How often do YOU hold your reptiles? - Page 2

Cricket1234 · 01-31-17, 05:22 PM

I handle my Pueblan Milk Snake once a day, for about 15 to 20 minutes. He is becoming very mellow and will just chill with me while I type, do homework, watch TV, etc. In fact, he is in my right hand while I type this with my left. (Lol)

riddick07 · 01-31-17, 11:30 PM

Not all that often. The retics and boas get out the most for handling. Cleo my purple Sunfire retic is out at least once a week but she is the all round favorite of the house.

**Andy_G** · 02-01-17, 08:31 AM

A couple of times a week for a few minutes. They don't "enjoy" it even though I wish they did, so why stress them out.

StrictlyMorelia · 02-01-17, 05:43 PM

Only when cleaning, when moving for breeding introductions or health inspections. In short they may get an average maximum of less than a minute handling on a monthly basis. Even less for the arboreals.

eminart · 02-02-17, 10:05 AM

Not often. Maybe once every couple of weeks on average for my indigo, and he gets out more than any of the other snakes at our house.

awwalz01 · 02-03-17, 12:01 AM

Yea I like to hold my snakes. I wish I could hold them all day every day without stressing them out. Can't get enough of them!

Aayrick · 02-03-17, 03:25 PM

I like to handle my ball pythons every few days. Never had issues with either of them. My Boa on the other hand, he's tricky. I've never had him strike once I've gotten him out of his tank, but inside, he strikes at just about everything. He's smashed his face into the glass more than once when I was just walking past.

whistlepig · 02-03-17, 05:26 PM

I only get my racer out when I clean his cage. I tried holding him everyday when I first got him, but*all it seemed to do was cause him stress. Seems much*more comfortable with the current arrangement.

**Pareeeee** · 02-04-17, 10:35 AM

I take out my corn once or twice a week. My Rosy Boa only gets handled a couple times during the winter just to check on him or when cleaning his tub (he brumates) but I handle him a couple times a week during the summer. They both go outside during warm summer days.

I can't handle my Crested Gecko anymore because he bites...HARD.

Magdalen · 04-25-17, 04:36 PM

Since someone brought this up again. My leopard gecko I handle a couple times a week, some times more. It's usually her crawling up my arm while I'm changing out food in her cage. So she comes out whether I wanted her to or not. Seriously she'll be in her corner, see me messing around with things in her tank and books it for my arm. Usually when I just want to do a quick in and out cause I'm tired and want to sleep.
The cape house snake, I've had him for a few months and he's eating great but super shy still. He's a baby so kind of still tiny. I haven't held him yet. I'm waiting until he gets a tad bit bigger to work on taming him. I've never had to tame a snake before haha. So this will be interesting.

Lefitte · 04-25-17, 05:15 PM

I handle maybe a few times a week at most. Some weeks are very busy and I won't handle at all, other weeks I'll handle every single one of them at some point. My rainbow boa certainly doesn't seem to mind being out. He's a curious guy and I think it's stimulating to be out of the cage. If it's extremely hot and dry, I won't take him out at all. And if my hands are freezing sometimes I won't take him out because I feel like my hands cool him down too much since they won't warm up haha.

My hognose doesn't mind coming out either. He's constantly exploring his cage and roaming so taking him out gives him more things to explore. My kingsnake, however, doesn't like handling much. She pees nearly every time and sometimes she flails. I handle her rarely, maybe once or twice per month and typically I weigh her at the same time. I try to only take her out when she's been out in her cage because she tends to start coming out of her cage on her own. I let her tell me when she feels like being social. She also prefers the snake hook instead of my hand. Reaching in with my hand to get her stresses her out really badly, but she doesn't care about the snake hook much. In winter I rarely hold her at all because she puts herself into brumation.

My new boa is still acclimating to his new home but I'll probably take him out as much as I do the rainbow or the hognose. My cats and the weather also changes when I handle. It's usually at night though, unless I want day time pictures and then it's late afternoon.

dannybgoode · 04-25-17, 11:42 PM

Infrequently and as they are nocturnal only during the day. They get fed at night and handled in the day so another differentiator for them to know when they're getting fed and when they're going to be handled.

Reptiles don't particularly care for handling so I try and keep it to a minimum...

harlequinnz · 04-26-17, 11:49 AM

I have two snakes. I hold one every day and the other every other day or so because he's moody! I know snakes usually get stressed, so sometimes I have patterns. My ball is usually chill but he has his days, so I hold him up to 3-4 times a week, and my boa is a baby so I try to hold him once every day or two, usually in the evening

**Aaron_S** · 04-26-17, 12:33 PM

Do I have to touch them with my hands to count as handling? I use a hook all the time so if that counts then once a week while cleaning.

If the hook doesn't count then like....once every 6 months?

Doug 351 · 04-28-17, 09:16 AM

Not too often lately, which is a shame because she actually really likes it. She likes being held by strangers even more. For the first 13 years of her life, I handled her almost every day. She loved parties and little kids.

Recently, I took her with me to a couple stores so she could meet some new folks and get out for awhile. This turned out to be a bad idea. Oh, she was fine in the stores, and well behaved in the car for 3 or 4 trips. Then, (I had done this before and she was fine with it)... I tried to hang her over the rearview mirror. She suddenly developed a real fascination with the steering wheel. Now, she's hanging on the rearview but sticking her head into the steering wheel.

I'm trying to get her extracted from the steering wheel, and I look up just in time to see I'm about to hit a parked car. I hit the brakes, but there was no way. If I didn't have a snake in the wheel, I could and would have just jerked the wheel and avoided it. As it is, only about a foot of my front end on the passenger side hit the parked car.

No more car rides loose in the car for that Texas ratsnake!