Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can someone please tell me the most afective way to thaw frozen mice

Depends on how many mice and the size of them.
Typically what I will do is to take out the prey items (mice and rats) out of the freezer the night before feed night and place them in the refrigerator in a metal baking pan. Then about 1-11/2 hours before I am ready to feed I will fill the kitchen sink up with hot water and let the items soak in that until I am ready to feed the snakes.

Hope that helped!

For small quantities and small items, I just put a cup of water in the microwave for a minute, until it is hot but not too hot to put my finger in...and drop the little mouse-pops in there until they are thawed. For little pinks it only takes a few minutes...larger prey takes a little longer. Good luck. Duffy

JKidd,

I usually feed several snakes at a time so this is how I do it. I take all of the mice I'm going to feed out and place them in a ziploc freezer bag (after taking them fresh out of the freezer of course), then I take a plastic one gallon ice cream container and fill it with the hottest water I can get out of the tap. I then immerse the bag of mice in the water and then weight the bag down with a jar filled with the same hot water in order to keep the mice completely under water. Thawing time usually takes upwards of 45 minutes to one hour. Other strategies are to thaw the mice in a refridgerator for up to 24 hours then bring them up to room temperature and feed out. I prefer the hot water method for its quickness and also the warmth of the thawed mice seems to stimulate the feeding response in a couple of my pythons that otherwise seem to ignore room-temperature mice.

Matt Campbell

I have used everything from warm water, to even haveing to resort to a ziplock bag with the mouse inside and slipping it into my warm pants pocket because the water heater went out. I dont recomend that though as i forgot it was there and sat down, and the preasure caused the mouse to , well, you know. Dont lay pinkys under the heat lamp either, yuk. skinner

I prefer the quick-thaw method, vs. letting refrigerate overnight. Mice smell bad enough when they're alive; anyone who's had to deal with one that's been dead for a while can attest to the horribly foul odor that can result!

When the time comes, take them out of the freezer, place in a ziplock and immerse in hot water until they're up to what would pass for normal mouse body temperature (in other words, warmer than room temp!)

Depending on the type of snake, you might have to tempt it into thinking the mouse is still alive by jiggling it with tongs.

michaelb