Eating Cooked rat!

[mc5guy]

I feed my baby ball python F/T

I use t heat the small or med rat for 10 mins under the lamp before feeing them. Today when I feed a baby one I took a thawed rat fuzz and feed it to a baby snake 10 mins after place under a lamp.

30 mins later, I sunddenly found out that there is peace of rat skin on my tong. Maybe the rat fuzzy is a big cooked.

I went to check the snake, he already ate it.

Will he be OK?

I am so worried now.

[tcutting]

you are fine. doesnt change a thing and In most cases you havent actually cooked the rat. it takes a bit more than 30min under a heat lamp. Depending of course how far away it is.

[llovelace]

The skin on f/t rodents can become fragile, that does not mean it is cooked.

[mc5guy]

I see. thanks guys.

I know when I feed F/T most of the time there are hairs on the tong. But this time is skin with some white flesh. I don't think it is that cooked. But I am sure it is a little bit. I check the temp on the rat before feed. it was 110

thanks

[tcutting]

110 sounds like a good target for the snake to me!

[ezraIII]

when feeding F/T, the main consideration is bring the food animal up to the proper temp all over. too hot or too cold can be dangerous. after you apply heat you should remove the food animal for a minute then touch. you might be surprised how cold the the head or body has gotten because the core was still cold or frozen. the only thing you lose if you do accidentally partially cook an animal is a slight loss of nutrition. provided you let it cool down.

[seang89]

I had this happen the other day. I left a rat to long under the heat. When I went to pick it up, the rats skin on his tail slipped right off. I tried to pick it up again, to have about a quarter size chunk of skin come off it back exposing its flesh

I didnt end up feeding the rat, It was pretty messy.

[tcutting]

110 sounds like a good target for the snake to me!

realized that could be taken out of context. but it was meant as a joke 110 is ok... little warm but really aim for little warm to the touch. and check the temp a minute or so after removing it from the heat. as others said its about the core temp which could still be lower and quick take 110 down to the 90s