Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I used to breed rats for my monitors and tegus. I just started buying frozen in bulk. How long will they last in the freezer without going bad?

I should use google more often. It seems that they can last 6 months at east if sealed properly in freezer bags.

still i bought a bulk pack of frozen mice at a herp show a few months ago and fed my sav 3 or 4 and it made her sick as a dog so i threw the rest of them out. who knows how long they were frozen for, but they sure smelled like ass in the dethaw.

Doesnt sound like the rodents were the problem.
Sounds like an environmental problem, most probably temperatures.
You need to understand that monitors can eat mostly rotten animals with absolutely no problems. The only problem freezer burnt or not so fresh frozen rodents cause, is the lack of that fresh scent that causes a faster feeding responce with snakes.
I raised many monitors and a few snakes on old mice that were not so fresh anymore.
In fact my experience with them, the monitors seem to prefer them sometimes over fresh frozen rodents.
When you are diagnosing a problem with a species you need to understand how that species lives, what they require, what makes them operate better, or what makes them unable to to function.

Great post, but I would like to add, rodents dry out while they are frozen. The longer they stay frozen the more they dry out. After a long period, they are basically freeze dried.

If these are consumed, they are often thrown up. Normally without harm to the monitor.

Yes monitors are carrion feeders to the extreme at times, but when the prey is freeze dried, its not so good. Cheers

The question is, how long is really too long? In my experience even frozen for 6 months to over a year, monitors and some snakes still love them, and do just fine on them.
In the past a good friend and I were given a few bags of frozen rodents that a local petstore had for well over a year in their freezer, they were just fine for every lizard, snake, turtle, and crocodilian that ate them.
Im skeptical of stories from newer keepers with monitors getting sick over rodents that are frozen for a little while. Ive seen rescued reptiles that had the same problem in their original homes, but when they were brought to the rescue they ate the same rodents with no problems (its amazing how many good bags of frozen rodents that were thought to be bad, were given to the rescue my friend had).
Im sure if they werent sealed so well, and frozen for a few years they would freeze dry, it would be obvious though when you defrost them.
We had many brought in that were supposedly "sick" from fresh mice from a certain reputable source, but they were as fresh as any you could get anywhere.
We even saw examples that the owners blamed the feeders for making their reptiles sick and killing them in a few days, but those feeders were perfectly fine afterwards for every reptile that ate them.
Notice a pattern here. Its like trying to convince newer keepers to simplify their monitors diet to a known good diet and focus on what the problems really are, they believe there are no problems.
If a keeper that I know, who's husbandry is up to par, has problems with a new bag of frozen rodents or peeps, then I might be skeptical of that bag of food, otherwise my bets are temperatures, or severe dehydration.

Well my guess is that these mice have been hauled around the U.S and who knows how many times they have been frozen/unfrozen/thawed out/refrozen, you know what i mean? i shouldn't have fed them to her in the first place, the problem they caused was it took longer than normal for her to pass them through her system and i was concerned cause she was so bloated but finally she did and all was well. the vet suggested it would prob be fine to feed her them again it was just something her stomach wasn't used to but now that it is it would most likely be OK but i didn't not risk it. plus, they smell like ass.

speaking of ass i am going to sound like a dumbass when i say this but has anyone heard of a 'potty trained' monitor?
since it has gotten pretty hot here in the midwest i take her outside for hours just about every day. i noticed though now after i feed her she WILL NOT poop until i take her outside, then she does within 5 min of being out there. she used to have a spot in her cage where she would do it but she just won't do it indoors anymore. is that weird? i am a little concerned about this when it starts getting cold cause i won't be able to take her outside.

Thats normal, anytime you take them outdoors in the wide open it doesnt take long for them to relieve themselves, its a defensive tactic, to lose as much weight as possible to be able to run from any approaching dangers (they are wild animals after all, in the open with no place to escape you and other predators they do this).
Its not potty training, let the monitor loose for a few hours in the house with the temps about 80-90f on a hot day, it will crap anywhere it chooses to.
Unless they were completely rotten it would not have been caused by them.
You even backed up my assumption further by saying that the lizard did not pass them for a long period of time. You also said that the lizard appeared to be bloated in this time (they swell up to create a larger surface area to gain more heat from their environment when they need more heat). If the environment is too cool, or too dry, since they are carnivores with very very short digestive systems, they puke up whats left so that the rotten flesh does not poison them after it has been inside them for too long.

Hm. Interesting. Well this is the first problem I have had with and i have had her for over a year. basking spot is 130 about and ambient is high 70's/ 80s and she seems fine now which is why i am blaming it on those mice cause those were the new variable added in that seemed to throw her off for that week or so. i wonder why there are no black throats available during this time. I guess they breed in early spring maybe?

Wow I am actually surprised this thread went somewhere. I actually learned a couple things. Thanks for the replies!

They are imported mostly at one time of the year, sometimes 2 times during the year. Some dealers will hang onto small monitors and feed them enough to live but not grow, then sell them as next years hatchlings if they survive.
Think of this variable, did this happen either at the onset of spring, the onset of sudden higher or lower temps outdoors.
This can happen when sudden hot weather comes and people crank up the AC, the temp changes are enough to cause these things. Also if you dont have AC and the temps take a sudden uphill climb. Consider with AC the air dries out alot and can dry the cage and lizard out more.
It can happen with the sudden onset of lower temps outdoors because the temps have dropped enough to cause them to eat alot less, or have to eat smaller prey items, or puke up larger prey items they cannot digest.
During 2 times of the year while I make small adjustments to the number of bulbs in my albigs cage she may not eat for 2 weeks, she has in the past (shes an adult so its perfectly safe to do this) fasted for 3-4 weeks without losing weight, but she does so underground. This year and a few others she has not fasted at all, I guess my adjustments were more accurate and on time. In her first year eating was something she did daily without fail, lots of it.
These creatures are fun figuring out, and they keep teaching you alot for years.

This happened about 3 weeks ago, which is mid summer, and the AC has (had) been cranking for about 2 months already, but that is a good point. I really just think it was those mice because they were different from what she is used to.

I want to start project black throat but can't find any!... I still have to get the enclosure built/set up anyways, but it'd be nice to know that I don't have to wait until December to get the animal.