Thawing frozen rodents

[jadecrusader]

I used to have snakes and would buy frozen rodents in bulk. The worst part about snake ownership for me was thawing out their food and feeding it to them. It was just so disgusting!! I can handle dead things just fine, but after thawing the rodents in water they became so slimy and nasty! I almost felt bad feeding them to my snakes (I always told my husband that if I was lost in the woods I would be able to catch and eat rodents just fine if my life depended on it... but these frozen/thawed things??? No way. I'd rather die.) I'm wanting to have our future ferrets on a whole prey diet and was considering ordering frozen again.

Does anyone have tips on thawing them out to where they don't get slimy and disgusting? It was bad enough watching our snakes eat them whole, but I don't know if I could stand seeing a ferret tear one apart, and then I'd be freaked out thinking about them tracking it all over the place.

In case this helps: I would thaw by dunking the rodent into very hot (not boiling) water until it softened up. Is this wrong???

[Deleted]

Put them in ziplock bag in a sink full of ICE COLD water. Then let it sit on the counter for an hour to come to room temperature. I have a 6 year old ball python named Cleo


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[goingpostal]

I just put them in the fridge overnight like anything else, nice thing about ferrets is you don't have to warm them up or anything, they will eat them cold. Lots of people give their ferrets still frozen mice and other prey, especially in the summer.

[Deleted]

My ferrets get whole prey straight out of the freezer too. They may demand it room temperature or warmed during a transition, but afterwards they don't really care. Plus, a frozen mouse doesn't leak blood. However, if your ferret prefers to stash food awhile, it *could* get a little messy... and while my ferrets do eat the whole mouse, some tend to leave things like intestines behind. Also give them a chance to get better at eating; the first time Conan and Drogo had mice, they seemed a little confused and left theirs spread all over. Now they crunch them straight down and it's definitely the least messy meal of the day.

From where did you get your bulk rodents? I've never noticed a "sliminess" to any of ours, which are almost exclusively from RodentPro. We have two snakes as well, and we put their mice in a ziplock bag and then set that in warm water, then refresh the warm water once or twice. I'm thinking they shouldn't be slimy no matter what method, though!

[Deleted]

The sliminess came from being thawed in boiling water and the guts exploding. You should always thaw in a bag in cold water so no bacteria can breed and so no nutrients are depleted because even just warm water slightly cooks it and you never want it cooked.
www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Big_Thaw/
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[lumene]

I always thaw mine in a bucket of warm/hot water too, sometimes I don't have time and don't feel like wasting plastic. Then I blow dry them so they don't stick to the substrate.
If the temperature change is too extreme, yes they will explode, found that my snakes really don't mind.

Also- snakes Can eat cooked meat weloveourweasels. It was proven that cooked meat was digested faster than raw. Not nutritionally balanced, but its possible.

In regards to ferrets though, well I have yet to get my Penne to eat an adult mouse.

Also, somtimes mice are slimy because when they are gassed they lose control of badder and bowels and sometimes it leaks into the fur before they're fully frozen. Or you could just have gotten really badly kept mice.

[jadecrusader]

I also get mine from RodentPro.

I think my problem is that I'm not using a plastic bag and also maybe too hot of water (instant hot from the spicket on the sink. Not boiling, but VERY close. Hot enough to burn you on contact.) So I think just regular hot water changed out a few times, thawed in a plastic bag would really help. Good to know that I can feed frozen or at least cold! That would definitely eliminate them mess. I probably wouldn't do it aaall the time, but maybe some of the time.

Now that I think about it, some of them did pop, especially when the snake was gulping it down, which is probably the nastiest part and probably my fault due to heating up wrong.

Thanks so much for the info! I feel so much better now.

[Deleted]

Mine get frozen all the time. They will work on it all day. They seem to love them frozen

[Heather]

I just feed my frozen...I don't bother with thawing...I leave that to the guys.
ciao

[Sherry]

I'm bad ;D I just thaw them in a bag on the counter ;D

[Heather]

Not so bad really, at least you know where yours are going to be....I just found a rat who was busy thawing under the ferret cage...all that was sitting out was his butt. He was lying with his feet in the air. He was relatively fresh, so I just left him there I'm sure I will find parts of him...over here....over here and up there later.
ciao