I LOVE my new little guy!

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

If your snake is young it will be more apt to be nervous about handling. Young snakes get preyed on in the wild and it can't understand you are a nice human, not just some big mammal bent on snarfing it down. Gentle, firm handling with lots of routines helps that somewhat...everything is about being slow, easy and calm. I really feel that calm handlers help make calm snakes as I think they probably pick up a lot of our nervousness and react to it.

Remember that no matter what you do, there will be days or just moments when the snake doesn't want to be bothered and will act defensively. That's totally normal and nothing to worry over. It's just a snake being a snake. As you get to know your own particular snake you'll pick up it's cues...both subtle and not so subtle.

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It is taking all of my will power not to carry him around all day long! :P I'm constantly peering at him through the glass in his hide... Just hoping he'll come out. Before he ate, he'd usually take a stroll around his cage for about an hour every night. I hope he keeps that up! He's fairly young; about 5 months old. I will be very careful not to handle him too much. Thanks for the advice!

as for heating, if your place is really really cold. you can go to walmart and pick up some "Super Hot Hands" $1.50 for a 3 pack of 18 hour, non toxic, low heat pads. I would place one of them in the box with the snake, but to be on the safe side, to reduse over heating or thurmal burns, I would wrap the heat pack in a dry wash cloth or some type of cloth. then place news paper like JLC said and go from there.

Sweet! I didn't even know they sold those at Wal-Mart. I've gotta go there tomorrow anyway, so I'll pick some up.

For traveling, a hot water bottle with a towel atop would probably work great.

As for handling, I've heard the gamut. All I can say is, I handle my snake every day for up to an hour, unless it's in shed, in which case it gets left alone for the duration. It doesn't seem to mind at all--eats like a pig and sheds nicely. Guess it really depends on the snake.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!