Feeding Question

[Lana's_mom]

I was wondering if I was to prekill my rodents, would it be safe to feed them to my snakes right away if I kill the Rodents with CO2? From either dry ice or a CO2 bottle. And if I freeze some of the rodents do they have to be frozen for a length of time before they are safe to feed to my snakes? And how long will rodents last in the freezer? Thanks.

[Evenstar]

Using CO2 your rodents will be safe to feed right away. CO2 does not stay in the body like other chemicals might. They'll be fine.

The rodents will also freeze fairly quickly. They should be frozen within a few hours. If you were to kill your rodents and feed your snake one immediately then freeze the rest, they will certainly be frozen solid by the next feeding day.

You should be able to keep frozen rodents up to a year if they are packaged right. The worst enemy to keeping them frest is air. I freeze mine in small groups (like 6 per bag) and use the really heavy duty freezer bags with the double zipper closure and make sure to squeeze all the air out. This will help prevent freezer burn. I don't generally recommend keeping them a full year because I like mine to be fresher, but it can be done. 6 months is a better time frame for me and you should be good with that especially if you're prekilling your own.

[Lana's_mom]

Thank you so much for the information. It is really helpful.

[benwallage9]

I keep mine in freezer safe bags, I buy from a local breeder here every 3 months, but like the previous person said 6 months is reasonable if packaged right. Just watch for freezer burn. Also some people do this others don't. If my snakes don't eat the rats i refreeze them. But I'd only do this like twice and the ones that are refrozen are the first feed off the next time.

[Evenstar]

Thank you so much for the information. It is really helpful.

You're welcome! And refreezing is ok although I only do so once, not twice. But I'm a little paranoid about that and I also allow my rodents to take 3-4 hours to thaw (I don't warm them in hot water only 20 minutes before feeding). So I do wonder just how much they start to degrade in that time. But I feel once is ok.

But like Ben said, if you do refreeze, feed that one off first the next time.

[Lana's_mom]

Thanks again for the great advice