anyone who feeds ft when you feed do you thaw them out and just feed or do you heat up the prey and if so how do you heat up the prey? Some of my snakes I can just throw in the rat and they just get it others need a little coaxing and others are just impossible........ just wondering?

I use warm water to thaw out my rodents and I like to offer to the animals still warm.

Not that it matters much for me since Im feeding mainly monitors and skinks. Both will readily accept cold, dead prey. But for snakes especially boids heating them up a little seems to get a better reponse.

And when I had snakes I went through the gambit, too. I had some that would eat FT off a plate at room temperature. Others needed the 'ol wiggle wiggle. Some needed them warmed. And others wanted no part of it. One trick I used to do was feed a very small fresh killed rodent to kinda get them in food mode and then offer the appropriate sized FT right away and they would usually take it. But a few..uh uh. No like FT period end of discussion.

Sometimes I thaw to room temp or to warm water. Room temp thaws I usually warm them a bit more with warm water also. I have some that need the food wiggled a little others hit the food as soon as it appears. Feeding a live then F/T has worked well for me getting Live eaters changed to F/T. Scenting F/T with live also has worked for me.

I have a styrofoam cooler I fill with hot water and put all the prey times in plastic bags in the cooler until they are completely thawed for the corns, kings, pits and make they are pretty warm for the finicky balls.... Although my pastel male ball would probably eat it right out of the freezer if I let him! That boy is a chow hound!

I've got balls that go to both extremes, ones that'll eat the thing still half-frozen and then others that I have to hold up to our bathroom heater (that's a sight, me standing in the bathroom with a dead rat held up to the heater in the ceiling). My mojave will not eat except in the middle of the night, I thaw the rat out and leave it in the cage and it's gone in the morning. I tried feeding her once and she just shied away so I went back to what works. I've got others that I have to get that extra warmth on them before they'll nail it. It's funny how you figure out what works for each snake.

defrost in hot water, then dump the cooled down water with the warmed up rats, and re-fill with hot water.
then feed,
just fed two animals, 10 minutes ago, doing exactly that.
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i thaw them in warm water
some i have coax them to take it but most have a high feeding response but as time goes the all end up with a high feeding response

All my bp's I switched to live because I hated the dead rat dancing game but the colubrids and boas plus anything of the larger pythons all eat ft. I thaw them overnight in a container soak in some hot water and just toss in on a deli cup lid normally before work, by the time I get home I have to just collect the deli cup lids. I had to teach myself not to feed at odd hours with the GTP, that one was developing an attitude from the morning and afternoon feedings.

I thaw them out under one of my lower wattage heat lamps.

I toss the frozen feeders in a 5 gal bucket and thaw with warm water. When everything is thawed I dump out the cooler water and cover the feeders HOT water. Except for 1 or 2 BPs , everything that I feed F/T takes them this way.

When I thaw out prey, I generally take out what I'm gonna need and put them in ziploc bags and throw them in a fridge I keep in the basement for that purpose, the day before. Right before feeding time, I take everything out of the fridge, which is now thawed, and run it under warm to hot water for a few seconds to a minute or so for the large rats and rabbits.

Some of the snakes will take cooler prey, but I prefer to warm it up for them, so they aren't swallowing something that might be too cold and decrease their body temp. Most of them won't touch it unless it's warmed up, though. I especially like to make the retics food a bit warmer than the rest, as I don't want my hand to be the warmest thing they see when they go to strike. Some of them get a little too over excited and have been known to completely miss their food.

I also have several snakes and a monitor that will not take anything but live prey. They're spoiled and I don't have the patience to wiggle it in front of them for an hour to get them to strike it anymore when it already takes me 3 or 4 hours to feed everyone.

I heat them in water as well. I use my temp gun to make sure they are at about 80 degrees on the outside and squeeze the hip and shoulder areas to make sure they are defrosted on the inside. I have converted a few boas from live to FT using a few tricks. If they wont take it at first I dry it out and let the smell come out a bit more. Seems to do the trick.

I use to use warm water but it was kind of a mess. Now I just set them out ahead of time to thaw.

1. I defrost overnight in the fridge -- (I've found water defrosting to be a major source of refusals and gut explosions so I don't use that anymore)

2. About an hour before feeding pull them out and take them up to my snake room

3. Then I stick them on top of the GTP cage where they slowly come to room temp (the heat that comes out the top from the light and the heat panel aid tremendously in this endeavor)

4. At feeding time I cut open the bags, stick them under a heat lamp while I pull feed cards and track down the stats and step stool and post a few messages on my favorite reptile forums.

5. Then I feed.

Takes all of about an hour - two during baby season. Most of the collection will eat whatever you toss in the cage irregardless of the temperature so the heating thing is pretty much just a luxury I give them.

I thaw in water. then once thawed I run the faucet till the water is as hot s it gets and then fill up the container. i just pull the rats/mice from the container pat dry and they are usually around 78-80 degrees.

pinkies tke like a coupe minutes in cold water lol so just dethaw real quick and only baby corns eating those and they will eat whatever i throw in lol

I forgot to mention not to use super hot water for the first thaw if the rats are frozen. That is what causes them to burst or have weak skin that will burst when eaten. I use hot(ish) water for the first go round and then super hot on the second go round.

Works great for me. Keeps the smell down for the family. Keeps the smell down so my boas aren't jumping out of the cage when I open it.

I use to use warm water but it was kind of a mess. Now I just set them out ahead of time to thaw.

Do you ever have any that wont eat since its not heated up?

Do you ever have any that wont eat since its not heated up?

Four year old post...but in answer to your question, I do the same thing, and mine gladly take it.