I always gave mine a day after feeding, to rest. Other times, handling them is fair game. I never kept one out for many, many hours at a time, for personal time-constraint reasons. I would probably not have one out for more than an hour or so at a time to avoid stress if it were a youngster that I wanted to put on weight, or skittish. My old girl was so tame and actually seemed to enjoy handling and being across a person's shoulder/around someone's arm; her, I would have out for hours at times.