Freezer life for rats?

[jfaria1891]

do rats have a feezer life or are they pretty much good forever? local rat prices have gone up again for the third time in a year... they are getting ridiculous i'm spending more on dead rats then i would for food for human consumption. i figured it out to be $8-$12 a pound for dead rats... im gonna start feeding them filet mignon it would be cheaper. anyways so iv done the math and buying a chest freezer and buying in bulk online would save me a ton of money .. the chest freezer would pay for itself in the first order. that much bulk would be about a 6 month supply. will rats stay good in the freezer for 6 months? there must be others doing this no?

[dkspftw]

I'm also curious about this. I've got some rats now that are too small for my girls, and I figured I'd save them for the next generation of males I've got coming in in the next couple of months. But if they're like a year old, will the rats still be good?

[MarkS]

I've used year old rodents many times and my snakes eat them just fine. I'll often buy in enough bulk to last several months or more. But if I ever find something hiding at the bottom of the freezer that looks pretty gnarly and gross and I have no idea how long it's been there, I feed it to my snapping turtle.

[h20hunter]

My supply was purchased locally. They were killed then frozen. I single bag them with a vac packer. That keeps them perfectly fresh and I can soak in hot water to thaw without opening the package. I expect over a year of shelf life. Granted, I only have about 3 or 4 months worth for a single snake on a 7 day schedule. The vac packer is used for a ton of things...not just rats...so for me the expense of the vaccume sealer is spread out over many needs.

[The Serpent Merchant]

6 months should be fine. I personally don't keep frozen rats for longer than 8 months but I know many people who say you can keep them up to a year.

[BulkMice]

You can go quite a while with the proper preparation ;-)

http://www.meatbasics101.com/freezing_meat_02.htm

[jfaria1891]

Thank you for the replies everyone this will save me roughly $500 a year so its a big deal XD not counting the gas i spend driving a half hour to buy those expensive rats XD considering i will leave them how they are packed when they arrive and dont plan on opening them up and playing with them as tempting as that may be .... 200 rat puppet show... im guessing they will be packaged in 10's ... using 5 at a time means id only open the package once and return it to the freezer the second time they are opened they will be gone. and the freezer only being opened once a week... it sounds like they should at least last the 6 months. thank you everyone

even if a loose a few.. still saving money

[bcr229]

You could always vacuum-seal any rats that you won't need in the next month or so after you have a bulk order shipped to you. Not sure about rats but I've pulled vac-sealed venison that was two years old out of the bottom of my chest freezer and it was fine.

Getting a vacuum-sealer also gives you an excuse to buy other meats in bulk (for you not the snake), which also saves you money.