I've heard plenty of people say not to handle them for a week or two or whatever, but we haven't ever went with that theory. In fact, last Thursday my Pastel Tiger came in sometime in the morning. I work nights, so I was asleep. My wife took him out of the box, cleaned him, checked for bugs, etc... She ended up handling him for about 20-30 minutes. When I woke up we found that he pooped, and shed. I handled him for about the same amount of time. The next day I offered him food because I knew when his last meal was from the seller, and we always offer on feeding day. I like letting them to decide if they want to eat or not. He ate without any hesitation. We have done this with all of our snakes and haven't had any feeding issues other than not eating during shed. We do offer just in case. Most of them don't care if they are shedding or not and will still eat. I think that is according to what stage of shed they are in. If they are in shed and shy away from their prey I'll immediately take the prey item out.
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