Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all,
Decided to go with frozen rats & will have my chest freezer & rats by mid next week & would like all those out there using frozen to post what they feel is the best method of thawing them out.
I appreciate all responses.

later

I think the safest method for thawing rats and mice to make sure they are completely thawed is. Take mice/rat out of freezer night before feeding. after 12-24 hours warm up on heat pad or in a ziplock bag in hot watter. feed to snake.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

kool ...so leaving the rat out over night won't cause any decaying that could be toxic to the snake? so out of what you said the way i would prob do it would be to place them in a sealed rubbermaid tub in my rep room which averages 80 to 90 degrees depending upon season etc.
so wake up & put them in hot water or a heat pad
add a little blast from your spice weasel & BAM!..lol

how hot should the water be?? boiling or like room temp? same for the heat pad I'd have a rheo attached so what temp would be good?

thanks again

NOT 12 or more hours.......in hot water it takes less than a half hour if you keep at it ,and keep adding hot water.....( from tap not cooked water...).......

..........I keep adding water as it gets cool ,then rats,mice,whatever are good to go fast.......

move them around....bend their body around ...make sure they are thawed.......yes......

(*I thaw 50 to 200 items at a time also...).....

............in 12 hours.......stuff in my room is bloated,stinky...and black oooooozing -messy all over.......

yep.....

so....

best methods......one or 100 animals.....thaw in fridge then hot water.......or straight out of freezer to hot water......

......have fun......

JY

sweet thanks to all that replied & if you didnt keep em coming. lol

how long are the rats good for? i assume a couple months but i don't wnat to keep them longer than i should. I'm not looking to kill my snakes..lol

thanks

I've fed rats that were over a year old with no problems.

Mark

>>how long are the rats good for? i assume a couple months but i don't wnat to keep them longer than i should. I'm not looking to kill my snakes..lol
>>
>>thanks

Right around 3-4 months if just in a zip lock. But ewatch for freezer burn. If you have a vac sealed they will last easy a year.

I once asked a guy that question long ago...."how long do you keep them"..he said..."till they are gone".......

and he feeds $20,000 snakes........

and yes...I have used 3 year old fuzzies........

the pinks with no hair will not last as long.......and I recomend alot less time........

but we use whatever we have ......

.........JY

(once saw a lady on TV eat a 3 year old turkey out of her freezer......I bet it tasted great..........cough..not.....)

JY

why not more than 12 hours? my method takes only like 3 mintutes of actual work. instead of 1/2 an hour of just thawing the rodent.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

because as I said...they rot........bigtime...in less than that....

I work a few minutes...while I am cleaning......

..........takes little time to thaw a rat or bunch of rats...

JY

can you actually type like a normal person or do you enjoy making it hard for other people to read and understand your posts? how high is your room temp? non of my mice have ever started to rot in 12 hours. Also your method leads to mice "exploding" where their guts come out and it is all nastified.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Ok... Here is what I do the whole idea is not to hot body temp!

I use totes all the rats/mice are in sealed bags and then put into another bag and place in warm water 85 to 90 till thawed.
then they are place in hot water for no longer than 5 mins to heat them up to 105 no hoter or you Will bloat them.. then you might as well toss them. When they reach the temp take them out and feed them I use a heat lamp to pre heat any that have cooled by holding it with the tongs under the lamp. I have tried heat lamp heating and heating pad heating and you will end up only with a mess on your hands (BLOATED) and TRUST me you dont wish to smell one.. or pick one up and have all the inners fall out or even better have your snake POP one all over its cage and what a wonderfull smell you have Testing your gag reflexes when you get to clean it up!! My way work for me!!
I was loosing 6 out of 10 mice from no one telling me how to do it so I can say been there done that!

Trust me 70 balls later it works. And feeding is a 4 day event.

I suggest using a meat thermometer to test temp... needs to be around 106-108 degrees.. which is what a mouse or rat's normal temp is, t o thus cause food response. Too cold and you will get nothing. too hot and he might let go.
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Be as good to me as I am to my animals
1.0 ball python(normal)Maximus/ and 1 unknown sex normal
0.1 golden retriever Amber
0.1 dalmation/lab mix nikita
0.2 bettas