Warming up a mouse too quickly?!?!

YUCK! We feed F/T - Never had a problem warming up our mice. Yesterday we were in a bit of a hurry.
Actually, we weren't in that much of a hurry with the first one- It just looked horrible- something seemed "off"
with the mouse, and I couldn't it in her tank. I just had a vibe there was something not right and it was going to make her sick.

So we took out a 2nd one and yes, we were in more of a hurry at that point. Im not sure what happened
to the insides of the mouse... but lets just say it was DISGUSTING. :O

Needless to say. Medusa wasn't fed last night- i took out another one to thaw the proper way and feed today. :snake:

I like to thaw feeders over a longer period of time to avoid the skin breakdown of the belly area. The breaking of the belly skin can happen from heating the feeder too fast, or multiple freezing and thawing.

If you believe it to come from the rapid heating of the prey item, take it slow next time, Medusa can wait the extra hour or so unless you're in a rush then you can slow thaw the item at room temp or in your fridge.

It could also be your supplier. If you get your feeders from the pet store, who knows how many times the prey item was frozen and refrozen. It's always a good idea to get quality food, even for your snakes.

:-)

My process for thawing out my rats is :

1. Take rats I need out of freezer and put in a separate bag.

2. Put them in the fridge and let them slowly thaw over night.

3. Next morning throw bag of rats in an empty bin in my snake rack to slowly warm up.

4. User blow dryer to heat to body temp.

5. Feed to snake!

Blech, that smell is awful too. So glad I don't feed f/t anymore.

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If you partially cook the rodent it almost always will burst. I do everything I can to prevent this, clearly you understand why now. If they are not all the way thawed when I have time to feed back to the fridge they go and I just do it the next night. I no longer try to 'rush' a thaw.

Slow and steady is the best way:gj:

I went through the same thing my. I thawed with microwaved water instead of just the hottest water from the faucet. Everything seemed normal until the strike/coil, and then the mouse exploded. It was an awful mess and my snake missed a meal. I've had better luck with live anyway.

We've been taken frozen mice out and letting them thaw at room temps for a few hours. After that we get Hot tap water and dip them in for about a minute before we offer to Avalon.. She will not take them if the water cools off more than 5 minutes.. It has to be hottest the tap has coming out of it, luke warm notta chance..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Blech, that smell is awful too. So glad I don't feed f/t anymore.

UGH_ thats what I said when I opened the baggie it was in. I said to my kids we are NOT feeding
this to Medusa- it smelled Nasty!


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by notmyfault

I like to thaw feeders over a longer period of time to avoid the skin breakdown of the belly area. The breaking of the belly skin can happen from heating the feeder too fast, or multiple freezing and thawing.

If you believe it to come from the rapid heating of the prey item, take it slow next time, Medusa can wait the extra hour or so unless you're in a rush then you can slow thaw the item at room temp or in your fridge.

It could also be your supplier. If you get your feeders from the pet store, who knows how many times the prey item was frozen and refrozen. It's always a good idea to get quality food, even for your snakes.

:-)

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UGH- thats EXACTLY what happened with the belly- GROSS!! I will never rush a Thaw again. We've never had this problem before. I usually thaw over night in Fridge or put out on the counter for a few hours and then warm up with a microwave heating pad (that is NOT hot- you can barely feel the warmth from it) for a minute to slightly boost it to the temp she likes.

I sure learned my lesson- 2 mice later. :(

It does appear our last purchase of feeders from the Pet store was from a new supplier to them. (just how they were packaged) But they actually look better (if thats possible with a "mouse-cicle" lol) But now im not so sure. Any suggestions on good suppliers online?

How did you warm it up and did you warm it up more than once? That usually happens if they get too wet, or if you have thawed them more than once.