Frozen/Thawed Help

[Yaqcubper]

Okay so today is going to be my first day attempting to feed F/T.

My snake refuses to eat unless everyone is out of the room and the lights are turned off. So far she's only been allowed to eat Fuzzies because it's the biggest thing I could think of to feed her without it hurting her. So to remedy this I figured why not feed F/T??

So I got her a hopper sized frozen mouse (she's 90 grams) and put it in the fridge about 4 hours ago but don't know exactly how to get it as warm as I need to. So any help/advice on how to get it ready for feeding tonight would be awesome.

She refuses to eat with me in the room so there won't be any zombie walking/dangling.

Thanks!!

[ballpythonluvr]

You can heat it up with hot tap water. I would make sure the hopper mouse is in a plastic freezer bag first and then put it in the hot tap water. After you are done heating it up with the hot water you can hit it a hair dryer on high for a few minutes. I usually warm up the head with the hair dryer. Since you say your snake won't like you dangling the prey you can just lay it in her enclsoure with her and leave it in there all night if you have to.

[jtomb1510]

Just to add one thing, I had a couple bp's that wouldn't eat with anyone in the room as well so what I did is besides putting the rats in warm water and warming them up with a hair dryer, I would warm them up with the hair dryer pointed inside their tubs to scent the air. Even the ones that were normally shy eaters came flying out of their hides looking for the food lol. Hope this helps

[kitedemon]

I like to use a hair drier over water it is less messy not as easy but you only have one to do so it isn't a problem.

[Yaqcubper]

Sadly I have no extra "feeding time hair blow dryer" LOL.

But that sounds good. It's in a flimsy bag right now so I'll have to transfer it over to one that will seal better. And she finally had a bowel movement today so hopefully she's hungry and scenting the room will help her feed in front of me

[mandalorian]

I just picked up a f/t blow dryer at Fry's electronics for 5 bux. It stays plugged in the garage next to the feeder freezer. Since you live in so cal, there is one in Anaheim, Fountain Valley, and I believe in the S. Bay.

[kitedemon]

I forget that extra hair drier... I went bald... I forget that people might want to use it on their hair..

[Yaqcubper]

Thanks for the tip on the hair dryer deal but Anaheim is an almost 2 hour drive for me so I think whatever I would save I would spend on gas

I guess I'll just use the one I have without the attachments and then go to Walmart later and get myself a new/same one since I probably didn't spend more than 15 bucks on it in the first place since I'm cheap

Feeding time is coming up soon so I'm crossing my fingers she takes it

[Yaqcubper]

I took the mouse out of the fridge and hair blow dried it for a WHILE (until my temp gun read 95 or higher in front of the mouse and I felt zero coldness when I lightly pressed it between my [gloved] fingers).

It took about an hour and a half of leaving her alone before we saw it had disappeared but it's all gone!

She's on her warm side now and I am soooo happy this was a success. Blow drying the smell towards her really helped too so thank you for that tip. As soon as I blew the smell towards her she un-balled herself and perked her little head right up. I feel so happy right now.

[RetiredJedi]

Congrats on the success. Another thing that might help is using a heating pad, that you would use for your back, and turn it on low. Keep the f/t in the plastic bag, put the f/t in the middle of the pad and fold the pad over it so as to warm up the whole f/t at the same time until the whole thing is warm. Then right before feeding heat the head with a hair dryer. I have started the heat pad thing the last two times and it works pretty well for me so far.