Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just a quick question? I used to feed my snakes and monitors live prey but i am switching to frozen and i want to know the best way to thaw the frozen feeders. Thanks

Fill sink with hot/warm water. Have feeder in plastic bag with almost all air out of it. Place feeder in water, put rock on bag next to feeder to hold it down.

I prefer a long thaw on a plate. When you put them in warm water they get soaking wet through every bag I tried this with. My snake wouldn't touch em this way. I lay everything out on a large serving pan and make sure no other animals can get to them. Then I leave it on the counter for about 6 hours or so. I've also left them outside with a glass cake dish cover so they get warm. Yum! That's good mammal!

I prefer the long thaw way also.

I take my feeders out in the morning before work, either put them in my room (where the reps are) or leave them in the garage.

Either way, after 9 hours they are nice and squishy, all that is left is to apply a little heat. That's accomplished via infrared light....

But there is a feeding difference between my Black Throat Monitor and my snakes. They snakes prefer them warm, the monitor could care less if they were warm or dipped in ice first.

I found that putting them in hot water can possibly leave the inside cold or frozen still while literally COOKING the outside of rodent, leading to an unbearable smell and a snake that wont touch it. Rather, leave the rodent out overnight and it will keep all internal organs intact and can give yr python an uncooked fresher smelling rodent. Hope this helps.

Thanks to everyone who responded!!

if i happen to be cooking a dinner on teh same night as i feed my babies. i will place them om some foil and put it between the two back burners (if you use teh oven this part of the stove heats up really well. also it helps if youre using the burners. every time ive done this by the time my dinner is done the rodents are always thawed and nice and warm. that kinda warm you cant get from warm water. my girls love it.