Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My husband fed the snake last night and accidentally left the entire container of pinkies out of the freezer. They are thawed. They've been out of the freezer for about 7 hours, can they be refrozen and still safely fed? Or should we get a new supply?

I'd keep them.

Refreeze them and when you re-thaw them out, smell them. If they reak then they are bad, if they look and smell normal they are fine.

I would bet on them being fine though.

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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 2001 Hypo snow cornsnake
0.1 2002 Pastel Ghost cornsnake
1.1 2002 Bloodred cornsnakes
0.1 1998 Het Hypo, Het Caramel cornsnake
1.0 2000 Hypo Het Caramel cornsnake

Thanks for the quick reply, I really do appreciate it. I hope they didn't go bad, that would truly suck.

Wild snakes have been seen eating partly decomposed dead rodents, and the scientific community seems to accept that snakes scavenge more than we used to think. Considering the condition of some of those wild meals, I don't think your pinkies are too far gone yet to be re-used.

I do notice, however, a definite preference in my own snakes for defrosted food that hasn't been up and down the flagpole once too often. A mouse that has already been defrosted and re-frozen once, only has one more go-round with my fussier eaters, if that. Some of my little guys won't eat a redux rodent even after only one recycle--they insist on the fresh stuff right out of the bag. At least they don't demand live.

On the other end of the acceptance scale, I have a few that will eat anything wtih mouse hair on it. Poor guys--they are often fed mice that have already passed their last stop just because they will accept them.

To begin with I refreeze mine if they have only been out for a short time. Now to the off topic. I have one snake an 02 charcoal who usually refuses her mouse the first time. I usually give her about 10-15 minutes and she almost never accepts it. Then I reheat it and she almost always takes it the second time. I have never really figured out why. I dont know if it smells better the second time or if shes just playing with my head. She definatly has me trained well.
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1,0 snow
1,0 amel

1,0 aney stripe motley
0,1 normal
0,1 anery
0,1 motley
1,1 oketee
1,1 tx rat
4,4 ball python
1,1 dumerils boa
1,0 columbian red tail boa
1,1 green iguana
1,0 leopard gecko
1,3 dogs
freezer full of mice & rats