What are we doing wrong?

OK, our BP is on F/T and when we were feeding fuzzies there were no problems. We defrost the mouse in a pot of hot (not boiling) water for a few minutes until nice and soft and warm throughout. This was how we were taught to do it by the store that sold us the feeders. Since we have moved up to the next size mouse, every time we feed him the belly of the mouse bursts open as soon as he strikes. He ends up rolling around in a pool of mouse guts/blood while eating and we then have to clean him off with a wet cloth after dinner. Are we doing something wrong and is there any way to prevent this?

Maybe try another source for frozen feeders. I know belly-bursting can happen on occasion, but I've never heard of it happening with every feed. Mice that have been thawed and re-frozen are definitely more prone to bursting, so it could be you need a new supplier with better quality control.

When I first started feeding F/T I used the same hot water method and also experienced a higher rate of exploding preys :puke2:, since than I have change the way to thaw the preys no longer experience this kind of problem.

Here is what I do, I let the prey thaw at room temp (this also help entice the snake to eat) once thawed, I warm it up with a hair dryer, works great and no more exploding rodents.

If you've determined it isn't a problem with the rodent quality...

Defrost in lukewarm/room temp water for a longer period of time, then heat your rodent(s) up with significantly (but not HOT hot) warmer water just prior to feeding off.

Thanks for the replies. You guys sure are fast! I'll try a slower method of defrosting next week and see if that makes a difference.

I use hot tap water, not heated. Never had a belly explode once in hundreds, maybe thousands of feedings.

I take my rats out in the morning of the day I am going to feed my snakes , let them thaw out over the day naturally while at work or out doing some jolly family business :), before feeding, I give a quick blast of a hair dryer on the head of the rat as thats where I want the interest and strike to happen and have never had any problems in too many years to mention.

Burst rats I have only ever seen due to over heating or heating too fast or as mentioned using a re-frozen thawed rat.

just my 2 cents

I fill a bucket with hot water from the tap and throw the rats in. In about thirty minutes I dump the water, refill with hot water to get them nice and warm, and then feed. Most of my snakes will take a wet rat, and the rat is hotter than my hand so I don't need forceps. Never had a rat burst.

I use frozen with my boa and hognose. With the rabbits that are 2lbs or so, I let them sit in the fridge for 2 days to thaw and then stick them in the bathtub until they are warmed through(this may take 30 minutes or so depending on how frozen the rabbit is still). If I had rats for her, I would take out however many I needed, stick them in the fridge(in the sealed bags) and leave them for the day or 24 hours, and then stick them in a large pot filled with warm water for 25-30 minutes to make sure nothing is left frozen. The pot I use has a big convex glass lid, so I just flip it upside down so the rats are fully submerged.

With the hognose's large fuzzy/small hopper mice, I put them in a sealed baggie, put some lukewarm water in a cup in the sink, stick the mouse in, and put another water-filled cup on top of that so everything is submerged. After it has thawed, I run some hot tap water over it until it has been warmed all the way through, and then feed the snake.

When I was feeding my one Ball Python(Amani, when I had only one) frozen mice, if they heated up too quickly or stayed too hot for too long, the belly would burst.

If I had to do that with the 40 Ball Pythons, I would be feeding for 6+ hours, LOL.

I was going to suggest the fridge thawing method as well. I thaw the occasional frozen rat for my BCI this way.. like you would thaw a steak or chicken leg for yourself..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thegrandpoohbah

Are we doing something wrong and is there any way to prevent this?

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Short answer: thaw at room temperature instead of in warm water.

Long answer: Water crystalizes when it turns into ice, which includes the water inside cells of living things. When you thaw quickly in warm water, the ice on the outside turns into water and expands, pressing on the cell walls of the inside of the feeder animal. These internal cells still contain the shards of crystalized ice, which essentially shred the cells inside the animal. Once the water inside melts and warms up, it too expands and escapes through the perforated cell walls resulting in a gooshy interior. Combine this with the slightly perforated (and very compromised) cells in the external layers of flesh, and you get a feeder that explodes when squeezed.

So this week I tried defrosting the mouse in the fridge overnight. Then warmed up in a pot of hot water for about 10 minutes. Still no luck, the belly burst open and the intestines fell out before I even fed it to the snake. Any more suggestions? Should I not even heat it in hot water? Maybe I'll try the hair dryer method.

Don't use pot heated water. Hot tap water should do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thegrandpoohbah

So this week I tried defrosting the mouse in the fridge overnight. Then warmed up in a pot of hot water for about 10 minutes. Still no luck, the belly burst open and the intestines fell out before I even fed it to the snake. Any more suggestions? Should I not even heat it in hot water? Maybe I'll try the hair dryer method.

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Again like I said previously thaw slow at room temp or in your fridge and use a hair dryer to warm up the prey. Since I have switch to that method I have experienced 0 prey explosion.

If you do this and your preys still explodes I would suspect that they were at some points thawed and re-freeze, and I would suggest you to find another F/T souce.