Handling advice....my fingers are sweet and tasty

[Minion]

Hi all,
Just need some advice on handling. I have had my gorgeous girl SABRE for a couple of months now, she is a Windorah Stimson and just over a year old. To start with she was really quite placid then had a couple of taps at me (no sinking of teeth), then I made a beginners mistake by trying to pick her up when she was due for a feed and quite hungry and showing signs of being defensive. I have handled her a couple of times since with varying success, although she had another go the other day after I had been holding her for 5 mins with no worries. Today I had to clean her enclosure so used a hook and took my time allowing her to smell me and move along the hook to my hand at her disression, but she seems very apprehensive at my smell.
Is it best to use a specific reptile hand gel cleaner?
What does everyone use for washing there hands?
Or is it more to do with me doing something wrong in my handling of her?
Sorry for the really long post but need some advice as trying to do my best as a new keeper.
Thanks.

[mick'd]

Umm i just make sure my hands are clean and make sure my hands have a natural smell with no fragrences. i have two coastals 1 male 1 female and have only been struck at once, which happened while i was making my mind up on which 2 i wanted out of about 15, even before i had handed my money over to the breader. but figured that at least i new she actually feed well. as they hadnot been feed for 2weeks. just guessed she was hungry.
How often do you feed your snake and do you feed it in its cage also do you feed it with tonges or drop the mice in by hand.

[Minion]

Originally Posted by mick'd

Umm i just make sure my hands are clean and make sure my hands have a natural smell with no fragrences. i have two coastals 1 male 1 female and have only been struck at once, which happened while i was making my mind up on which 2 i wanted out of about 15, even before i had handed my money over to the breader. but figured that at least i new she actually feed well. as they hadnot been feed for 2weeks. just guessed she was hungry.
How often do you feed your snake and do you feed it in its cage also do you feed it with tonges or drop the mice in by hand.

I feed her once a week and use a set of tweezers. I do feed her in her enclosure as she is still in a click clack although this is set up inside her full size enclosure. I have let her wander around the full enclosure on one occasion but it is quite large and she can disappear inside it and was not real happy when I tried to find her to pull her out. She has a couple of hides inside the click clack so I feel like it is not because she feels threatened inside it.

[mick'd]

do you pull on her if she is wraped around somthing. or do you contantly stop her from going/ doing what she wants when handling her.
how quickly do you grab her when getting her out of her cage.