How long is too long to thaw a feeder?

Is there a typical amount of time that is "too much" for a frozen feeder to be thawing? I set out a weaned rat to thaw today at about 2 pm, and got caught up in things and only remembered it at 7pm. Is 5 hours too much for it to be left thawing? No weird smell or coloration to it. Is it obvious to you or the snake when a feeder has gone bad? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

How long is too long to thaw meat for you to eat? Could you get away feeding something that has been out at room temperature exposed for 5 hours? Sure but should you? Not really.

Thaw in a ziploc bag in the fridge over night before a feeding day then warm in same ziploc bag in a jar or container in hot tap water for 15-30 minutes. Safest way.

Smell it. If it smells funky it's too long LOL.

It also depends on how cold your freezer is. My chest freezer is set a lot colder than my refrigerator/freezer unit in the kitchen so anything that comes out of the chest freezer needs extra time to thaw.

Usually I pull rat feeders out of the freezer and put them in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. Larger feeders may take more time - rabbits for my retics can take 4-5 days to fully thaw in the refrigerator because bunny fur is a great insulator.

Thanks for all the help guys! I think my situation might be a little different living in a very cold climate since we DO need to thaw hamburger meat for 4-5+ hours for it to be cook-able haha! Our freezer is serious business. I smelled and examined the rat and it seemed totally fine, but in future I'll be sure to be more proactive about making sure nothing comes up to prevent me from immediately using a thawed rat :) Thanks a bunch!

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Originally Posted by sufficio

Is there a typical amount of time that is "too much" for a frozen feeder to be thawing? I set out a weaned rat to thaw today at about 2 pm, and got caught up in things and only remembered it at 7pm. Is 5 hours too much for it to be left thawing? No weird smell or coloration to it. Is it obvious to you or the snake when a feeder has gone bad? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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As long as it was in a bag I'm sure it's fine. Warm it up in some water and go crazy.

I do it with my mice all the time. If it was a pinkie or something I'd be a bit less likely because those thaw out much faster and would be sitting fully thawed much longer.

Snakes generally have pretty ironclad stomachs. If it doesn't smell bad, it's probably fine to feed. I started thawing out a pile of feeders yesterday around 2pm, didn't get to feeding until 9pm.