Meal Prep

Since I haven't seen this thread before, What's the most used method of prep for f/t mice and rats? I know all people use different things, and personally I like my microwave, just curious about what you guys use.

....with a microwave you are just asking for a mess.....

When I feed f/t, I put the rodent in a ziploc bag and put it in hot water until it is defrosted.

I always used to do it like so:

Pop em out of the freezer and into a ziploc (whatch them lil claws can perforate the bag)

Fill Igloo (or styro) cooler with hot water

Pop in bag and retreive when ready to roll

If they got wet i sat em under a heat lamp a few minutes

Touched their heads/noses to the bulb for that bright heat stamp

Present to snakes who would almost invariably WHOMP on it.

You should never use a microwave for thawing frozen rodents. Microwave radiation actually cooks the rodent from the inside out. Even at the lowest setting a small degree of their internal tissue becomes cooked "meat".

A reptiles stomach is not designed to process cooked meats and you could end up with an undigestable mass rotting inside of your snake.

Thawing with warm water, in the refrigerator, or on a counter in a brown paper bag are much safer ways of thawing prey for your animal.

-adam

I think you may have misunderstood, I understand that microwaves are bad for thawing, and I'm certainly not cooking them or making a mess, one second on low doesn't do either, only gets it warm enough. And I thaw them out before hand. :P

if your using the microwave for 1 second...then what's the point?? Aside from thinking about how gross that is if you use it for your own food as well, Adam is right about cooking the rodent from the inside.

If I have to do any thawing I use a hot water method similiar to what smulkin explained. I would not recommend thawing by leaving the rodent out for an extended period of days that is not healthy either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Danielle(THM)

I think you may have misunderstood, I understand that microwaves are bad for thawing, and I'm certainly not cooking them or making a mess, one second on low doesn't do either, only gets it warm enough. And I thaw them out before hand. :P

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Microwave radiation is extremely powerful even the smallest amount of time can change the composition of the rodent on the molecular level.

-adam

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Microwave radiation is extremely powerful even the smallest amount of time can change the composition of the rodent on the molecular level.

-adam

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Then you get a bunch of pissed off X-Rats running around, blowing stuff up, it isn't a pretty sight... :cool:

I know that I feed every Friday, so I just grab a mouse out of the freezer and put him in a plastic bag when I leave the house. When I get home from work, the mouse is completely thawed and at room temp. A little time underneath a hair dryer gives that extra heat signature....boom great feeding responce every time.

Ya know, I wonder if thats why my girl woudnt take food yet. I didnt put the mouse in a bag- but I would dry it off some. maybe if I defrosted it in a bag and fluffed it with the dryer it would help more.


do most of you feed in the tank or in a seperate box?

For the longest time I've been putting the ratsicles in a ziplock baggie and thawing it in a sink of hot water for 20 minutes. But recently I've gotten tired of waiting that long, so now in the morning I put the rodents I need thawed in a tupperware container and then in the vegetable crisper in the fridge, and by the time it's 8pm and I'm ready to feed, it's all thawed out. Then I just gotta pop it under a heat lamp for a few minutes on each side, and it's dinner time. :hungry:

I usually take the small and wean sized rats out sometime after lunch on Saturday and lay them out to defrost at room temp till dark. Then I just pop them into individual heavy duty ziploc bags and then into old plastic margarine containers. Add some really hot tap water and presto chango nice warm snake dinners are ready in about 10 minutes or so (sometimes longer if the rat in question is a chubby fella). I also add in a spare small empty glass jar to weigh down the bag-o-rat so they stay under the water rather than bobbing away (hmmm bobbing for rats...a new Hallowe'en game perhaps for next year!) They come out toasty warm and nice and dry.


~~Jo~~

I pull out all of the snake food and ziplock bag each one (and get disgusted when I end up with a soggy rat inside a ziplock bag, which seems to happen at least once a feeding).

I found a tall tupperware container that I originally bought to put T's in, but I thaw out the rats in that instead. All the baged rats go in the container, add warm water, close the lid. Lay the tupperware container on it's side and fill up half of the kicthen sink with water. A little while later I flip the container over on to the other side so it can warm up instead. I do a frozen check later, and feed what's ready to go (a few mins under hot water ensures that high feeding response). What isn't ready to go goes back into warm water while I feed the rest of the crew. Then I repeat the hot water cycle for what's ready.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Schlyne

I pull out all of the snake food and ziplock bag each one (and get disgusted when I end up with a soggy rat inside a ziplock bag, which seems to happen at least once a feeding).

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Yeah isn't that something? You think it's perfectly sealed and there's no way in hell that water will get in there, but then you check on it 5-10 minutes later and the freaking rat is swimming in the bag. Even the heavy duty "air tight" ziplocks do it. I guess water is stealthy and sneaks right pass that zipper seam. :O