Hi everyone! Last time I posted may have been under my name Ralphine, but either way it's been ages. I lurk (and learn) a lot, and appreciate the forum for what it's taught me over the years. So thanks for all your help! Now I have a question about frozen and thawed rats. I'll apologize in advance for the length of this.
My favorite corner pet shop just went out of business. When my 9 year old corn snake was hungry, I used to just go, pick out a rat, then one of the "guys" would take it in the back, ding it for me (no extra charge!) and I'd go home to Spot with a freshly killed, still warm rat for his gastronomic pleasure. Or two rats, depending on how hungry he seemed. Sometimes I wound up freezing one of the rats for later, but not too often. I've been lucky, Spot didn't have any trouble switching to rats from mice, AND he doesn't seem to mind frozen/thawed.
The last couple of weeks the only place in town for me to buy rats is the previously frozen ones at Petco. I don't know how they are raised, how they're killed or how long since they've been frozen. So I'm a little concerned about the quality. Is there anything I can do to make these rats more nutritious?
Plus, when I thaw the rats out from Petco in warm water (I put them in the freezer in small vacuum-packed food saver bags), once the rat is thawed all the blood is on the bottom side. On cop shows with dead bodies they call that lividity. I never had that problem with the prekilled and then frozen rats from the corner pet store. It doesn't look good, and worries me that I'm giving it to my corn.
So, what do you think? Am I just being too picky? Is the lividity natural, and won't harm Spot? And what about making the frozen rats, quality unknown, more nutritious?
Thanks for your time and help! I really appreciate it!
