Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was going to feed my snakes the other day when I noticed that there was some blood (not much, a drop or two) in the baggy with the pinky as it was defrosting. I threw these mice out, but I was wondering if this was normal and if it could be harmful to the snake.

I would think this is normal since the pinky's are actually raw meat, I know that sounds gross (sorry). I find there are sometimes droplets of blood in the bags of mice and rats I buy more so with large frozen rats. They are frozen fresh so once they thaw it is possible to see blood like you would with any other frozen meat product that hasn't been cooked or processed.
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Michelle
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

It will depend alot on how they were killed also. The place where I get my rodents preps/kills anything larget then hoppers by breaking the neck. This is very quick and effective but does often lead to some leaking of blood from the nose or mouth on the freshly killed rodent.

Furthermore if they are frozen right after this it will not necesarily leak before freezing but may start once defrosting starts. Because of how they kill them where I get mine I'd say at least 50% of the rodents I get have visible blood on the snout or leakage(drop or two) on whatever container they are in.

I always see blood in my pinks if they are vacuum packed, especially if they are very small ones. I think it might be from the suction pulling the air out and the soft skin of a newborn pinkies. It may be breaking the skin on some. I ve come to accept it and haven’t had any problems from it.