Fasting or Not?

[dakski]

Thanks for the quick response! You very well could be right that my defrosting process is a little flawed, so I can change that. I usually fill a container with hot water, pretty much as hot as the tap will go, then plop the rat-in-bag into it. I wait until the rat is defrosted right through, the I fry it off and feed him. In the future, after doing some reading- I think that I'll put the food item in the fridge the night before, to thaw. Then I can heat it up with warm water, and then to realistic body temps with the hairdryer. Sound good? I'll feed probably next Friday, maybe Wednesday depending on what I think at the time.

A lot of people use the fridge to defrost. I prefer not to. Even defrosted in the fridge it's going to be cold. So you would need to safely warm up somehow, probably room temp water, before heating up quickly in hot water and/or with a hair dryer.

IMO, just drop in the room temp water in a plastic bag a few hours before feeding. Then you kill two birds with one stone. Make sure thawed through, then drop in the hot water for a 1/2 minute, and/or use the hairdryer. I find the hot water is faster and more through at warming. Just my opinion though.

Plus, my fiancé does not like rodents in the fridge! I have a separate chest freezer for all my snake food!