Do you measure thawed feeder temp?

[Zincubus]

When I switched from live feeders to frozen/thawed, I had a hunch. Since Ball Pythons rely on their heat pits so heavily when hunting, I would really increase my chances of getting him to eat a thawed rodent if I made sure that its temperature matched that of a live rodent.

So I went to the local herp store armed with my IR thermometer gun. They sold me the ratsicle and let me check the temperature of some of the live rodents. All my readings were between 88-92°F (31-33.5°C). My skin read ~93°F. I got home and thawed the rat in a plastic bag with the air squeezed out, submerged in the water with a little weight holding it underwater. I thawed it for a couple hours in cool water. I then poured very hot water into the bin it was thawing in. My tap puts out water around 120°F (49°C). My goal was to get the feeder temp a few degrees over the live rodent temperature range. I checked every 15 minutes, replacing the water with new hot water until my IR thermometer read the rodent at 96°F (35.5°C). I then gave it about 10 minutes for for the feeder's temperature to equalize (the inside will be colder than outside) and drop down into the live rodent range. When it read 90°F, I offered the rat, and my snake took it without hesitation.

I already explained why I went through that trouble, but here's where I think I got some payoff to my madness and why I started this thread. So today, I fed my BP. My IR thermometer has been wacky recently, giving me wrong readings. I went through the process I described, took the feeder out when it read 91°F and offered it to my snake. I already had a scented wad of paper in his enclosure. He was peeking out of his hide and ready to eat. I presented his target to him, and he followed it. I presented the rodent and had him leave his hide and hunt it. When he struck, he missed badly, seemed to lose interest, and went back to his starting spot. He's never done this before. He's missed thawed and live, but always kept hunting it aggressively and got it the second time. I tried dancing it in front of him, hanging it in front of him, and finally laying it down in front of him. Nothing. So I check the temperature of my arm with the thermometer. It read about 108°F/42°C. The feeder was reading 88°F. His cool side hide was reading 97°F. The thermometer was reading way high. So I went back and heated the rodent in hot water for another 25 min. At that point, it read a couple of degrees lower than my skin temperature. I offered it again and my snake quickly hit it and ate it as normal.

In all my research on feeding f/t, I've read a lot of different methods of thawing feeder rodents, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone recommend taking the temperature of the feeder before offering it. Yet Ball Pythons rely heavily on their heat pits to detect and accurately attack prey. I suspect that a thawed, but too-cold feeder might be the cause of a lot of unsuccessful feedings. I also suspect that a feeder being too hot is less of an issue than too cold, which, I believe, is partly why the hairdryer method is so well-regarded.

It’s not just the temp of the rodent that is important imho

It’s when you feed them , where they are in the viv ( under a hide preferably) , how bright the room lighting is etc etc

I’ve sent you details of the hairdryer method


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