Okay, so I have had my BP for 12 days now, and have not handled him yet -- we waited a week, then fed, then gave him 48 hours to digest. The problem is (and I hate to admit this) that I'm afraid to pick him up.

Now, I know how silly that sounds. I'm a 6'5" 350lb man, and this little snake is seriously about as thick as my thumb. I've never had snakes or other reptiles before and when I was growing up, my dad was terrified of them. Before anyone says "well, why did you buy a snake if you're afraid of them?", please realize that I'm not really afraid of the snake itself. I've handled our BP before, at the pet store, and I've briefly handled a corn snake, and an adult BP. Every one of those times, though, the snake was handed to me by its owner. I'm not really afraid of holding the snake, I'm nervous about the part where I actually reach into the tub, take the hide off of him, and pick him up. I have no idea how he's going to react

I did make progress tonight, I pulled the hide off of him, stuck my hand down into the tub about 8 inches from his face, and then put the hide back on top of him, haha. He just sort of sat there, although he did flinch and start to coil up when I started to put the hide back down over him.

I don't really know what I want anyone here to tell me, but I figured you all would get a kick out of the thought of a big guy like me getting antsy about picking up his little hatchling BP.

Y'all don't laugh too hard, ok?