I used to use the hot=water-in-a-bucket method and, I agree, a warm, wet rat is probably the easiest for the snakes to swallow. I actually had a few that wouldn't even bother with the rat unless it was soaking wet.

My problem with this method was that I don't have access to water in the room I keep my snakes in and carrying the bucket into the room and (often times) dripping water on the floor became a pain. Plus, the warmest (and hence, those that were least likely to be refused) rats were always the first few... by the time I got to the last few rats the water had cooled significantly and it was more difficult to entice the snakes to strike at them.

I simply wanted a way of thawing and warming the rats to the correct temperature that involved the least amount of mess as well as a minimal amount of preparation from me. This method has worked very well and has decreased the average number of refusals I've encountered. I simply posted this idea along with the pictures because I hoped that if someone else was having problems or looking for a potentially "better way" that this would help them. It was quick, inexpensive, easy and fairly straight forward and anyone with even a minimal amount of woodworking experience could do this.


.
.
-----
Stay United!


"...I say 'apparently' because despite all our progress she is not at all a tame or handle-able snake and gettting her from that cage would re-start a war.. and we've had a good armistice for several months now."-Gus Rentfro - I love this quote!

[ Show Entire Thread ]