Thawed Mice... Re freeze?

Turns out our POS freezer was left opened (once again) basically all day, so everything thawed out, including my 50 mice that I JUST bought... Is it ok to re freeze them or keep them... Of course the day I leave for college my snakes food supply gets messed up... I get mice at a reptile show from rodent pro since no other place sells them for a good price and its only held once a month and I basically just bought them. Shes only eaten 3 of them so far.

The last mice I had thawed some due to the same problem and were refrozen but I dont think they were to thawed out... The ones now I cant tell because I havent seen them.

If they were out all day I dont think I would take the chance. I know that sucks though..

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Originally Posted by MattU

If they were out all day I dont think I would take the chance. I know that sucks though..

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Thats part of the problem. i dont really know if it was "all day"... thats just what my mom told me. I dont think they would have thawed all the way (or went bad) since the freezer is still cold just not freezing...

Well this is true, not as bad as if they were out in the heat. They might be alright, when you thaw them out if you get a rotten animal smell you'll know for sure :)

i'm no expert with bacteria formation, but i guess ide open one and check out myself. if it brings out a bad smell then you know bacteria has already set in and got loads of 'em. as far as i know, bacteria moves slower the colder it gets .. if it remains cold, then its not as bad as being in a room temperature but still bacteria will multiply faster than frozen..

Hopefully theyre still good because that would be $30 down the drain... I still have older smaller mice left over but I have no use for them its to hard to feed her a bunch of small ones... I was afraid these large adult mice would be to big, turns out she can take 3 of them easy...

She was hanging out of her hide after I fed her the first two she wouldnt hide at all and then I was adjusting her water dish so she could hide back under it and she hissed at me!!! lol it was a first. I was like no way did that just happen. Cause she started comming at me like she was gonna bite so I guess i scared her away... and she didnt like it..

The very second that the rodents begin to thaw, is the very second that bacteria begins to duplicate within the tissue. The longer they are without cold, the more bacteria.
If it were I, they would all go in the trash.

I would take the loss. Even if they might still be good to eat. You will definately have weaker bellies and I am sure they will explode when coiled. That SMELLS big time. Sometimes we have to take a loss for the good of the animal we are feeding.

I would definitely recommend discarding the rodents. It's unhealthy to re-freeze and then thaw a second time to feed to your snakes. I'd just take my loss on the $30 vs have several snakes getting ill from potential bacteria issues.

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Originally Posted by Clint Bundy

I would take the loss. Even if they might still be good to eat. You will definately have weaker bellies and I am sure they will explode when coiled. That SMELLS big time. Sometimes we have to take a loss for the good of the animal we are feeding.

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Yeah thats no good. I have noticed that before with previous mice. They never exploded but they deffinatley seemed weaker... and some of them were just bad to deal with... (sort of part exploded in the rears...)

Ill find out this weekend when I go home and check them out. Ill probably end up trying Extra large adult mice because rats are more money for the same size... :/

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Originally Posted by ptate

I would definitely recommend discarding the rodents. It's unhealthy to re-freeze and then thaw a second time to feed to your snakes. I'd just take my loss on the $30 vs have several snakes getting ill from potential bacteria issues.

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Yeah. I only have one snake to feed but shes still more important than the mice (even though she cost less :rofl:)