Depending on the individual snake you should wait 24–48 hours to give the snake a chance to digest, if you try picking them up while food is still in their gut they may get stressed and regurgitate, which is harmful to the snake and disgusting to clean.
In most cases, you will need to wait 24 hours after feeding before handling your snake again. For larger meals you will need to wait 48 hours after feeding before handling your snake again. For some pythons and boas you'll need to wait 72 hours after they've eaten their sizable meals before handling them again.
Your snake will likely spend more time than usual in the box during shedding. Avoid handling your snake as much as possible just before and during shedding. If you need to handle it, do so gently as the new skin is delicate and tears easily.
Exercise caution since it might be difficult for someone who doesn't know much about snakes to determine if a snake is venomous just by glancing at one. Never attempt to capture a snake with your hands if you have reason to believe it is venomous.
According to the Ball Python Care sheet, refrain from handling your snake 48 hours BEFORE feeding and 24 hours after feeding. This is a good rule of thumb for any snake. Snakes have a very primitive metabolism and digestive cycle, and moving them around and such is not going to make it very happy.
Avoid gripping the snake behind its head if possible. If you must grip, use all your fingers and avoid choking. Avoid picking up the snake by the tail. This can sometimes cause damage to the snake.
Give Them a Long Weekend
As a rule of thumb, wait 24 to 72 hours after your snake has fed before holding him. However, if your snake still exhibits a large food bulge after three days -- or if it has gotten bigger since the initial ingestion -- refrain from handling him.
Right After Feeding
To reduce any risk here, I suggest pet parents avoid handling their snake for at least 48 hours or 72 hours for optimal digestion time after eating.
This is likely if your snake is an active hunter species, such as a corn snake. Most snakes will naturally start roaming their vivarium looking for prey after they finish digesting their last meal. To check this, look for snake droppings in the vivarium.
Once swallowed, the muscles of their bodies and their hook-shaped teeth help push the food toward the stomach. The food is then digested over a long period of time, depending upon how warm the snake is. The warmer their bodies, the faster they digest their food. But it generally takes 3–5 days for food to be digested.
#1—Never handle a hungry snake
First, that's not going to work. And second, it's going to make it much more likely that your snake will bite you. ( FYI, here's what to do if your snake does bite you.) Hungry snakes are way more aggressive than content snakes that are fed on a regular schedule.
Snakes can definitely feel when you pet them but the sensation is not as desirable as it is for many domesticated animals. If your snake isn't trying to squirm away or bite you when you pet it, it's possible that it doesn't mind the physical attention, but it is difficult to know whether it truly likes it.
A hungry snake may be more likely to behave irritably with you or even mistake your hand for a food source, so feed your snake and give it time to digest after a shed before you handle it.
Handle your snake at least 1-2x weekly, but no more than once daily. Snakes do not require social interaction for their mental health, but regular handling helps the snake stay tame and can be a good opportunity for exercise.
How often should I feed my snake? That all depends on your snake's age, size, and activity level. Smaller or younger snakes usually eat twice each week, while larger, more mature snakes typically eat once every week or two. Female snakes approaching breeding season can be fed more frequently.
Leave the prey in for about 90 minutes (1.5 hours).
Often I find the snake will come out immediately and take the rodent from the feeding tongs, but if it doesn't, I'll leave it in the cage with the snake. Be sure to secure everything so your snake doesn't get out.
If your snake is still tongue-flicking and exploring the cage after its first pinky, it is still hungry and you can offer it another pinky. If it stops tongue-flicking and looks for a place to lie still, you can stop feeding at that point.
Strong and disrupting smells like sulfur, vinegar, cinnamon, smoke and spice, and foul, bitter, and ammonia-like scents are usually the most common and effective smells against snakes since they have a strong negative reaction to them.
They may wriggle a lot when being handled, but they will get used to it in time. Most of the commonly kept pet snakes such as Royal Pythons and Corn snakes are easy to handle even as youngsters. Ideally, you'll want to give them a day or so to adjust to their new home before you try to touch them.
Holding a snake by its tail elicits a panic response from the serpent and will make it more likely to strike. If you need to pick up a snake, you can use the tail to control the snake, but equal support should be at the front of the body through the use of a snake hook or your hand.