Frozen Rat with a Nose Bleed

Hello! I'm a first time snake owner and I've been feeding my snake large live mice since I got her. I bought a small frozen rat today and I put it in a plastic bag, put it in warm (but not hot) water, and placed a cup on top of the bag so it wouldn't float to the top. It's been about an hour and I just checked on the rat. It's bleeding from the nose. What does this mean? Is it still okay to feed it to my snake?

It's fine. I have to snap my rats necks and have bopped their heads before when feeding adult rats to my snakes. It's pretty easy to bust their sinuses and for them to have nose bleeds. I warn you? When your snake eats it there may be a ALOT of blood.

Ahh, alright, thank you! I'm just very nervous about feeding her frozen for the first time.

I feed frozen all the time...probably 50% of the rats have a bit of blood around the nose when they thaw...no biggie

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

There may be porphyrin around the eyes and nose too. It's a red serous liquid that can look a lot like blood but it won't hurt your snake at all, rats secrete it from a gland behind the eyes as a normal stress response. I'm a fairly new BP owner but I've found it on some of my frozen rats before.

Yeah almost all of the f/t rodents I feed thaw with blood from the nose, sometimes quite a lot of it! I think it's just from having been frozen, the ice crystals puncture cell walls and when the cells thaw they lose liquid very easily, which is why freezer burned meat ends up dry and gross when cooked.

That red stuff from the eyes is rat tears. You should feel terrible if you go around making your rats cry, you monsters.

But, yeah, feeding them off, bashing their skulls to stun or kill them, and freezing them will make them cry

Don't worry about it. It's safe to feed it to your snake.

I thaw more bloody nose rats than not haha

Every single time i thaw a rat theres blood

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk