Thawing food

I am new so please bear with me :). So far I have only fed frozen/thawed once - I dropped the mouse in a cup full of hot water from the sink. After about 15 mins I pulled it out and checked it... nice and warm, fully thawed. Patted it dry with a paper towel and dangled it in the tank. The snake grabbed it right away. Is there anything wrong with doing it this way? I see that most people let it thaw "naturally" over the course of several hours, or warm it up in a Ziploc bag. To me it seems like it would take a lot longer to thaw if it were in a bag, since it might tend to float.

I've heard of plenty of people doing it your way too :) It's just a matter of preference I think. If your snake eats, then why change it?

This is exactly how I thaw my frozen rodents! Works well for me! :gj:

I figure, why waste a ziplock bag for a dead frozen mouse? A little water isn't going to hurt the snake. I also pat mine dry, and usually blast it with a blow dryer to dry it off and heat it up a little more. My snake has been eating perfectly for me since I got him 3 months ago!

Nothing wrong with how you do it. That's how I use to do it until I got to large rats. Now I get them out of the freezer in the morning and wrap up all the mice/rats in plastic wrap and leave them in the fridge all day and then put them in warm water when I get home.

I place rats in hot water straight from the freezer

Great, thanks guys. I didn't think it would be a problem... figured it couldn't hurt to ask though :).

My 2010 baby is due to be fed today, will be my first time feeding him. He was eating live before I got him, hoping he'll take a f/t fuzzy *fingers crossed*.

Hot water in a closed tupperware container thaws quickly. Then just wrap the rat in a paper towel so its not dripping wet and feed it. Eats every time.

Thawing directly in hot water thaws the fastest.

You end up with a soggy feeder, and this has a tendency to have a higher rate of "burst" feeders if you overheat too hot for too long (or with poor quality feeders), which are the only real drawbacks. IMO a soggy feeder isn't even a drawback at all.

I thaw directly in hot water.

higher rate of burst feeders eh... hmm, maybe thats why the fuzzy burst tonight LOL. i thought my snake was just being a little over zealous with his constricting. i barely got the thing into the tank and he'd struck and knocked it off my forceps, whipped around, struck it again and held onto it. squeezed and... pop! luckily i had put newspaper down over the bark substrate for feeding time.