Thank you everyone!

I do have one question about behavior... any reptile that I've had who wanted to come out of the cage tended to explore a bit, hang out by the window, walk around, generally just hang out. I took the new ball out today to check her out again now that she has been here a bit... double check for mites, check eyes and breathing, all that stuff.

Well she came out, everything was fine and dandy, until I tried to put her back in. She raced up my arm and curled around my bicep. I walked back over to the bed, she came down to my hands and looked around, acted alert but not stressed. I walked over to put her in the tank again... she refused to let go of my arm. I'm not a fan of really applying any force to move a reptile unless absolutely needed, as I think it can stress them out. I feel it's best to usually let them do their thing... so I spent 10 minutes trying to coax her off my arm.

I've had reptiles come up to me when I open the cage, enjoy going out, not mind being held, but never one that seemed to act quite like this. Thinking about it, I have two thoughts. One being that she was nervous about the cats walking around or the big empty room, and was curling onto me for security. This would make sense, if her head wasn't scanning the room and flicking her tongue at everything. I had always believed when they were scared they balled up and tucked their head near them, or inside them. Not acted curious. The other option is she actually really enjoys being held.

There is of course a difference between enjoying handling and putting up with it. My iguanas put up with it well, but enjoy being out of the cage. Same with the birds, and the corn snake loves people but not necessarily contact. He loves to watch things and will stay close to people, but isn't intent on clinging to them. Without a doubt, I believe every species has general behavior patterns that really take a lot of time with them to figure out... I just haven't had one act like a scared kid clinging to daddy before.

What are your thoughts on this? I don't mind having her out often in the evenings, I have just always been careful to try and not stress them out. When put back into her cage, she tried to come out until I walked to the other side of the room. Then she went from the warm hide for a few minutes, over to the cool one. No obsessive cruising, just back to things as normal.