Hello again everyone, I seek some help with thawing rats for my new burmese. I have typically fed all my reptiles pre-killed. But I have always been the one to kill them. I just recently have a local shop that sells frozen rats and so I just picked up a 20 bag of them today. The burmese was used to eating F/T when I got him so I suspected there wouldn't be any probs. I took one of the frozen rats, put it in a sandwich baggie, and put it in a cup of hot water for about 10 mins.. drained the water..put more hot water in, left for another 10 mins. I then took the rat and put him under a ceramic emitter for about 2 mins and tried to give him to the burmese. He went up to it, and then backed away and never touched it. Before when I fed him freshly killed rats, he would actively grab, and eat them. I think my problem is I didn't warm the rat to satisfy his taste so any tips for maybe making it a bit warmer, or how to tell when it's ok? Thanks in advance. Love the forum so far. ; )
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Frozen/Thawed Prey..?
Replies (3)
Back when my snakes used to eat, haven't for going on 3 months now, I remove the prey from the freezer and any packaging. Large rats/rabbits usually take about 12 hours at room temp to thaw well. I remove them from any packaging so any ice or moisture inside the packaing evaporates rather than makes the meal soggy. Small rats obviously take less time. Once they're at room temp you can try heating them a little more with a heat emitter but I found this to make them smell more dead like. Just thawed worked very well.
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DZ
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
1.0.0 Burm, Moses
0.0.2 Ball, Chico & Chewy (rescue, many scars)
0.2.0 Cats, Merideth & Hannah
1.0.0 Black Chow, Pivo (RIP Oct 23)
1.0.0 Blue Chow Puppy, Bruno (Born Oct 23)
1.4.0 Rats
0.2.0 Humans (a little obnoxious though)
I use the same thawing method. Except I warm them a bit on top of my light fixtures.
I do this with all size prey. The warm water method makes em yucky! I would'nt eat them either!
( tastes just like chicken I'm told)
HaHa...burmaboy!
My gal is an odd one. She won't eat her rabbits unless they are soggy. I can't explain it and she's the only one I've ever had that does this but then again, she's a snake! This is the same one that would only eat live for years and it was only after I had to fast track the thawing (hot water...I know, I know...) that I figured her out.
