the others and respect it. for instance my hognose is usually jumpy and isn't calm in my hands so i really only handle him to remove him from his cage and feed him or when i'm cleaning his cage or if i wanted to show him to some one.

3 of my boids like crawling around outside and climbing on things so i get them out of their cages almost atleast once a week but i dont hold onto them very much when they are out.

[Jeff_Favelle]

But that's just it, 2 snakes is a very very very small sample size. Especially non-stressed out type snakes like Rainbows and Boas.

But to each their own.......

[msubigdawg]

Yea I guess I will just have to see how the snake I get acts. But that is down the road a bit.

[Jeff_Favelle]

That's the fun of being able to own such wicked animals Observing their behaviour up close and in the comfort of your own home! No wonder we're obssessed with them!! :D

[Optimus Prime]

I handle my boa all the time ;) ahhhhhahahahahaha but seriously about every other day for about 5-6 mins my B.c.i usually logners cuz she is stoubourn about going back in her cage lol