I felt like I was in a movie...

[Selenotypus]

So since my Snake has been recovering from being unwell, he's been sluggish. Well not today! I defrosted a rat, bowl of kettle water, not the way I usually do it since it makes the rats bloat and the skin very weak, I thought why not since at least he'd absorb water and that'd be good for the snake. (Usually I defrost under heat lights). Anyway, I was holding the rat by the tail opened the sliding glass door and Tigger was no longer sluggish ... he hit the rat right in the gut with so much force it exploded all over me... so there I was dry reaching with my pet snake trying to wipe me out... like I said a movie:shock: lol

 

[Shaggz]

obviously he is feeling better lol

 

[dangles]

lol sounds like you poached the rat, i use hot water from the tap to defrost. Hot enough that i can just hold my hand under it, i find you may have to refill the water with new warm stuff a couple of times until the rat is defrosted through

 

[MrBredli]

Use hot water straight from the tap and it'll never happen again.

 

[CamdeJong]

Exactly what I do, Dangles. Selenotypus you're way overheating your rats, you need to feed snakes at a time when you aren't rushed and let the rats defrost more slowly. No wild snake cooks its food and I can't imagine it's as good for the snake, behaviourally and nutritionally.

 

[Selenotypus]

oh believe me, feeding them that way is fine, apart from.. well what happended! lol. Besides technically he shouldn't be eating rats at all, he should be eating reptiles but it's illegal so Tigger doesn't get the diet he should have. I can't see how cooking the rat would hurt him anyway.

 

[Bez84]

Hot water straight from the tap...kettle water is way to hot.. you just need to defrost and warm the rat not boil its guts.

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

it cooks the bone making it brittle for one.... Considering you have had so many dramas with this snake, you may want to consider feeding him properly... snakes dont pull out the bbq and cook their prey in the wild, wether they eat reptiles or not.

 

[Reptilefreak95]

i usually chuck it in a zip lock bag with warm water, or i leave them out until they are defrosted, just chillen there at room temp. might take a while, but i get no probs. and cool story bro my darwin did one of those on me, my dad loved it XD haha

 

[Wookie]

Agree with most posts above. Abstain from cooking food items. Stick to warm water rather than boiling water. Newtolovingsnake made a good point; you can know with complete confidence feeding a thawed item will not be detrimental however can you say the same for a "cooked" item? Aside from the point made about bones, high temperatures can denature proteins also. I think this occurs at temperatures above normal body temp though I suspect a higher temperature will degrade more protein (feel free to correct me anybody, just speculating) .

 

[Reptilefreak95]

that is absolutely true, however, during digestion proteins are broken down into amino acids, so the structure of the proteins does not matter. but i wouldnt feet a cooked item either, much less vitamins etc.

 

[CamdeJong]

oh believe me, feeding them that way is fine

I don't believe you. Jump on Google and look into it.

 

[Reptilefreak95]

I don't believe you. Jump on Google and look into it.

LEGEND haha that just made my day

 

[Trench]

Anyway, I was holding the rat by the tail opened the sliding glass door and Tigger was no longer sluggish ... he hit the rat right in the gut with so much force it exploded all over me... so there I was dry reaching with my pet snake trying to wipe me out... like I said a movie:shock: lol

yeah, high explosives, hero caught in blast, evil monster hunting him down for giving him a non-nutritious meal.
hahaha

 

[Selenotypus]

Okay guys, little off topic now. I put them in boiling water, now depending on room temp and weather I put a lid on whatever I put the rat in the temp of the water can become Luke warm within 10minutes. none of which you guys bothered to even ask. The bones do not become brittle, they are brittle from freezing this is a fact whoever said look at Google, take your own advice. the protein a rat is fairly minimal, however hot water for about 10minutes doesn't kill the protein. I am no expert but I don't make things up. feel free to Google your head off. The implication that my snake may be sick or finding it hard to get better because I did this is ignorant, if you like I implore anyone to provide me with a site more than one would be great telling us just how much protein he is losing.

 

[PythonLegs]

Haha..you know that certain group of people, who know everything, even though they've had a multitude of problems and should maybe take advice from others at some stage? Yeah, me too.

Denaturation Protein

Happy new year.

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Personally I like to let mine defrost in the fridge through the day then heat them up to a nice temp for the snake just before feeding them that night.

 

[Selenotypus]

it cooks the bone making it brittle for one.... Considering you have had so many dramas with this snake, you may want to consider feeding him properly... snakes dont pull out the bbq and cook their prey in the wild, wether they eat reptiles or not.

Not cooked. Bone's not brittle. He has an RI, nothing to do with food. Oh and really, they don't set up a camp-fire and cook their food? no way? Always someone here that's ignorant. The irony lies in your signature.

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

how the hell would you know that the rats bones arent brittle??? Did you also chew it for your snake first??

You are definately one of the people on here that my signature applies to.... How am i the one that is ignorant when you are the tool that has decided that he knows better than centuries of snakes and decades of snake keepers?

Do what you want its your snake. Dont come whinging on here when your snake gets sick again.

and defrosting in high heat does cook... but meh, whatever...

 

[CamdeJong]

Switching a pet snake from live to frozen food — Pet-Snakes.com
How to Feed a Snake Frozen Food - wikiHow, the free how-to guide
www.vmsherp.com/LCLivevsFrozen.htm
FM Pottenger - 1983 - ectownusa.net "Pottinger's cats"

There's 180 seconds of research. Nowhere did it say "cook food for your snake, that's good."

In the Pottinger's cats article it is found that feeding cooked food has a range of profound degenerative effects on the carnivore and its offspring, including (as I said) behavioural impacts. And the last sentence says "I would also extrapolate this information to include dogs and all other true carnivores."

No need to get annoyed with anyone mate. We offered you our experience and opinions and you assured us we were wrong. What do you expect?