Feeding .

[Tracy33]

I gave my snake a rat ( not live) 2 nights ago , and he turned his nose up at it , i feed him tonight , and he takes it . Before , i defrosted it all day , but tonight i defrosted it in warm water for only a few hours ( for the first time ever ) . Would this make a difference ?. Any ideas .

[jennuhkins]

depends on the size of the rat or mouse,. with mice i just put it in hot water and wait until its flexible and warm, takes about 5 min or less, rats i would say put in in hot water and wait until the rat it flexible and change out the water when it gets cold until the rat thaws.

[Terranaut]

If you put the all day thawed rat in 120°f water for 2-3 minutes and pat them dry after the warmth will entice your snake a lot more. Some snakes will not eat a room temp rat. Thawing a small rat in hot is fine but a large or jumbo might actually cook a bit or the stomach may burst from the temp differential. I like the all day thaw quick heat idea. So do my snakes.

[Tracy33]

Thanks Jennuhkins and Terranaut .
Its that i noticed a thread on here before , and it seemed quite a few people did the water trick . Its just that lately my CP has not wanted a few rats , and i have never had this problem before . I do use the extra large , and jumbo rats , so i will go with Terranauts idea . Where i live now , we only have storage heaters , of which i try and heat the rats , after they have been defrosting for hours . So i guess this was the anwser i was looking for . :)

[Mikoh4792]

I thaw all my rats and mice in warm water for 10-20 minutes depending on the size of the rodent.

[Terranaut]

A large of jumbo would still be an ice cube in the middle after 20 min.

[Mikoh4792]

A large of jumbo would still be an ice cube in the middle after 20 min.

I don't feed large or jumbos yet. The biggest rat I have in the freezer is a small. Fuzzies and hoppers are usually good within 10 minutes, adult mice and rat pups about 15 minutes, and small rats take about 20 minutes for me.

[LadyWraith]

I put mine in a ziploc bag the morning before feeding and toss them on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Once it's feeding time that night, I let them warm up a tad in warm water. My short tail gobbles them regardless of temp but I have to give my BPs rat a short blast with a hair dryer before tossing it in. He gets a little confused on whether it's a prey item if it's not heated up. I'm currently using medium and large rats. I used to use the straight from the freezer to hot water method, but as Terranaut stated, I started having issues with bursting. What I do now is more efficient for me. The crawlers I use for my other snake go straight from the freezer into hot water with no issues though.

[Tracy33]

It seems , the more smelly the rat , the more he will check it out . Putting it in the warm water for a few hours , when feeding him with leather gloves on ( only he doesn't strike like he used to ) i could feel the warmth of the rat . I can't believe i didn't figure this sooner .
I also find he takes male rats faster then female rats .