How often do you handle your snakes?

All answers are appreciated, we all do things differently and some have more time than others just wondering.

Handling always has it's benefits to help get the snake used to you and for you to get used to the snake.

I'm really looking to see cases were handling has calmed a snake down or less handling over time has caused the snake to become defensive.

My opinion varies from snake to snake to be honest.

My boa has been getting less attention as I would have liked recently, and seems to get spooked a bit easier, were as the retics are fine along with the carpets, and my burm is as docile as anything.

Please share your experiences.

Well I have had a bit less time to handle my animals lately and my boa and pythons have pretty much stayed the same but some of my colubrids have been more jumpy.
I would say it depends on the animal, some are more prone to nervous behaviour than others and benefit from regular handling.

most of mine get taken out at least 1-2 times a week, less and less now as the weather gets colder and i'll be cooling some of them down.

I would try and handle them at least once a week.
My royals have deffo calmed and are eating better with less handling

I just have the one boa so I dont really have much valuable input but I handle her pretty much everyday except for two days following a feed. I have often wondered how people with large collections find the time to handle them all regularily.

when you have a bigger collection most of the time cleaning out is the best way of handling.

i try and handle every other day for most of our animals except the biggest burm she gets handled about 3 times a week

I used to handle all my snakes regularly but nowadays I handle very little. This is for 2 main reasons....

first of all I just don't have the time to handle every snake every week let alone several times a week;

and secondly snakes are by and large solitary animals that like to be left alone in my opinion, so handling too much just stresses them - as has been mentioned above this can be a cause of Royals (and other snakes) going off their food. I'm happy to keep the snakes I have as display animals that only really get handled when its cleaning out time, or if I've decided its time for a few new photos.

I do have a few that do seem to 'like' being handled regularly such as the corns and my big male Coastal carpet Darwin, and it could be argued that this is down to a combination of several things:

(1) being 'domesticated' (in the case of corns);

(2) being animals that have been with me for a long time (Darwin) and so very settled and familiar with me;

(3) individual personality - some animals hate handling whereas others seem to be indifferent to it;

(4) exercise - Darwin loves to climb around when he's out and seems to love prowling around and hanging off things, sometimes I feel like his Jungle Gym!

(5) basking - some snakes (and other reps) seem to like basking on your hand / arm or elsewhere if your skin is warm, I put this down to them seeing you as a convenient basking spot!

As well as being largely down to the individual 'personality' of the snake and its own tolerance levels, it is of course down to the owner to work with the snake as much or as little as they can depending on their goals. Its important to let the snake 'lead the way' though and tell you through its body language and reactions wat its comfortable and not-so-comfortable with.

Large snakes need to be managed more carefully to minimise risk to both snake and owner and more regular handling is then probably a good idea to keep the 'sweet', although if they are persistently narky and stressed by handling then the keeper must devise other, less stressful ways to manage large snakes.

Nice opinions thanks.