thawing rats??

[miley_take]

I've seen people saying the wet rat will lubricate the rat making it go down easier.. And my snakes go mental.. If I dry the rat out they just sniff it.. Not sure why they like it wet :?

I noticed mine went psycho after i couldn't find the bags and just used water and the rat, ever since I've just used hot tap water..strange

 

[gelusmuse]

I thaw and warm them on the heat mat, xbox 360 (which ever house should have) etc. Don't have a problem with thawing with water though.

 

[BlindSnake]

We defrost ours on the fish tank light. Line them up like snags on a B.B.Q.
But when feeding hatchies we like to make sure they are getting enough water, so we just dunk em' in some warm water.

 

[daniel1234]

Here you go:
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-herps/my-rat-defrosting-invention-82616

 

[The Devil]

A few months ago when i was doing some research i found out that a reptiles recommended fluid intake is 10ml per kilo of body weight per day, so yeh, depending on the size of your reptile warming up the food by direct contact with water could be a good thing =)

I would like to know where you found this info. Being lazy I clean water bowls weekly and then leave them out for a week.
Been doing that for many years.

Even after being without water for a week it is unusual to see the jungles go anywhere near the water in the first hour.
When I do see one having a drink I just about look for the camera.

With the bhp's it's different, they love their water. As a matter of interest some time ago I decided to see just how much water a 6kg bhp drank after being without water for 7 days.

I weighed the water container when full and again an hour later, the difference was 50 or 60 grams (mills). After another 12 hours the difference was another 10 grams(mills)

Mere mortals like ourselves loose most of our body fluid via perspiration, reptiles don't have this problem.

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

This works wonders for me!!!! For rats, mice, chickens and quails.

Here's the hyperlink: http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-herps/my-rat-defrosting-invention-82616

Not my invention I might add, someone elses!!

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

Can someone explain the reasons behind defrosting rats in a plastic bag.
I've always just used hot water from the tap.

Out of interest I recently weighed a rat before putting it in the water and again after it was thawed.

The rat if I remember correctly was about 130 grams and the water retained in the hair ect was 30 grams or 30 mls.

Now 30mls is a decent drink for any size snake and can only be good for it.
Also a wet rat would go down easier than a dry one.

I prefer a sandwich bag myself. If you check out that Rat Invention I posted above, you can even pour some water in there so your rat is still wet and dry. More than often, when I take the food out from the bags, water has managed to leak in there anyhow (sometimes I forget to seal the top properly). Wet ones most likely would go down easier!

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

all the excess water n juiciness kinda squirted on the glass of her vivarium and on her branch n stuff,

that's why I feed in seperate tubs away from the enclosures that are easy to clean

 

[xScarlettex]

that's why I feed in seperate tubs away from the enclosures that are easy to clean

I tried that but she wont to eat in anything other than her tank, plus she was a fussy eater to start with so now ive got her feeding regularly i dont want to change anything =)

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

I tried that but she wont to eat in anything other than her tank, plus she was a fussy eater to start with so now ive got her feeding regularly i dont want to change anything =)

I can understand where you're coming from. You have to do what works for you. I know someone's snakes who won't feed out of the enclosures, so he does the same.

Although, it did take me a while with my first snake to get him to feed outside of the enclsoure. All the others now I introduced at a young age, so now it's not a problem.

 

[xScarlettex]

I would like to know where you found this info. Being lazy I clean water bowls weekly and then leave them out for a week.
Been doing that for many years.

Even after being without water for a week it is unusual to see the jungles go anywhere near the water in the first hour.
When I do see one having a drink I just about look for the camera.

With the bhp's it's different, they love their water. As a matter of interest some time ago I decided to see just how much water a 6kg bhp drank after being without water for 7 days.

I weighed the water container when full and again an hour later, the difference was 50 or 60 grams (mills). After another 12 hours the difference was another 10 grams(mills)

Mere mortals like ourselves loose most of our body fluid via perspiration, reptiles don't have this problem.

I cant remember the name of it but it was a book on vet nursing.. maybe "The Complete Book Of Veterinary Nursing' Edited by Victoria Aspinall?? Not sure though.. i was doing some research on anaesthesia and came across it when they were explaining about fluid provision and how to monitor fluid rates and things, Ive read for a mammal the recommendation is 60-90ml/kg/day (Aspinall) but ive also read the recommendation is 40-80ml/kg/day (Handbook of Laboratory Animal Management And Welfare 3rd Ed, Lloyd & Wolfensohn, 2003) obviously the rate is lower for reptiles coz they dont lose much through perspiration etc, Id say they'd tend to 'drink' less as well because they're whole body eaters so they get alot of fluid from the fluid retained in their preys tissues, these are just recommendations though, going by those rates i would have to drink 3-4L of fluids a day to stay 'hydrated' and im lucky to even get 1L down

 

[slim6y]

I thaw them in buckets of hot water straight from the tap and feed them off wet for that exact same reason.One thing that got me thinking though is the copper content of water from the heater.Anyone know if water from hot water tanks contains excessive amounts of copper?

I don't know if this helps (sorry, haven't read the whole thing).

http://www.awa.asn.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Copper_Blue_Water_in_Pipes

But... The element in your hot water cylinder is normally nichrome.

The piping from the cylinder to the taps may be copper.

It is unlikely that there will be enough copper in it over the amount of feeds and time the snake is alive to cause toxicity.

That's my opinion anyway!

Personally - I do not drink from the hot water tap. However, as we have a splitter (hot and cold) I'd say some water I drink would be from the hot water tap inadvertently.

I'm stil hefyht... good... prob... no...



I feed my snakes using rats thawed in hot water in the sink (that is cleaned firstly).

 

[Rocky]

i used to thaw them overnight like you would tomorrows dinner...and then heat up a sink full of hot water and float them in a chinese container....problem was it took too long...especially when the rats ended up being large rats...
cheers..

Wow, what a method, haha.

Can someone explain the reasons behind defrosting rats in a plastic bag.
I've always just used hot water from the tap.

Out of interest I recently weighed a rat before putting it in the water and again after it was thawed.

The rat if I remember correctly was about 130 grams and the water retained in the hair ect was 30 grams or 30 mls.

Now 30mls is a decent drink for any size snake and can only be good for it.
Also a wet rat would go down easier than a dry one.

I have read some where on here that some people had snakes that didn't take wet mice/rats. Is that right?

 

[Tatelina]

OMG i just thawed a mouse for my diamond's dinner and it went terribly wrong. i put it in the microwave for 1 minute on "defrost". thank goodness it was in a pres-seal bag and the mess was contained.

so i got one out to thaw for tomorrow, sat down at the puter and read this post....how ironic!

so the trick is - DON'T MICROWAVE THEM!!! lol

Hahahaha..oh dear. We used to have a thread of herping do's and do not's....that was a big massive do not.



There was also a thread a couple of months back about somebodies idea of how to defrost rats/mice in an effective way using a zip lock bag in an ice-cream container...with the top of it pulled through a slit in the lid....but I can't remember who posted it.

ETA: Link has already been posted twice...
http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-herps/my-rat-defrosting-invention-82616
Now three times!

 

[Emzie]

i use hot water, dont worry about bags dont even dry them never had a snake refuse it