OK, for what it is worth here is my two cents. Others are not going to agree but I do things based on data. First your animal is hungry. The sooner you get it on appropriately sized rats the better. The second, handling. If the animal is eating and shedding well you are probably doing your job correctly. If you want to handle the animal it is up to you. All ball pythons require the proper humidity and temps to thrive. The guidance given in the care sheet is known to work. That said, some animals require more security than others. Some tolerate handling better than others. This year I took a single clutch that all but one are hold backs. Every baby out of the five had been treated exactly the same until last week. They are in hatchling tubs with paper towels a water bowl and a single hide. Heating is ambient. They have been touched and handled from the time they piped. I was touching their heads before they even came completely out of the egg. They are all handled now for about five minutes a piece twice a day exactly the same way. I take them out, touch them everywhere and put them back. Not one of them has tried to "run" away or strike. Now here is where the differences come in. Three of the five are gluttons. They will eat anything. F/T rat or mouse. I don't even have to wiggle it. Toss it in and its gone. Two of them wanted to be a pain in the butt. Eating only half as much as the other two and then only live. The two that were giving me the issues were roamers. Never settling down. I added a paper towel roll to their tubs and suddenly they are happy and have become different animals. Eating has improved and they are not active 24/7. My point being, even under very controlled conditions each animal is different. Nothing I am doing is anything I have not done before, it is just the first time I have done it in a controlled fashion. If you want to handle your animal then handle it. Just make sure you are doing it productively. If the animal is breathing heavy it is scared. If it is not and just running away it just wants to be somewhere else. Hold the animal until it relaxes then put it back. Handling is not a rule. How it is conducted is based on the individual animal. Some like to run away, but in my experience even that can be improved upon. I have two in my collection that are total demons however even those are improving. We have gone two weeks without them trying to get a piece of me lol. I handle them every day.