Do you vacuum seal your frozen rodents?

[Ernie Mccracken]

You should, especially if they are sitting in the freezer for more than a month or two.

Pro tip: if you don't have a vacuum sealer, just use a cheapie sous vide bag. Costs about $20 for a pump and some bags. Sidenote: sous vide machines are hands down the best way to cook meat.

[Alter-Echo]

I do, otherwise, they get freezerburnt to hell. Most of my snakes dont care, but i suspect it breaks down some of the vitamins in the mice like it does in most food.

[Ax01]

how do terminate your feeders? do they bleed when u vacuum out/pump out the air?

[Alter-Echo]

I get mine from rodent pro and then repackage them.

[AbsoluteApril]

I buy frozen feeders in bulk and then vac-pac the various sizes into 'per feeding' bags. One bit of advice is - don't let the sealer fully vacuum out all the air otherwise the noses may bleed when defrosting.

[Ax01]

I buy frozen feeders in bulk and then vac-pac the various sizes into 'per feeding' bags. One bit of advice is - don't let the sealer fully vacuum out all the air otherwise the noses may bleed when defrosting.

great tip! thank u April!


Edit: Ernie Mckracken - do u sous vide your feeders also?

[ckuhn003]

I've been doubling up on zip lock bags and haven't had an issue. I sort them out according to size and place in their particular bags. And then I put all the bags in one big ziplock bag and place in a paper bag. They've been like this for months in the freezer and have not seen any issues.

[Ernie Mccracken]

Edit: Ernie Mckracken - do u sous vide your feeders also?

The thought crosses my mind all the time, but can't claim to have tried it... yet.

[cchardwick]

I used to gas with CO2 and vacuum seal. You can't seal them unless they are frozen or their nose bleeds. You can pack them loosely overnight then seal the following day. And if you seal them up real good it's best to break the seal before thawing to prevent nose bleeds.

Now I wrap each one individually with a paper towel and put them in zip lock baggies and press out as much air as I can before zipping up the bag, I don't press them too hard though. I usually only freeze and sell rats that are 50 grams to 300 grams, so nothing smaller unless they are live. I also put the weight range on each bag so you can tell about how big the rats are in that bag, I try to group them by similar sizes. I sell smalls from 50 grams to 100 grams and mediums from 100 grams to 185 grams so there's quite a bit of a weight range in each size. It's nice to pick up a bag and know how big they are without having to open the bag. I also put the number of rats in the bag on the front of the bag so I can easily count them. I also like that they don't get their tails all tangled up to where they are hard to get separated.

I sell mainly to two snake guys, my main guy goes through about 1500 rats a year plus more smaller ones for his hatchlings. My other guy is just starting out, and if I have any extra I sell them to a local pet store. Of course I go through about 3000 a year myself. Here's what my frozen rats look like below. I've never seen anyone wrap them up like I do. People say I have the best and cleanest rats around, I think the paper towel wrap really helps. I also like that I can hand off a bunch of rats and if a non snake person walks by they don't see big bags of dead rats that freaks them out LOL. You actually can't really tell what's in the baggies.

I also think it's an advantage to store them in a non-frost free freezer. With a frost free it actually will slightly thaw out your rodents once a day, that's how it keeps the frost off. If it's a non-frost free it will stay at a constant low freezing temperature which I think is better in the long term. But on the down side you have to defrost it once in awhile.

[tttaylorrr]

You can't seal them unless they are frozen or their nose bleeds. You can pack them loosely overnight then seal the following day.

why not? could you elaborate on this more for my own edification? pls&ty!