Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I looking for some tips and techniques that are used in thawing frozen, adult mice. Soaking them in hot/ warm water is out of the question as this will result in an immeadiate divorce. How does this sound example:

Monday night I put a few frozen mice in a ziplock bag and set aside in a heated enviroment (apprx 60 degrees).
Tuesday night (24 hrs later) I pull the mice from the bag and begin feeding.

Think this will work or is 24 hrs too long not to be frozen and might bacteria develope?

Your tips and home remedies would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John
-----
John from Jersey

3.2 BRB's (Rt. 280, Spitzer, Macon, Ruby, Angie
1.1 Abbots Okeetee's (Bill and Hillary)
1.2 Filthy Cats (Weezer, Scrappy and the other one)
0.1 Very Cute Brat
0.1 Spouse (nice dorsal stripe and big bold crescents)

"I get up around 7...get outta bed around 9. I don't worry about nothing, no, because worrying's a waste of my... time"

-W. Axl Rose

You can leave a thawing mouse laying around, but you cant quick-thaw one in water? Its not like its suggested to use the good crystal for thawing.

I have a gem of a spouse who knows to never look in the bottom drawer of the fridge, but were I in your situation, I'd probably find an opaque container with a lid and thaw on the sly.

GFX? Are you married? The problem with thawing the mice (7 in all) has nothing to do with china dishes. It has to do with me putting dead animals in the kitchen sink. Or even bringing dead animals into the kitchen, for that matter. I'm sure I sound crazy, right? Simple enough for me to take the mice out of the freezer one night and feed the snakes the following night. After all, giving 7 dead mice a warm bath does not seem practical or remotely enjoyable to me. Even if I had a sink in my garage. Currently I'm buying live mice and knocking them unconsious with a blunt object (while I do find this practice morbid in some ways, I must admit it does give a cheap thrill of sorts) and then I dangle them by the tail for a hand-fed meal. What is the prime temperature for mouse flesh to be in order to feed a snake?

Thank you all for your advice & tips. Any more ideas are always welcome.

John
-----
John from Jersey

3.2 BRB's (Rt. 280, Spitzer, Macon, Ruby, Angie
1.1 Abbots Okeetee's (Bill and Hillary)
1.2 Filthy Cats (Weezer, Scrappy and the other one)
0.1 Very Cute Brat
0.1 Spouse (nice dorsal stripe and big bold crescents)

"I get up around 7...get outta bed around 9. I don't worry about nothing, no, because worrying's a waste of my... time"

-W. Axl Rose

Put them in a zip lock bag and fill an empty bucket with warm water then in an 'approved' place put the ziplock bag in the water.
-----
Mike

7.13 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King

Like Mike, I always put my frozen critters in sealed ziplock bags in a container filled with hot tap water. It doesn't take long to thaw them---and you can hide the container wherever you want (out of your wife's sight---or in my case, my husband's); plus there's no smell, and the mice stay dry vs. saturated with chlorinated water.

If the water loses too much heat as the mice thaw, I'll dump out the old water and add fresh hot water about half way through the thawing process. I can easily thaw adult mice in about half an hour this way (check'em to make sure they're fully thawed). I put something on top of the container to make sure the mice submerge in the water and don't just float on top in their sealed baggies. The mice are nice and warm when you're finished, and the snakes are always eager to bite!

Good luck!
-----
Renee

2.0 amel & anery corns (Foxfire & Daguerre)
1.0 BRB (Loki)

The way I normally thaw rats and adult mice is to throw them in the fridge in a ziplock bag which I then put in a rolled up paper lunchbag. I leave them defrosting in the fridge for 1-2 days. After 1-2 days I pull them out and place them on top of the screen lid of a aquarium. I then position a 75-100watt heat lamp hood above them, resting on supports, so that the rodents are under the hood but not directly under the bulb and about 2-4 inches away from the bulb. This gets them uniformly up to about the temperature of fresh killed very quickly. I keep checking them but normally by the time I have finished changing out the water dishes for all the snakes the rodents are up to temperature. The only down side to this method is that you only get to warm about 3 at a time.

Sean.

P.S. for younger rodents I use a hot water bath but I just use a large plastic or zip lock bag with the rodents and hot water inside. This can either be set against the inside edge of the sink or in a container to hold it upright.
-----
1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

It really depend how many mice and size of mice you are thawing. Pinkies and Fuzzies thaw in an hour or two.

I now use warm water to warm them once they are thawed (I thaw in room temp water) - but I used to place them under a regular light bulb to bring them up to about 100 degrees (this is after they were fully thawed).

I have a temp gun and it makes it easier to tell when they are thawed, and also when they are up to feeding temps. You may want to experiment with some type of thermometer to see how long it takes to fully thawed to use as a reference.
-----
Mike

7.13 BRB
1.2 Spotted Python
1.0 Cal. King