Frustrated with feeding F/T

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

I have left it in the tub for a couple hours but never overnight. Will also give it a try if the heat lamp doesn't work.

[zina10]

I strongly believe in "pre scenting"

All the snakes I've gotten were fed live, one of them live mice. I was able to convert them all to F/T rats on the first try.

I provide dark smallish hides on both warm and cool end. I wait till the snake feels safe and should be getting hungry. I get the F/T prey nice and toasty warm, I use water. Before feeding I wave the rodent around in the tub a couple of times to "scent the air". Then I use the blowdryer to get the body and head of the rodent pretty warm, not burning hot, but "kind of" hot. By now the snake has scented "prey" and is excited and ready. I wiggle the rodent in front of the hide and WHAMMO. Never failed, yet.

[Bone]

I don't post very much on forums but wanted to share my quick fix when I converted to F/T... I feed at night, and I feed at the same time each time I feed. Since I feed in the evening, I will let the food thaw out at room temperature. Some may not agree with this and that's OK, I just want to share what worked for me... So here are the steps. I take a bowl big enough to submerge the entire rat/prey in and fill it half way with water then take a grocery store bag (don't use paper hee-hee) cut it so that it's big enough to cover the bowl and line it like a pie crust... Now imagine you're looking at a swimming pool with a plastic cover over it, you jump in and make an indent of your body in the plastic. OK, now do this in the hot water bowl with the food item. I find the plastic bag keeps from cooking the insides of the prey. OK this may be the part some don't agree with. I microwave the water (about 1 minute) before placing the bag over it so that it will shorten the time I need to leave the food there to warm up. Since we're talking about balls, the food should heat up in about a minute or so. I found this seems to heat the food pretty evenly. It's very time consuming and may get old, but I was determined not to feed live to my kids... You might want to try this and see if it works. Hope this was helpful.

Blessings,
Bone

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

I tried the heat lamp trick today with my big girl and even though it smelled like crap to me it must have smelled delicious to her because she downed not one but two f/t rats. YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the advice everyone!

[Jeo123]

I once microwaved a cup of water with a mouse in it when the bulb on my heat lamp was out.

I put it in for 15-20 seconds. When I went to feed, the mouses stomach burst open spilling out. My guess is that the microwaving weakened the thawed out cells.

Grossest feeding incident so far. So yeah, count me among the people who won't microwave.

[kitedemon]

microwaveing rodents can cause them to have really uneven thawing one area can get wicked hot while somewhere else can still be frozen. You have a good chance of hurting the animal (snake) when it eats. If I am in a rush I just soak them in a baggie in hot water.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

Not sure where all this microwaving talk came from but I am very pleased with the heat lamp method

[Jeo123]

I don't post very much on forums but wanted to share my quick fix when I converted to F/T... I feed at night, and I feed at the same time each time I feed. Since I feed in the evening, I will let the food thaw out at room temperature. Some may not agree with this and that's OK, I just want to share what worked for me... So here are the steps. I take a bowl big enough to submerge the entire rat/prey in and fill it half way with water then take a grocery store bag (don't use paper hee-hee) cut it so that it's big enough to cover the bowl and line it like a pie crust... Now imagine you're looking at a swimming pool with a plastic cover over it, you jump in and make an indent of your body in the plastic. OK, now do this in the hot water bowl with the food item. I find the plastic bag keeps from cooking the insides of the prey. OK this may be the part some don't agree with. I microwave the water (about 1 minute) before placing the bag over it so that it will shorten the time I need to leave the food there to warm up. Since we're talking about balls, the food should heat up in about a minute or so. I found this seems to heat the food pretty evenly. It's very time consuming and may get old, but I was determined not to feed live to my kids... You might want to try this and see if it works. Hope this was helpful.

Blessings,
Bone

That's where it came from, and yeah, I suggest sticking with the lamp method.

[jjmitchell]

I didnt read anyone suggesting to microwave a rat, microwaving water yes..... Any way I am lazy and feeding frozen thawed I have an old crock pot..... I fill it with water and turn it on, with the water hot I put the thawed rodents (still in a bag mind you) head first in the crock pot can heat a crap ton of rats without having to reheat water works great fer me

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

Haha the crock pot seems like an easy way to do it. Would be funny to see what guests would say if they saw you cooking some rats. LOL

No hostility coming from me about the microwave I was just wondering if you saw something about microwaving rats. No biggy