Help! Not eating!

[Bogertophis]

What’s the best way to heat it? I heat up some water in a pot, wait till I see bubbles on the bottom(right before boiling) take it off, and stick the frozen rat into it for 10-15 minutes and when the water cools I’ll heat it up on low heat. And Like if her waters low(I usually wash it out and refill it every week or when she dirties it up) I’ll refill it, spot clean, put hides back in, put lamp back ontop(should I leave that on while I’m feeding her? Ive never done that but I’m thinking that might help)take out uneaten rat/soiled substrate to trash and general stuff like that.

You are cooking the rats!???

Thaw either IN the refrigerator (takes a long time!) or (my way) thaw in cold water...yes COLD. Takes about an hour (depends on size of rat), can change the water midway in thaw process- if it's too cold it takes longer than necessary, but you do NOT want to use hot water (I know, some others do...ahem) because part of the rat is spoiling while the rest (inside) is still frozen. (it's just basic food safety, like thawing a turkey for humans...but we cook our food & that destroys bacteria, while snakes eat it raw, so it's best for them to cause as little bacterial growth as possible during the thawing process. And that means keep
it cold until thawed, then briefly warm...& FYI, NOT in the microwave oven either...they explode & smell really awful, though your dog may come running?

Once the rat is soft throughout (yes, feel & squish it by hand so you know), then & ONLY then, immerse it for a few minutes only in hot tap water (not boiling water) & offer it to the snake, or, many here like to use a blow-dryer (hair dryer) to briefly warm to to the temp. of a living rat. The heat is ONLY needed for snakes like BPs that care about it being life-like...I no longer keep BPs, so once my feeders are thawed, I briefly rinse under warm tap, blot off on paper towels & feed my snakes. (mostly colubrids but a few boids too)

A few snakes won't care if you tidy up their cage while they're eating but MOST of them do...it's distracting & if I did that, some of mine would bite my hand...hey, they smell food (the rodent) & they're even HOLDING it, but if they see MY motion? ("must be a mouse!") they'd come after me, & BAM! Do that stuff another time for best results.