Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am feeding right now. Just got a new order of rats and mice. Almost everyone of them busted open when the snake hit them...yuck! What causes this??

probably old rats..either left lying around too long after death before freezing or refrozen.
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PHLdyPayne

too warm ?
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love this world, don't hate it.

yep - too warm/hot. A couple weeks ago, my husband thought he was doing me a favor and put some real hot water on my weekly bag of rats in the sink. Every single one of them exploded when I took them out. I about gagged. BLAH!!!!

Thanks everyone for responding..I am gagging!! Maybe I did let them sit for too long under a heat lamp. I hope that is the case versus the whole lot of them being bad (0ver a 100). Good news is that they all ate...a first for me!

Sour as I call them, its when the Rat breeders pack there rats to thick and they don't freeze for days. You can tell easy by looking at them frozen,pull a bag out and check it over. Look for a blueish green tint on their bellys and feel though the bag ,if You feel a air pocket in the stomach area and there blueish/Green thats not good. Then by the time You thaw them out they have sat even longer.... I bet its not all Your fault.. I sure have cooked a few, adding them into buckets and useing to much hot water. Thats when the tails slide off and the gutts come pouring out. And if there that far cooked You may as well skin them and eat them Yourself. OK that even made Me feel alittle sick to my Stomach.

Van
http://www.myspace.com/gregvanzweden

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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

this is probably the correct one

.....more than one person mentioned adding too hot and too much hot water and having this happen.I run as hot of water as my sink will put out on them over and over till they are as warm as the water.....takes 15 minutes or so....I use small rats and hoppers only...not large....never had trouble....

add too many in freezer at once they do start to rot before freezing....

.throw 6 trash bags of fresh killed chicks into a freezer all at once and see what happens.....man....(not me...but I have seen it...)...

....I use live usually.....90% ....(for balls 100%)
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......this will only hurt alot..........

LOL......

yea buddy blue bellys,They need to start flash freezeing these for Us. I do it the same You do,just a quik warm up to make them want it more.. Back 20 years ago I cooked or half boiled a rat or two with hotttt tap water that would melt your skin off... It funny because reading this made Me turn my Hot water heater down,I just got a new one and it was set kind of high for Me.

Van
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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

That happens when you thaw a rat/mouse to fast with to much heat and then re-freeze them.

If you thaw out slowly, you can re-freeze a couple of times before they pop like that.

Pitoon

they might not of been as fresh as they should of been, or thawed and refroze, stuck together when freezing then pulled apart when frozen and damaged the rat,

i had similar problem with mice when i worked at the pet store..... the mess wasn't as bad as yours im sure!..... LOL

>>I am feeding right now. Just got a new order of rats and mice. Almost everyone of them busted open when the snake hit them...yuck! What causes this??

You thawed them badly. The best method I have found is to put them in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. The next day set them out on the counter to warm up to room temp for an hour or so before feeding. If you need to warm them up faster than that, then put them in a ziplock and put that into a bowl of LUKEWARM water... never hot water.
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DP

Your Super Snake pounds rat so hard it makes them explode. Definate youtube material.