My snakes are rarely handled by anyone but me. I touch them all the time... even the meanest of my snakes calm down very quickly when being handled by me. But with most of them, if I pass one of them off to my brother, mom, or dad, or boyfriend... they will often become rather anxious and a boa even bit my mom once! Once i had Ra the king rat out in the yard and my brother was helping me manuever him. Upon getting a good whiff of my brother Ra was not having any part of him. My brother got hissed at, tail whipped, and struck at! I think it is a combination of possibly they are not as entirely comfortable and relaxed when handling them, and their strange scent may throw the snakes off a bit. They have been handled enough by me to know that I am not going to harm them. When I handle a snake, I just naturally know which areas of the body to support/touch and can quickly adjust that as the snake moves... and that takes expierience and time to learn how to do. I can see how maybe the awkwardness of being handled gently, but still in a manner the snake is not used to, combined with a strange scent, would make some of them rather uneasy.