Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i went out of town for three days and at some point my freezer's power got tripped! i had about 300 bucks worth of mice in it. all of the mice and pinks are thawed. they were still wet and cold. what do you think? trash them or refreeze them? i just re ordered all of them again from rodent pro but i thought i would bounce it off you guys to see if you thought it would be stupid to take the chance.
as always thanks for any reply
jason wilson

I've heard of people successfully refreezing rodents once or twice, and the fact that yours never reached room temperature is another point in favor of keeping them. I don't suppose that you thought to hit them with a temperature gun when you found them? If they were just over the freezing temperature, I wouldn't think that much damage occurred.

Bill
-----
It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

This happened to me last year (freezer just died - all rodents were thawed for about two to three days, but still very cold to the touch). I refroze all the rodents and used them ALL up and all my snakes are doing GREAT! Hope this helps . . .

Zee
-----
"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

I wish I had been that lucky...Lost power for 3 weeks with Hurricane Rita. Over 600 mice turned into foul-smelling goo in the bottom of my freezer. Just taped it shut and wheeled it out for the garbage.

I'm sorry to hear that. I was without power for about 36 hours with each of last year's Louisiana hurricanes, but I didn't lose more than a few dollars of vegetables. Of course, I didn't own snakes at that time and didn't have mice or rats to lose. I'm thinking of getting a generator within the next few weeks. I may even get a dedicated freezer for the feeders and run it off the generator.

Bill
-----
It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I sometime feed my snakes leftover mice that have been sitting uneaten in another cage. The partially rancid mice do not seem to effect the snakes health. Also I would think that since snakes find and eat dead carrion in the wild their stomachs are adaptable to old smelly mice that have been sitting out in the heat for a day or two.

I am replying to my own message. HA HA HA!

Here is a pic I forgot that I took. It was two days ago while I was on a walk with my 3 year old daughter.

This water snake is eating a dead sundried rancid fish. The smell of the fish was still in the air but it was mostly dried out. You can't tell this from the pic to well and I did not want to get to close to the snake and disturb his meal.

Just thought I share this since I brought up that snakes eat old smelly rancid animals in the wild.

Rainer that watersnake needs a paper towel or he may injest some substrate,lol C

LOLOLOL! TOO FUNNY! I never feed frozen/thawed, but will offer any killed/not eaten to another snake. I have a meahlmorrim that will eat anything, anytime, any rancidity factor. Better than a disposal!
Todd Hughes