James, I agree with you 120%. Splat is only handled when I clean her cage and occasionally to show her growth progress to eddie. Otherwise, I leave her be, and she is very happy that way. Ball pythons do not "enjoy" handling, they just tolerate it, at most. The reason ball pythons are msitaken to be social animals and targeted by newbies to the reptile world is because instead of biting and hissing as a primary defense... they simply either curl up in a ball or just slowly try to move away, and when they don't do either of that they just sit tehre and tolerate you... I am sure some balls tolerate us more than others... and some even get a little adventurous when they are out... but I don't think that they are jumping for joy when picked up... lol!! I have definately found that the less you mess with a ball python, (more so babies than adults) the more consistently they will eat for you and thrive.