How to recognize stress

[Mrr]

Hey there,

I'm just curious about stress behaviour during handling with ball pythons.

As a general rule, if I take either of my BP's out and they either A.) Make nonstop attempts to hide, or B.) Sit perfectly still like a paperweight, I assume that they aren't particularly interested in being out of their enclosure and I put them back. However if they're checking out their surroundings/not attempting to hide, I'll keep them out for a bit.

Are there any other sure-fire ways to recognize stress? Aside from the obvious hissing/S-pose?

I'm curious because when I took my firefly boy out today, he seemed content to just wrap around my arm and hang out while I read - occasionally reaching out a bit to explore, but always holding on to and returning to my arm. I had him out for a while like that, until he then released my arm and attempted to hide under my legs, which I took as a sign to put him away. Am I reading him correctly?