Buying Live - Feeding Frozen...

I was wondering if it would be ok to buy like 10 live mice and just freeze them?.. I find this to be alot cheaper then getting 10 mouse already frozen becasue it cost alot more over here because they charge u for packaging and all that.. If any parasites would be present in the live would freezing them take care of it?...

Yup, it would kill the parasites I heard that they will pee and poo if you freeze them live, don't know if that's true 'cause I kill mine first (rats). Couldn't tell by the way you wrote it if you ment to kill and then freeze them........

dude, for the love of god at least kill the poor things first... lmao..

Of course i would kill them first lol :X ... I dont plan on just freezing them live, I think i might use the whack method.. whack or cat method.. I dont know ;X

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cat method

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LOL....this one may be a bit messier. ;)

On the other hand, there's no question about braining them to bring out the scent. Of course, if you find your ball watches your cat's every move, you might want to re-think that. ;)

Hehe - our cat and Maltese get a LOT of hungry stares from a number of our "occupants" . . . nice little white Maltese . . . exPENsive little white Maltese . . . down snake! Down I say! (grabs chair and whip)

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dude, for the love of god at least kill the poor things first... lmao..

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Yikes! I have heard of people freezing rats live, but it seems torturous and barbaric to me. I just give 'em a good swift whack against something solid like a door frame, and they die instantly. Then they go in the freezer.

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but it seems torturous and barbaric to me

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Yes...freezing any warm-blooded animal to death is very cruel.

Aw man there was a great post a while back on euthanization procedures... I'll see if I can dig it up. :)

EDIT:
Lucky me! Here are two links-
one to a discussion-
http://www.ball-pythons.net/index.ph...anize&start=15

and a discussion with links on methods to humanely euthanize:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/PNphpBB2...pic-t-158.html

hope this helps!
(HTH)

Nice job again, Jonah! You iz da linkinator!

IMHO if your going to buy live i would feed it fresh killed because it takes all the work out of it you don't have to thaw and heat to right temp and i think they like them fresh. You should be able to trust your local pet store to give you healthy parasite free mouse.

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Originally Posted by daftperception

You should be able to trust your local pet store to give you healthy parasite free mouse.

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Should being the operative word there. I know for a fact that I can't, and I doubt I'd trust any rodent source to be parasite-free unless it was a highly respected rattery or selling frozen rodents. Almost any animal will have some parasites of one kind or another. It's just only a concern if it's a type that can use the original host's predator as a host as well or otherwise hurt the predator, and that does limit the ones to be concerned about.

Heh - tell you waht after being in the back rooms of a few pet stores and seeing the living conditions the bulk of feeders are kept in i would def freeze first - but if i has hard-up enough to buy from those places I wouldnt be in much of a position to freeze long enough to get the positive effects. As a result I am now down to a SINGLE store I will go to in a pinch (out of a field of 5). Will be interesting this weekend - as the next lot of frozen was delayed again until next week (GRRRRRR) - and I am quickly running out of rat pups (momma rat is getting real P.O.d at her diminishing number of young'uns too).

I get my live feeders at a local reptile shop and he has all the breeding cages availiable for everyone too look at. He has a freedom breeder rack where breeds rats, mice, and gerbils. When they come of age he moves them to some display tanks so we can hand pick them. When he freezes them he knocks them out first then uses a vacuum sealer and seals each rodent individualy. As far as parasites are concerned if you know where you feeders are breeding and none are wild then they should have minimum parasites. But again feeding frozen would completly eliminate the possiblity of parasites. In the most part i think fresh killed feeders are safe.

LOL its hard to say for sure though. LOL

I keep contradicting myself LOL.