Well I call tonight a success. I left the rat in my barn today to thaw at about 40 degrees. Tonight when I came home I put it in a pan of warm water until it was about 80 degrees body temp. Then I took it out of the bag and blasted it with the hair dryer for about 10 seconds. At firts he came right toward it in a striking pose. He examined it for about 5 minutes but never did strike. I heated it again and the same thing he just kept moving all around it so I decided to just set it on top of his warm hide for the night. I watched from a distance for about 5 minutes, he never moved away from it but I left the room. I peaked my head in about 20 minutes later and he had it in his mouth about 1/2 way gone so I left him alone.
My only other issue is maybe finding another source for frozen rats. The place I went to today had a very nice website and seems like a professional place. They had them bagged and ready for me. Their website showed rat pups 20-30 grams. When I got home I weighed all of them and only a couple were over 20 grams, most were around 16-18. I only bought 15, since he weighed in last night at over 250 grams I feel like these wil be too small. If I can find a reliable source for some that are closer to 30 grams I might just get some and feed him the few I got that are over 20.
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