Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My second feeding with F/T mouse was as disgusting as the first, almost impossible to judge the true size of the mouse from the package, or its condition. the hassle of thawing, the smell was horrible, and the thing was flat as a pancake. i was wiggling it and the darn tail fell off. unidentifiable juices squirted everywhere. the whole ordeal was extremely unpleasant. next time i'm just gonna pick up an appropriate sized mouse from the pet store on the way home, kill it just b4 feeding time. and let my girl have at it. I'm just not gonna deal with half eaten, wrong sized and just plain nasty food for my snake. no wonder they package them in opaque bags, if ppl saw the poor quality of this stuff they would never buy it. but i guess some ppl just get used to it, or think there is no alternative.
rant mode over
Mike

uhhh.....
sorry for your nasty experience--- that is gross...

I have always ordered from rodent pro and never had problems.

I think you're heating them up too fast..
I put them in the fridge over nite and then on the counter during the day before work-- when i get home i blow dry them warm and feed- never had one pop...

Or i'll warm them up in water-- i go slow though-- at least 3 water changes...

I've never noticed a smell either.... could it be your mice source?

anyway-- i've recently gone to fresh killed-- i can get rats for 1$ and thunk them myself -- no shipping-- no waiting 4 weeks for the box... no thaw time... no STUPID CATS running off with a jumbo rat...

lol

better luck next time!

Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

yeah, i think fresh killed are the way to go. i fully understand if some ppl don't have the stomach for it. but it has to be better for the snake, and is definitely better for me lol.
btw i read or hard somewhere that frozen mice/rats lack or have reduced amounts of thymine. i guess this is an important nutrient for BP's , could be bs but i'm gonna dig a little deeper into this.
mike

I go through hundreds of f/t rodents a month, and honestly I have never had a problem even similar to the one you have experienced. I heat them up in hot, not boiling water, and they always look as if they were freshly killed when I am done with them. I order from American Rodent currently.

Prekilled rodents are not an option for me. I feed pinky mice all the way to XXL Rats, and I have no longing to have to purchase and properly care for hundreds of rodents monthly, and then kill them one by one. I could see though having a smaller number of snakes may make prekilled a better option though.
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Thanks,
Amy
My Boids

I've never had a problem either. I get mine from American Rodent too, mostly because they were the best priced/closest to home (so they'd be quick to get here).
I buy in bulk. I have 10 snakes to feed, plus a bottomless pit of a tegu. I can't afford to buy retail.
Plus, I don't know where the stores around here get their feeders from, but they're gross. Poop all over them, poor things look like suffered a horrible death. The frozen feeders I get from Brian look like they just took a nap and just didn't wake up.
My snakes seem so much more laid back when it comes to feeding frozen. They don't have to chase their food. My big girl (red tail) sometimes doesn't even strike, just unlocks her jaw and starts inhaling. Anything I've ever had on live food is jumpy and less predictable.
Definitely try FT again. No running to the store 1-2-3 times a week... no people looking at you like you're nuts/evil... so easy to warm them up in the sink and toss them in. Plus if your snake doesn't eat it (which is a very real possibility with a ball), you can just flush it. No pet mouse until the picky snake wants to eat. Good luck!
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Shelter pets are best! Stop breeding designer mutts!

If you're buying from a pet store it is possible that you're buying from a bad batch of frozen mice. If their freezer broke for a while (which happens often at pet stores), or if they didn't open up their package from "gourmet rodent" quickly enough, the mice probably had time to thaw and that's why they're flat, smelly, and falling apart on you. THAT IS NOT what fresh, properly frozen feeders are supposed to do. The ONLY time that happens to me is if I had to refreeze a mouse that a snake didn't want the first time.

I would buy from a different supplier.

~kasey

If you're getting the Petco frozen rats/mice, I agree, those things are disgusting. Sometimes you'll find ones with tumors or sores on them. Ew...

The only thing I can think to say about prekilled vs. f/t is make sure you can humanely and quickly kill the rodent. It should not take more than one (at most, two) thunk(s) to kill it. With mice, since I have a hard time thunking something that small the right way, I usually thunk to knock it out and then immediately use a pen to snap the neck and make sure it's dead.
Mice are easy to knock out, but they sometimes wake up again and then you come back the next morning to find a live mouse chewing on your snake. Make sure it's dead!!

Good luck, and sorry about the frozen experience. I use F/T for my kingsnake and I've never had a problem with them, but I get mine from the local reptile supply store.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

LOL the tail fell off! I had that happen to me once and it totally turned me off. I dont like feeding F/T because I like to keep the pray drive in my snakes. I had a 2,405 gram female that would just pound a middium rat 1 after the other. I kinda like it that way cause to me its more natural cause the snake is doing what its ment to do. Kill and eat. But thats just my 2 cent and my opinion.

there was so much goo left in the feeding container (and all over my snake) i had to give my snake a bath (just a but of lukewarm water gently poured over her). she didn't like that one bit. (can a snake get sick if it is covered in rotting mouse goo)? and of course my poor wife had to clean out the tub.
BTW she is terrified of snakes, lizards, spiders etc, but her obsession for cleanliness took over, and she automatically grabbed the tub and scrubbed and disinfected it lol. i don't think it even registered what it was she was actually cleaning .
mike
oh except the tail, i had to get rid of the tail first lol
m

I feed all my snakes LIVE. I've never had a problem. Rats and mice are killed with ease and eaten. If an animal doesn't eat the food item in 5 or 10 mins I remove the rat and move on.

Your snake will kill it's food.....you don't need to kill it for them.
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blackrockcaptives.com

"I feed all my snakes LIVE. I've never had a problem."

...Famous last words.
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-Jacob

Once in a great while you might have a snake get chewed on, but I've never seen it. My snakes kill and eat their prey like in the wild, and I've never had a problem.

Smelly f/t means that there's a problem with your supplier. At my local swap a frozen dealer sells rotten, disgusting rats, but from RodentPro they're always fresh.

I still prefer live feeding.

HA HA......thanks for your concern.....I'll be fine.
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blackrockcaptives.com

Things always happen just when you're starting to get complacent. There aren't many stories in comparison to snake owners that feed live, but even 1 in 10,000 is still bad odds, considering how many snake owners there are in the world.
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-Jacob

"Math counts for gum.. gotta chew something while in math or you'll bloody scream." -Laura a.k.a. Priincezz93

buy quality F/T feeders and this won't happen.
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Correct! When you discover a problem seller, you warn others and never do business with them again. Stick with reliable merchants.