More exploding rats... Grrr!

I fed my three snakes last night, f/t rat pups. So far I've been lucky I guess, and never encountered this phenomenon... But this time all three of the pups blew up when struck. In a major way. I don't get it. They didn't appear bloated or discolored or anything that would indicate issues.

Anyone have a trick to avoiding this? Perhaps a certain thawing method? Doesn't really bug me, but it sure makes for a messy cleanup.

i personally havent seen a rat blow up. id like to just to say i have. All kidding aside, did you contact the person you got the rodents from? See if they have anyone else has had this problem? how are you warming them?

How did you thaw them. The only time I ever had any explode is when I thawed them to fast... Now I just let them thaw at room temp, and put them in warm water after they are thawed out. Since starting that I haven't had a problem.

That happened to me one of the first times that I fed FT.

It happens when you over heat...

What I do now is that the night before, I put the rat in the fridge for an overnight slow thaw. And like 3 hours before feeding I place the rat on top of the mesh lid of the tank so she can smell (a.k.a. Scenting), and right before offering I heat up the rat by turning on the stove on high (I don't have a hair blower, neither does my room mate, I have long hair, but I'm not a girl :rofl:) , and I hold the rat like 6-10 inches away from the surface for like 10 secs.

Always works perfectly






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This ALWAYS happened to me when I thawed the rats in water; I now thaw them slowly in the fridge (in a sealed container, lol), then warm them up to room temperature, then heat them with a hair dryer (an old one solely for this purpose). No more exploding rats. It is a little more work, but easier than cleaning up rat splatter.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy4578

How did you thaw them. The only time I ever had any explode is when I thawed them to fast... Now I just let them thaw at room temp, and put them in warm water after they are thawed out. Since starting that I haven't had a problem.

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This is your problem, almost guaranteed. Don't use hot water to thaw them out, if anything, tepid water, and at best, let them thaw at room temp. Thawing too fast, with hot or even just warm water can cause this.

I thaw all my F/T rats with really hot water in a jar, and I've never had this problem :P

It is likely the method of thawing. Although re-freezing can cause the same thing.

Actually I had a similar problem with a rat that I thawed out for my first ball python. It was about 3 yrs ago. It was eating live, and I decided to switch it to F/T since it was cheaper a the time from the place I was getting them at. Anyway, no one told me HOW to thaw it out, so I put it in a microwave safe tupperware bowl and BAM :O damn thing blew up all over the microwave. I was so disgusted, not because of the mess (mom is a forensic/criminal profiler so seen lots of crime scenes etc) but because of the smell :puke2:. Needless to say, I had to throw away my microwave and learned to NEVER do that again! :colbert:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

It is likely the method of thawing. Although re-freezing can cause the same thing.

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Noticed that, recently tried to feed BP F/T rat. If she doesn't take it then I leave it with her for a couple minutes. Then, I take it out and refreeze it before it gets "nasty rotten" and then the next time I feed her I use the same one, and this last time I did that, she struck at it and :O intestines everywhere!!! Yep, good thing I watched Wrong Turn Dead End a lot, my stomach was prepared for that mess!!!