Quote Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal View Post
Could be. As for the thawing, that's roughly what I do. Though most of mine don't mind wet feeders so I usually skip bagging and the hairdryer dries it off enough I guess.

Maybe try longer with the hairdryer? I aim for 30 seconds or so, but generally wait until I see a nose at the hide entrance or they start coming out of the hide. Vega, my yearling, will literally take a room temp rat wet if offered... (only did that once out of curiosity. Figured he wouldn't take it and I could just do the blow dryer, but he snatched it right up.)

Right now getting the nose to come out in interest takes 60-90 seconds for my young female (2nd frozen meal last night! & 3rd with me). I do the whole body once I get the nose for 30 seconds and just alternate to try and get the whole thing extra warm and alive.

If that doesn't get interest, I often swap to the low power heat mode and blow some smell straight into the cage near the hide entrance in case they weren't paying attention. That tends to work unless I missed the start of a shed for my adult male.

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Well, the problem is, she already shows interest. Her head is out of her hide every night like she's waiting for food. So when it's time to feed, she's there and ready, and she comes up to it, sniffs it, watches it intently - if I move it around she follows it with her head. She just won't strike. Whereas before, once the rat got in front of her, she IMMEDIATELY struck and wrapped.

And yeah, I've tried everything with the hairdryer. Each week she hasn't taken, I've spent like 30 minutes alternating between blasting it and offering it... trying different things to get it "right" so she'll eat. I've done it on the high setting, on the low setting, for 10 seconds, for 30 seconds, on just the head, on the whole body,... I've dangled it close to her face, far away from her face, with little motion, with a lot of motion... I've left the rat overnight each time in case she decided she wanted it.

Before, she wasn't really picky about it. As long as the rat was warm and in front her face, she was gonna grab it.