How do you guys thaw your feed?

I usually get a very hot tap water then microwave it about a minute or so then put feed in there for like 5 mins or so. How do you guys thaw them? Im just curious bc some people put it in the little bag and do something w it lol.


Ps: do you guys think ball pythons are light sensitive?

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I tried like 5 different ways in attempts to get Lex to eat. I tried the way you did, I tried leaving it thaw overnight in fridge and use the hairdryer to warm it. From feeling them they all came out about the same... the ones with hair dryer were dry the ones in the water were wet (water got in the plastic they were in). Tried a combo of both
Finally gave up and went live lol.
They are nocturnal so they don't really care for a lot of light

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Put feeders in their baggies, thaw in a thing of hot water and leave them in there for a few hours until they're totally thawed (time depends on how big the feeder is), and once they're ready to be offered I shoot them with a hairdryer to make them extra warm and to get some of the feeder smell circulating so the snakes know it's food time. Works great for me.

I'm only thawing rat pups but I pit them in baggoes and then in a bowl with hot running water for 15min then turn water off and let then thaw for another 20-30min in the hot water. If that makes sense

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Thaw them in a baggie in some water. After they are thoroughly thawed, I heat them a little bit next to the beardie's heat lamp (not enough to cook them, just enough to warm them up a touch).

I put mine in a zip lock bag, put hot tap water in a glad wrap Tupperware, put an empty can or something heavy to weigh it down. Set timer for 30 minutes, open bag, blow dry to fluff and warm a little, and feed

Your guys' ways sound so complicated! lol. Microwave, baggies in hot water, heat lamps.
I used to go right from the freezer into hot water, but had a super poor feeding response.
After trying a crap ton of methods for our picky eaters (who had gotten hooked on live because they went on feed strike), I finally figured out that 1) they prefer ASF, although I'm going to try switching to rats and 2) they don't like them wet.
So what I do, is ration all my feeders into ziplock bags to go to the freezer. When feeding day comes, I pull a bag out of the freezer before work & just let the bag sit on the counter in a bowl until I'm home so they're 100% thawed & floppy. Then I blast them with the blowdryer for 1-2 mins and feed! Easy!

This is what I've done and what I've noticed:

I put the rats in their own bag, and mice in their own bag. I, however won't put a small rat with a rat pinkie or fuzzy just because it's more annoying to try to hold them under water.

So what I do is I put everything in the sink, and I put something heavy on top to hold them down and I get all the air out of the bags, or as much as possible. I then run the water fully hot(which I have my hot water heater turned down to 120 I think. The water on the hottest setting I can barely tolerate so it's good for heating up rodents without making them bust. I think one time I laser shot my hot water and it comes out around 116-117. Well what I do is I run it to where the water covers everything, and then about 15 mins the water starts to lose it's heat so I'll drain and run more water. I'll do this two sometimes three times, depending on if I'm in a rush. Well the thing about this is that they lose heat pretty fast, so usually the third cycle of water is what is still being warmed while I'm feeding off the other stuff. Sometimes if they lose that extra heat too quickly then I'll use a blow dryer to heat up a bit more and that normally keeps them warmer longer then the water and it also puts the smell in the air so it kind of triggers a better feeding response.

That's what I do. My bee, black pastel & spider will take off the tongs when I hold by the tail and dangle in front of, but my lemon blast doesn't like seeing the tongs and so I have to grab between the shoulder blades and kind of walk across the tub with the rat pink.

From the freezer, they go to the fridge 24 hours before feeding. After they are out out the fridge, they get to room temp as much as they can for about and hour, right before feeding just a quick use of a blow dryer.

1. Take rat pup and put it in plastic zip lock bag.
2. Leave it in fridge overnight
3. Leave it in hot tap water for 5-10 mins.
4. I have a KEURIG coffe maker machine so I turn that on and get a cup of HOT water.
5. Dunk the rat pups head in the HOT water for 20-30 seconds than feed it to my snake.

My ball python will only eat it right after it has been dunked in the HOT water otherwise hes not interested, I guess he senses the heat in the rat pup and goes right for it.

I use plastic ZipLock containers. 4 rats per plastic container.
Stuff it with small rats and fill with hot steaming water.
I set the timer to 25 min.
Timer goes off and I drain the water and add hot steaming water again for 10 min. (take a bit to fully thaw sm to med rats) :D
Timer goes off and the buffet line opens.

Hope it helps. :)

I just soak them in a bucket of hot water and feed them dripping wet to my snakes. Most of them don't care one bit that they are sopping wet.

Frozen meat shouldn't be thawed in hot water, it warms up the surface of the meat enough that bacteria start growing, the same holds true for rodents.

Meat/rodents should be thawed in cold water, then once completely thawed heated to the desired temperature.

1. Pull the rodents out of the freezer and put them into the fridge overnight.

2. If the rodent is completely thawed the next morning/day then you can go ahead and heat the rodent up. If it is still partially frozen then it needs to go into a cold water bath until it is completely thawed.

3. Quickly heat the rodent however you prefer to, then promptly feed the rodent.

I take them out of freezer put them in zip lock bags and let them thaw at room temp. for a several hours. After they have thawed I put bag of rats in a small rubber maid tub, fill tub with hot tap water. Let soak until rats feel warm to touch, sometimes have to refill with hot water again. Rats will usually get wet but my snakes do not care they will eat them anyway.

I pull mine from the freezer, put them in a ziplock bag with hot tap water, set the bag in a tray to keep it upright, once its thawed I dump the water, fill it once more with warm water once the body is warm I pull it out of the bag and feed it to my snakes.

