Frozen/Thawed

[HAZE]

What would be the best way to feed f/t rats and rabbits. I've had my snakes on prekilled and have never had any problem with them accepting right away. Now I am trying to switch them to f/t and the 2 snakes I tried to feed have refused. Any help on getting them to accept f/t would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Tom C]

I have a few snakes that are like this. I have an old microwave in my snake room, I usually heat the rabbits @ 30 seconds and then flip them for another 30 seconds.This makes the head really hot so wait till it cools down a bit to the touch but still really warm.

I then just put them in there w/ tongs and it really insinuates the strike..:D.

I just use p/k rats , so I dont have any experience w/ them, but I am sure the same method would work, just less time in the heater..:D

Good luck..

Tom C

[n2retics]

The easiest way to do rats is to put them in hot water to let them unthaw, the hot water will raise the body temp of the rat, and the should be able to sense the heat.

[MPenn]

I put my rats out overnight on a tray. The next day I put a spotlamp over them to heat them up. You want to make sure that the rat (or Rabbit) is nice and warm on both sides. This has worked great for me.

Michael

[arbs&giants]

i do the same as N2..
i just gradualy use warmer water as they defrost to bring them upto temp
i even do my piglets the same way, it just takes a few hours longer

[HAZE]

Thanks for the replies.

When using hot water, do you use hot water directly from the faucet or do you heat it up on the stove? Thanks again.

[arbs&giants]

i just use the water from the taps
using too hot water will cause them to blow up and burst

[huff747]

I let mine thaw while I'm at work or in the evening. Once at room temp I use a heat lamp to heat them up. It doesn't take much heat to get my retic or burms to eat. But some of my ball pythons need them to be extra hot. It's a fine line between getting them hot enough and too hot that they pop.

Chris

[Joshua]

Originally posted by huff747
I let mine thaw while I'm at work or in the evening. Once at room temp I use a heat lamp to heat them up. It doesn't take much heat to get my retic or burms to eat. But some of my ball pythons need them to be extra hot. It's a fine line between getting them hot enough and too hot that they pop.

Chris

Great point, I HATE it when I've ended up with rodent gutts all over the place, because I heated it up too much.

[boafan]

I use a couple of rubbermaid tubs. I set them in the smaller one and thaw them good, then i fill the bigger one about 1/4 full of hot water and float the smaller tub and put the lid on the bigger tub( this keeps the heat in}. I float it for around 20 min. and they are nice and dry and feel like fresh killed. Its works great for me and they eat great this way.

[HAZE]

Well I finally got them to eat. What I did was let them thaw at room temperature for about a day. Then I put them in an aluminum foil pan and floated it in hot water for about 20 mins. When I put them in the snakes all struck instantly. So I'm pretty happy that I got them switched over. It is going to make feedings a lot easier so I won't have to buy live ones and kill them myself. Thanks again for everyone's advice.