Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was always told never to refreeze meat, and yet I've heard many people say that they refreeze mice/rats for their snakes. I cringe every time I read this. Aren't mice and rats meat? What makes it ok to refreeze rodents and not beef/chicken/pork, etc?

MissHisssss.

I don't do it.. I just give 'em to the dog.

I will refreeze an animal a couple of times...I think it's more of a taste issue than safety- freezer burn does not appeal to me, but it won't hurt me, and it certainly doesn't bother my animals. I've never had any casualties from feeding old or re-frozen rodents.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1

gdf
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

You have to understand that most people don't let the rodent sit out for hours then return it to the freezer. If your having a snake that won't take F/T I find the refreezing of the rodent helps bring out the sent of the more. Should try it sometime, works well most of the time..

John Clarke
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HELP CONTROL THE MUTT POPULATION, PLEASE SPADE OR NUDERD YOUR MUTT TODAY!!!!

Kidding....

But seriously, protien & amino acids do degrade over time. Boas
naturally eat live prey, or even dead prey. Frozen prey is out
of the ordinary for them. They normally get all the nutrients
they need via their food. There might be health implications
that are not obvious or easily detected.
(Something like sailers getting scurvey for example)..

Thanks,
tc

I often re-freeze, but only if I have thawed the prey item rapidly in water, not sitting out over the course of the day, and then not if it's been in the cage over night. Generally it has had a total unfrozen time of less than a couple of hours.

Which brings to mind the one phrase nearly as anoying as ColUmbia red tail; un-thaw. AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH

GD
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I don't believe in luck. Luck is God covering your a** when you screw up.

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I still cringe when I hear that people refreeze meat. I'd heard it when I was a kid and I guess it just stuck and I had no other reason to think otherwise till now. So I just looked up refreezing meat on keyword and found out that it's ok... but it does have it's drawbacks. Each site had it's own way of puttin it so I'll leave it up to you to check them out if you want instead of trying to repeat everything here. The one thing I will mention though is that one site (I think it was the FDA) said that freezing food only inactivates bacteria and once an item is thawed out those microbes can become active again. This surprised me. I thought that freezing things killed bacteria. Live and learn.

I LOVE these forums.
MissHisssss.