what do you do with your smaller herps?

[xdiversichicx]

my boyfriend and i have a disagreement on this. for our smaller herps i dont like to handle them much. id just rather leave them be except for feeding and cage cleaning, and the weekly check to make sure they're not injured. but on the other hand he wants to handle them just as much as we do our larger herps.
it scares me to handle the smaller ones much because im afraid im gonna give them a heart attack or something. id rather just let them go about their business without me bothering them. the only ones i like taking out are the iguana and the beardie. they chill with me on the couch and watch tv.. lol.
but anyway if i made any sense in this post (i got up way too early this morning), what do you do with the small ones, and what do you think about my take on it?

[drewlowe]

I handle everything in my signature except my veiled chameleon and rose hair tarantula.

I don't handle my cham unless i have to, because he's quite a pissy guy and i don't want to cause him any stress that i don't have to.

I don't handle my rose hair, cause i'm still a little leary about her and she itches the crap out of me. I'm sure she's ok with that, plus if i wanted to get her out i would have to destroy her burrow. I really don't want to mess up all of her hard work.

My leopard geckos on the other hand seem to "enjoy" being handled. So if thier out and about i will get them out.

[Wuntu Menny]

For hatchlings and really small stuff, I agree with you. I don't handle them unless its time to clean the cage and even then I use a net for the fast arboreal ones. It causes a great deal of stress for them and you end up with dropped tails or refusals of food.

Certain species are more tolerant of handling than others (leos, cresties, etc.) and as they grow larger I gradually handle them more to get them accustomed to the idea. Other sp that are shy, easily stressed, or fragile (most chameleons, tiny stuff, skin sloughers like day gex) I avoid handling completely.

I think you've got the right idea. Some herps are best for viewing only.

WM

[Linds]

The only thing herps I really handle regularily are leos, and that is because as drewlowe said, they seem to crave it in some way. I find they do much better overall when handled regularily than when not. The rest I pretty much leave alone, except the tortoise gets to go out in the summer and sometimes gets to toodle around the bathroom, my iguana who is a roamer, sometimes she will climb on you, and any snakes that are high strung I try to work with for a little bit to get them used to me so all future dealings, be it simple cleaning or a vet trip, are not as traumatic... some jsut don't calm down with time so I let them be.

[V.hb]

I have small animals that like being held so I hold them. My only handling of my animals is done if iam doing maintenance on their enclosures.. I actually don't really agree with the over handling of any herp.