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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Get a good vacuum food sealer and vacuum pack them. If you put several in a bag and leave extra room to allow re-sealing the bag you can save a bit on the bag materials. Be sure to get a good one though as there are a lot of cheap models and the won't seal the better quality bags and the cheap bags will lose their vacuum after time.

This will eliminate freezer burn and give maximum freezer life. I use vacuum bags for all my meat and other freezer items too.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
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.............i've been told that at correct temps (0 or below) vacuum packed rodents (unopened) should stay fresh for two years mininum.

Well, if you want absolute maximum life, you should freeze them in water so there is an ice barrier around all sides. Plastic bags work, but anything that breaths will get freezer burn. Ice breaths very, very little and is very cheap!

It takes a few steps, but just use a cardboard milk carton and add a little water, then freeze. This gives a bottom layer of ice. Then place on one side, with a little more water, then freeze, repeat, etc. then add rats, fill with water and freeze again. Add a label, and seal the top with tape. They will last many years this way. Much longer than bagging.

Or, if you are lazy, you can also just throw the rats into the milk cartons, add water and freeze. The only problem with this is that any rat parts that are exposed to air will allow freezer burn, but they will still last better than in plastic.

Rodney

placing rodents in ice works in a type of freezer that does not have a defrost cycle,otherwise the defrost cycle will evorprate the ice.if you leave ice cubes in the freezer section of your refrigator for too long they shrink.i've had wild game in vacuum sealed plastic bags that was 18 months old,it looked and tasted like fresh meat from the butcher.the other problem with ice in milk cartons is that it takes up much more room than vacuum packing.hey,whatever works.

The milk cartons are paper treated with wax. This is a pretty good barrier to prevent the "freezer burn" effect. You do want to tape the milk carton closed to minimize this. (That is basically all "freezer burn" is.--The water desiccates out of the food in your freezer, just like how the ice cubes disappear. Basically, a method of freeze drying!) I have kept frozen trout this way (in ice) for over 10 years, and it was still fine.

I also have a couple of vacuum sealers, and any rodents I freeze do get freezer burn much more rapidly in bags than in ice.

Also, I don't recommend using a vacuum sealer. Better to just seal the bag. When vacuum sealing, the rodents' legs/tails get all tangled and squished together---very hard to separate, when frozen, compared to just sealing the bag without a vacuum.

But yes, size is an issue with the milk cartons/ice method if you don't have a large freezer.

Rodney