I have a male ball python and have been feeding frozen medium rats for about two years. I have been doing it by thawing the rat in a ziploc bag set inside a dish of very hot water. It usually takes at least an hour for the rat to thaw like this, generaly another 20 to 30 minutes for it to be warm all around.

But something has been happening the last few times that is very very gross and I wonder if there is something different I can do to avoid this. The belly area of the rat is often compramised after thawing and the guts are slightly visible when I offer the food to my snake. Of course the instant the snake takes the food and coils up, the guts come right on out.
I'm not sure why it's happening now but it didn't seem to the first few times I did frozen. I haven't done anything different that I can think of anyway...

It smells horrible not to mention I have to wash the snake off after feeding then I spend like 20 minutes washing my hands because I really don't want to get salmanella(sp?)....

any thoughts?

thanks.