our little guys gets held almost everyday, sometimes multiple times in a day for about 10-30 min periods at a time. We don't handle him at all the day of feeding and the day after feeding so, he can digest; and we handle him for short periods of time and sometimes never during the shedding process since they can be a bit stressed then. I think you can pretty much handle them as little or as frequently as desired, but a more frequently handled snake probablly equals a more relaxed snake for the handler