I've read that spraying with water bottle (which you will have for misting / cleaning the enclosure) will get the snake to let go. They're a dollar or two from discount store and handy to have.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/home/c...ontent=Default
The snake has a tiny little lung, don't smoke anything near it.
Frozen/thawed: fortunately the water comes out of my taps close to 100 F which is ideal. I put the rat in a little ziplock baggie, in a cup of hot water and it takes around 20-30 minutes to get up to temp.
It's helpful if the head is a bit hotter than the body, ie head close to 100 and maybe 90-95 for body; this is the temp at the sink so it drops a couple of degrees by the time it's in the enclosure. And then the snake will strike, wrap and hold it for a while to make sure it's dead and at a good temp for swallowing.
Also I'm a new owner, had Mr. Burrows for around 6 months now and it's been fun and fascinating. There will be times you are obsessed and worried but just remind yourself that pythons have survived as solo predators for millions of years in many different environments and they are quite hardy so as long as you get the husbandry (enclosure, temps, humidity, etc) down it will be okay.
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