Howdy everybody I know we've been talking about this on the feeding by hand thread so I figured it was time to put a new topic under a new heading. If you search the site there are many other posts like this but it's always refreshing to get new perspectives.

Basically the question of the moment is:

"How do you thaw your mice?"

So everybody in the immortal (he's still alive isn't he?) words of Bob Barker -

Come on Down!


I myself set the rat in a disposable tupperware container with holes poked in the lid and sides (so my cat and dog can't get to it) on top of my snakes tank at about 6 or 6:30 PM (they're small/medium rats) then at around 11pm or when I can feel that the head and mid section (take the longest to thaw) are no longer cold i take the lid off and take the tupperware into the bathroom where I blow dry the rat for about 3 minutes on medium heat focusing mostly on the head and a bit on the midsection being sure to keep the blow dryer far enough away so as not to cook the rat.

Then I grab my big fat tweezer tongs that I got from a wonderful little herp store in Nashville and hold my rat out for the great and knowledgable Icculus (my BP). Sometimes if it's not warm enough he'll just come out and look at it. Apparently he likes a hot meal.

I recently read a reply about holding the mouse/rat under warm and then hot running water. I'd love to try this - do you use a ziploc bag or just run the mouse/rat under the water? I guess it would be best if you can get your snake to take a wet mouse/rat because you'd never have to worry about dehydration!