How to heat rats?

Ziplock bag in hot water for around 1/2 hour, until rat is over 100F (usually gets to 105), take out of bag with big tweezers, use paper towel to dry off and to avoid dripping rat soup on floor.

I invested about $11 at Amazon for a laser-guided Infrared temperature gun, and always use it to check the temperature of thawed rats before offering to be sure they're close to 100 degrees F. The amount of time required for thawing depends on the rodent's size (bigger rats need longer time to thaw).

I use hot water in a cup following at least 90 minutes of thawing at room temperature to get the rodent's temperature up. (abput 8-9 minutes for rat weanlings seems to do the trick). The water temperature in the cup is about 130 degrees. I also use a blow dryer to finish up and scent the room (my snake has become conditioned to the flow of air to know it's feeding time. If I run the vacuum cleaner nearby, he'll poke his head out of his hide to see what's up...). ;)

I don't trust leaving feeders out in the open air all day. You can put it in a plastic ziplock in the fridge the night before to defrost and then heat it when you're ready to feed. I do the whole thing in a cup of water. Stick the frozen rats in cold water for about 20-30 minutes to defrost then add hot water slowly until they're brought up to temp. I usually get mine to about 105. That's a little warmer than necessary but I've always gotten good strikes that way.

I thaw mine in hot water once thawed i scent room with rat bedding. I then get the rats hot with a hair dryer. Even my picky eaters are ready to eat after the others have eaten. I like hair dryer cause the rats losse heat signature real fast so when feeding multiple snakes i know each one hot plus the airflow pushes all the scent around.