There are several ways to defrost frozen food, and some ways work better for some people, while others prefer other methods. You may also find that the defrost method may affect the feeding of the snake, and some prefer warmed items while others will just strike or eat anything!!
We usually defrost our feeders in a large bowl of hot water. We have a lot of food to defrost so it's quicker to defrost in water, but there is the disadvantage of the food then being wet, and it takes quite a lot of paper towels to dry them!
Some of the snakes also don't seem to like the damp food items, but most don't mind, but be warned the food seems to smell a bit more when defrosted this way!!
You can also defrost in water, but with the food item in a bag, to prevent it from getting wet.
You could just leave the food items out to defrost naturally, although this is time-consuming. To speed up the process you can leave the food near a lamp or heat source, which will also warm the item through, and can help the scent of the food to drift to the snake, which often helps non-feeders get started.
We often dry some of the food items with a hairdryer for the fussier snakes, as it warms them up, and is particularly useful with larger mice and rats that have grown fur, as it increases the scent and the snake can sense the heat, and so is more likely to strike at it.
Good luck with your first feeding. I hope it all goes well, but don't be worried if it doesn't feed first time for you. Let us know how you go on!
) - gets the body temp over room temp and this seems to be the difference for my ball python to accept a pre-killed prey item.
