Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple of days i posted a message about feeding and it got me thinking....

What methods do you use to thaw and heat up your frozen prey items?

Personaly i thaw them out by putting the item in a plastic food bag and them in some lukewarm water. Then i heat the prey up to body temp by putting them on an old heat mat.

Loire.

I thaw in a plastic bag at room temperature all day, and then heat in warm water at feeding time (I keep some rats in a plastic bag, and put the bag in warm water for those picky snakes that will not take WET feeders, but most will eat rats that are put straight into warm water).

I used to try heating on a heat pad, but it seems that the abdominal walls just got too weak (a little "dancing" to entice a snake would result in gut-spaghetti in the cage or tub), so I just use water now. Having a hot water dispenser at the house helps .

When I got my first snake - I tried thawing via microwave once. Just once. I learn fast. Fortunately it was in paper towels and in a plastic bag when I tried it, when it popped.....
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

I put mine in a ziploc bag and then put it in hot water. I normally have to add more hot water depending on how big the rat or mouse is. Pinky mice I put in a cup of hot water for 10-15 min.
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1.0 ghost
1.1 albino
0.1 het albino

I fill a 5 gallon bucket about half way with water as hot as I can get it from the tap and set it aside. I then take a 1 gallon bucket and put the rats in it with some room temp purified water.
Just enough to cover the rats. Then I put the lid on the 1 gallon, put it in the 5 gallon, and put the lid on the 5 gallon. When I'm doing a bunch of rats, or a rabbit, I might have to change the water in the 5 gallon a couple of times.
The reason I do it this way is because I don't give my Boas tap water. There is all kinds of nasty stuff in city water!
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Jason Dowell