How long are frozen rats good for?

[55fingers]

I have always gone off the rule of, 6 months in a ziplock bag, 12 months if vacuum sealed. I'm fairly confident this is correct, but I thought I'd check before throwing these away. I have a whole pack of smalls and a whole pack of mediums, probably about 2 or 3 month's worth of meals for my snakes. I noticed they are recently more fragile than usual (bleeding easily, ears/tail tips/feet sometimes falling apart) so I checked the date and turns out I ordered them almost 6 months ago. They smell fine when thawed and my snakes don't seem to mind them at all (though I have one BP who is on a hunger strike, which I suppose could be due to the food being offered). I guess I thought I'd go through them quicker than I did.

Would these be okay to use up or should I just go ahead and toss them at the end of the month? Just sucks to see all those feeders wasted. I recently got a vacuum sealer myself, would it be dumb to try and vacuum seal them now? Would they keep any longer if so? I know the answer is probably just toss them and restock but I thought I'd get y'all's opinions first as confirmation.

[Bogertophis]

I think they're fine to use up. It's a little late to vacuum seal them now, though. If they were actually spoiled, your snakes would refuse them (unless they're king snakes, haha, or something similar). It's not likely you'd smell anything- it would have to be pretty rank if you did. The thing with old feeders is that they tend to get a little dried out & show "freezer burn", but that's just a cosmetic issue, not a safety matter. As far as them falling apart, toes, ears & tails just naturally break off when frozen- they're just fragile, it has nothing to do with quality or food safety.

[Homebody]

Here's a recent thread on the same question: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ghlight=frozen.