A rather odd question....

[L.West]

Last night was feeding night and I decided to put a glass of water in the microwave to get it nice and hot - then I put the rat in a ziplock baggy and put it in the water for about 2 min. - I realized that the water was much hotter than I normally can pull from the tap - I was worried that I may have cooked the rat in the hot water - is that possible??

I checked the rat and it was still very limp - it didn't seem hard or solid like it would if it had been cooked.

I liked using the hot water from the microwave because it really warmed the rat up but I wanted to be sure that it was okay to use the microwave to heat the water.

He ate the rat and appears to be fine this morning - no regurge or anything. I just wanted to put that out there to see what you all thought.

Thanks.

[Brstin2flames]

It is possible to cook the rat if the water is hot enough. I'm currently feeding f/t small mice, and what I do is just take the hot water from the tap, put the mouse in there for about 10 mins and its usually defrosted all the way through. Then I blast it with a hairdryer to warm it up. Not sure how this would work for a rat being that its going to take much longer to defrost.

[FatBoy]

I don't think 2 minutes would cook the rat, as long as the water was not boiling. Just remember...your body temp is aroung 98-99*, that's about the temp you want the rat warmed to. So if the rat feels hot to you, it is getting too hot.

[L.West]

Since he has already ate the darn thing and appears to be fine - I guess I will have to see what happens. If it was slightly cooked - what would that do to my bp??

I will go back to using the water out of the faucet like I've done all along - so much for my new ideas - LOL.

What should I watch for if the rat was slightly cooked when he ate it??

[WingedWolfPsion]

It's unlikely to do him any harm. So long as it wasn't hot enough inside to burn him when he ate it.

[mykee]

Boiling water is overkill and completely unnecessary.
Hot tap water is sufficient.

[L.West]

I actually held it in my hand before I offered it to him - it was warm on the fur but I didn't leave it in the water long enough for the inerds to actually get too hot.

I do think I will go back to my hot tap water routine - that way I wont have to worry all night that I may have hurt my snake in some way with a cooked rat.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with a response.