Handling my BP - Don't laugh!

[jjc]

I'll 'fess up to being a big sissy about my snake, if it will make you feel any better. I know, in my head, that a baby BP can't really do anything remotely exciting to me. For the first few days (after we started handling him), my BF had to take him out of the cage because I was somehow always "busy" fiddling with his heat sources, washing his water bowl, etc. I would hold him after my BF picked him up, but I was convinced the BP would sense what a freak I was being and bite me if I tried to pick him up myself.

If you think it will help, watch some SnakeBytes and other videos that show people getting bitten by snakes. If nothing else, you'll see that it's really not that big of a deal, even with snakes much larger than your baby BP. It helped me realize that, even if the little guy did bite me, it certainly wouldn't be as exciting as anything I'd imagined.

It's also nice to watch the experienced herpers handling their BPs as casually as I'd handle a house cat. If you haven't taken him to the vet, that might help, too. I took him to the vet by myself (without the BF who has no worries about the little guy), and I was dreading the moment when the vet would ask me to take him out of his bag/box. I was terrified that I'd be the laughingstock of my exotic vet for buying a puny little BP and being too scared to even handle him. Luckily, the vet just grabbed him up, examined him (including opening his mouth and probing him), carried him all over the clinic for various things, and pretty much did whatever he wanted with Simon. This was a guy who knew nothing about this particular snake's temperament, and I'd been observing him for close to a month and had no reason to believe he had an aggressive bone in his body.

I've been bitten by dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, guinea pigs, horses, cows, chickens, parrots, rabbits, and stomped/kicked/scratched by a good number of them, as well. I've worked in shelters and a vet hospital. I've sustained broken bones with the horse thing. There's absolutely no reason I should be worried about a snake.

Like you, I've never had a problem handling snakes that were *handed* to me.

At this point, I've gotten much more confident with picking him up and can't wait to get another snake. I'm also halfway looking forward to getting bitten by ANY snake, just to get past that particular hurdle.

I agree with the poster who said to just slap on some gloves and grab him, if it will get you over the hump.