Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm just curious what some of the methods for thawing frozen rats/mice are that some of you use. thanks.

I used to use warm water and directly drop the mice into the bucket. Wet mice allow substrate to stick to them and that always worried me. So now, since my snake room is about 83 degrees inside, I just sit them all out on 10 gallon screen tops straddled over my trash can and come back in about 2-3 hours and all my mice and rats are dry, thawed and ready to go!

You could also put your stuff into a zip top bag and try to keep it submerged in the warm water, but that was always a tricky event for me, even after trying to squeeze most of the air out of the bag.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

I'm OCD, so this is gonna sound weird to most people.
I have an industrial ultrasonic cleaner that has a built-in heater.
I just fill 'er up with warm water, turn on the heater, turn it to the desired temp, throw a quart ziplock freezer bag in the ultrasonic and wedge it under the water using the parts basket.
I'd imagine if you had to thaw out a lot of mice or rats you could use a crock pot on the lowest setting.
If you only have a couple of mice to thaw, it would just be easier to put them in a little bowl in the sink, crack the hot water on as low as it can go, and have it drip into the bowl.

I only have 3 snakes that eat f/t and limited space. I just fill a bowl with hot tap water and throw the rat in. I have a designated "rat towel" to pat the extra water off. If you feed on newspaper you don't have substrate sticking issues. I tried doing the baggy in warm water thing but it seemed to take longer to get them warm all the way through and the snakes refused them more often.
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Everyone has eaten and everyone has been eaten.

i put my mice/rats in a ziploc, squeeze as much air out as possible and fill the sink with warm water. I usually put something on top of the bag to keep it from floating and they usually thaw petty quickly and they are dry. I was always told to make sure you don't add too much heat to a frozen feeder. Too much heat will cause rapid decomposition inside the mouse which will continue inside of the snakes stomach. I am not sure how true this is but it always made sense in my mind.
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www.myspace.com/ThirdDimensionReptiles

My Kids:
The Scaled:
0.1 Savannah Monitor
2.5 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Green Iguana
1.4 Tokay Geckos
1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.1 Golden Gecko
1.0 Burmese Python
1.0 Het. Albino Ball Python
1.0 Lavender Albino Cali King
1.0 Black RatSnake

The Furred:
0.1 Ferret
1.0 Chinchilla
0.1 Hedgehog
1.0 Sugar Glider
0.1 Rat
1.0 Cat

The Feathered:
1.0 Citron Cockatoo
0.1 Goffins Cockatoo
1.0 Cockatiel

The only time I've ever heard of food rotting in a snake was due to ambient temperatures being too low for the snake to digest properly. If you re-heat a rat too many times or leave it in too long then they do pop and need to be thrown away. I've only had that happen once though and it was because I forgot and left it in the bowl for over an hour. No method is right or wrong (except the microwave) as long as the middle isn't still cold and it gets eaten. I've heard of all kinds of crazy things and inventions.
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Everyone has eaten and everyone has been eaten.

>>i'm just curious what some of the methods for thawing frozen rats/mice are that some of you use. thanks.

I just set them on the counter for a few hours. Mother in law hates it, but i get a kick when she asks whats for supper.

I used to do the water thing but dry rats are easier to feed.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile
Specializing in Boa Morph's

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow
1.0 Ghost
0.1 Possible Super Hypo
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Suriname/Columbian cross
0.1 Anerthrystic