This is how I do it...

http://www.rickysreptiles.com/wp-con...honFeeding.gif

I leave mine on the counter in a plastic baggy for a few hours. I then fill up a big bowl of hot water and put them in. Once the water has cooled down to room temperature I dump that water out and fill it back up with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes and then feed. Works perfect everytime!

We just do it the slow way. :P Set out the rats in some warm/hot water, turn on an episode or two of doctor who. Every time an episode is over we check for thawed-ness and refill the bucket with warm water if it had cooled. The tiny babies get their food quickly, the big guys have to wait til their bigger rats are done thawing. After the rat has thawed we usually let them sit in hot water a little longer to get them warm all the way through.

It takes a while but it's easy and no hassle for us. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

Most of them don't care one bit that they are sopping wet.

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^^^Same. LOL^^^

Take 2 hatchling size bins, put rats in ziploc bags, drape the open end over the side of the bin, fill the tub til I can push the rats down and they're submerged, I take the other bin and put it on top and fill it with hot water as well which pushes the rats below down. Do this once or twice depending on the feeder size.

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Freezer directly into styrofoam cooler filled with hot water (no baggies) and then to the snakes. It only takes about 20 minutes for them to be completely thawed and warm but not hot and my snakes don't seem to care if they're wet or dry and they tend to go for them better when I don't try to blow dry them.

I do it the REALLY slow way compared to you guys. I typically feed at night (after 7pm anyway), so I pull the frozen rats out of the freezer before I go to work in the morning and let them thaw at room temp on top of my T8s until I get home. Before feeding, I hit them with a hair dryer for 2-3 minutes, focusing on heating their heads the most. It works for me and I think it's quicker than waiting for rats to thaw in a bucket of water (since most of the work has been done while I'm not even home).

Probably the worst way to thaw frozen meat, of any kind, is in hot water(well, other then in a microwave). Putting something so cold into water that hot will effectively cook it. My sister is a chef and she rants all the time about how bad thawing meat in hot water is; ask any trained chef and they'll let you know. If you don't believe me(which is fine, I tried this myself just because I like first hand experience) take a frozen chicken breast and thaw it the same way you thaw your rats/mice. The chicken breast isn't an exact replica of a rat/mouse, but because cutting up a rat/mouse carcass is pretty messy and a bit gross, it will at least give you some idea if your water is cooking the meat or not. If you're determined to thaw in water, start with cold water first; it may be cold but it's still warmer then the frozen rat/mouse. As the rat/mouse starts to thaw you can change the water out for cool, and so on until it's completely soft and defrosted. Only then should you use warm water to warm it. Yes this way does take a little longer but it's better then cooking their food, yes?

I personally don't thaw in water(for myself or my snakes, unless I absolutely have to). I feed at night usually between 7-8. I'll get their food out of the freezer around 4-5(or whenever I get home) and let it sit out on top of their rack to thaw, which takes about 2 hours for a small rat. Once it's completely defrosted and about room temp I warm it with a hair dryer until the body is above 100 and the head is about 10 degrees hotter then the body; this takes less then a minute per small rat. Then I grab the tail with tongs, carefully open their tubs, and try to get their food in before they leap out at me:D Most of the time they hit it so hard the tail comes off, but the tail off is no big deal and doesn't bother them. Mine aren't shy about striking and coiling, but are about eating so I leave them alone to finish their meal and have not had one refuse yet. This way is super simple and super fast, and I know I'll never change. If you're unsure about how you want to thaw your f/t yet, give this way a try and see how you and you're snakes do with it:gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoyalRose

Probably the worst way to thaw frozen meat, of any kind, is in hot water(well, other then in a microwave). Putting something so cold into water that hot will effectively cook it. My sister is a chef and she rants all the time about how bad thawing meat in hot water is; ask any trained chef and they'll let you know. If you don't believe me(which is fine, I tried this myself just because I like first hand experience) take a frozen chicken breast and thaw it the same way you thaw your rats/mice. The chicken breast isn't an exact replica of a rat/mouse, but because cutting up a rat/mouse carcass is pretty messy and a bit gross, it will at least give you some idea if your water is cooking the meat or not. If you're determined to thaw in water, start with cold water first; it may be cold but it's still warmer then the frozen rat/mouse. As the rat/mouse starts to thaw you can change the water out for cool, and so on until it's completely soft and defrosted. Only then should you use warm water to warm it. Yes this way does take a little longer but it's better then cooking their food, yes?

I personally don't thaw in water(for myself or my snakes, unless I absolutely have to). I feed at night usually between 7-8. I'll get their food out of the freezer around 4-5(or whenever I get home) and let it sit out on top of their rack to thaw, which takes about 2 hours for a small rat. Once it's completely defrosted and about room temp I warm it with a hair dryer until the body is above 100 and the head is about 10 degrees hotter then the body; this takes less then a minute per small rat. Then I grab the tail with tongs, carefully open their tubs, and try to get their food in before they leap out at me:D Most of the time they hit it so hard the tail comes off, but the tail off is no big deal and doesn't bother them. Mine aren't shy about striking and coiling, but are about eating so I leave them alone to finish their meal and have not had one refuse yet. This way is super simple and super fast, and I know I'll never change. If you're unsure about how you want to thaw your f/t yet, give this way a try and see how you and you're snakes do with it:gj:

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I've been defrosting my 8 month olds rats in hot water for 4 months and never had a problem. I actually got that advice from this forum.


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I thaw in a a zip lock bag in my fridge over night, then I plop the bag in warm water for 5 minutes, then hot water for 5-8 minutes, and check the temp with a heat gun then feed!

This way I avoid the guts popping, learnt the hard way from fridge>hot water = popping guts warm water first!

I actually lay all mine out over night in a sink and have a few balls that eat F/t doing it this way but if done in water I can't ever get them to. Only if bagged. But at room temp I have had good luck for a handful.