I think my hide may be to big. In my 18 quart tub it takes up about half the tub. Which makes the cool side hide much smaller and she doesn't use it much. I think making the transition to a larger cage, will be useful in providing her with two different equal sized hides. I do use a temp gun and if she stays on top of the newspaper it is always below 90 degrees.
I was feeding her every 5 days and about 10% of her body weight. She has been on weaned rats up until this point and her next meal will be 60 gram small rat. It will be 10 days tomorrow since she has eaten last though. I figured tomorrow might be a good time to try unless you recommend waiting longer. I did have her out briefly earlier and her tongue was flickering pretty consistently so I assume she might be ready. Since she did have such a consistent feeding schedule I suppose waiting an extra 4 days (so its been 14 days since she ate) probably couldn't hurt. Interesting I will consider bumping her up to two weeks depending on how she responds to the 60 g small rat.
That's a good point perhaps the water is too warm and its partially cooking the rat. I did try the blow dryer method last, but I think I will try the first method you stated first.
I will consider using paper towels instead and see if that helps.
Thanks for all the help, and any more suggestions or changes I should make to my husbandry feel free to share!
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