These can be handled. They are imports but relatively good. The captive born and bred are much calmer, although this is true of most species of snakes. I haven't had too much trouble with them at all and all but one are imports. Definitely not a snake you'll hold daily and most of the time I remove them with gloves on to avoid any bites. So far so good. You don't want to move quickly around these snakes though. They are very attracted to fast movements and move just as quickly. I find most of the stuff they do are feints. No connection, just a strike in your general direction. Even the babies won't connect with the food if they aren't hungry, but will just strike in the direction of what they don't want in the cage. They are an incredible species though and once I got one, it was all over. Nothing quite like them. They see everything going on and are fast!