Ruptured Rodents

[FourFeathers]

I feed f/t to my snakes and sometimes, after I've thawed the mice-cicle or rat-cicle, it's belly will rupture and spill it's guts all over the place when I pick it up.

Not a pleasant site or fun to clean up.

Sunday (which is feeding day here) I fed Breeze a small rat and it ruptured while he was swallowing it. I won't go further into details as it was pretty nasty.

Any thoughts on how to prevent this?

[Pirranha]

DUCT TAPE!!!! it fixes everything!

sorry i dont have any better advice

[Cthulhu]

Assuming you're not buying them from "Uncle Ted's Explodin' Varmit Barn", how are you heating them?

[jotay]

Darn I have never had that happen, I buy from Gourmet Rodent.
Tho, sometimes a little blood gets thown around the box.

[JLC]

I think heating them a little too much causes gasses to expand in the belly/digestive track. You have to find a balance between complete thawing/warming...and not warming too much. Try some different thawing/heating methods. I've found that thawing overnight in the fridge is a safe way to be sure the rodent is thawed completely through...then the warming up process doesn't take nearly as long, so there's less risk of gasses building up.

[jotay]

You are on to something there, Judy
I do the same I defrost the rodent just like I do a good cut of steak
Then when thawed I just sit out on my counter top in ziplock bag for about 30-45 mins to warm up then a quick run under the heat lamp and time to sound the dinner bell

[Marla]

You have to warm it slower and make sure your water is no more than about 130F that you're using to warm it. There are two ways to cause mouseplosions: the snake constricting exceptionally hard (probably not the case), or cooking the rodent. I had it happen to me when I was using boiled water to warm em up, but not since I switched to hot tap water (change it once when it gets cool and give it another 15-20 min and it should be good).

[FourFeathers]

"mouseplosions".....grin

Perhaps I have been overheating them, or, heating them up too quickly.

I have this shelf that I hung from the upper part of the wall that extends out just below a heat vent. I place all the snake food on it (usually about 10 mice and a couple of rats) and then I crank up the heat.

I make sure that I turn them over periodically to ensure no cold spots (sounds like a good recipe, eh?) and sometimes I will couple this with a heat lamp to speed up the thawing process.

I've noticed it happens more often when it's their second time to be thawed (maybe they didn't get eaten last week and went back into the freezer). I don't thaw them out more than twice. If they don't get eaten after the second warming, their put in the trash.

I guess I should slow down the heating process some. Breeze is particular about his foot being very warm or he won't take it. I guess I can hit it with the heat lamp for 30 seconds or so before giving it to him.

[Marla]

Marcus, I think there's also a cumulative effect with the re-heating that makes it more likely to happen, something about the collagen breakdown having been started the previous time or something. I think you will have better results if you can slow down your prep process, though. Nobody likes a mouseplosion.

If the rodents are exploding or rupturing, you are heating them too much.....the best way I have found to thaw rodents after trying many many other methods is just getting a spare container and filling it up with hot (not scolding, but hot) water and just letting the rodents thaw this way....it doesn't take a long time and its the easiest way IMO.