Ive been thinking a lot about this one lately. Im considering breeding my own rats for my snakes as my collection is finally beginning to expand, and I think I am still going to opt for F/T. But I havent found a heating method im truly in love with yet.

The first one I tried was putting the rat in a zil lop and thawing it/heating it up by placing it in a jar of hot water. My issues with this are that the water almost always get in the bag, sogs up the mouse, and it loses its scent on top of that.

So I decided to try something else. I took a wooden clip board, Set a 150 watt heat lamp suspended above it, and set the rat under the light. Thawing doesnt take too long, the mouse heats up a little after that, stays dry and retains its scent. But my issue is, sometimes the rats stomach wil kind of explode inside of it, and the second the snake strikes it pops like a water balloon. Either that or the snake will refuse to eat it. I suppose they can tell theres something off about it?

But I was wondering what heating methods you guys use? If there are any that work better than my little hot plate.