Horror show with the mouse tonight

[ZinniaZ]

Bleah. I think we overheated the frozen mousicle. First the foot fell off. Then the ear. (Crappy tong handling technique on my part apparently). Then he exploded. Bleahhhh. Between the mouses toasting over an open lightbulb and the zombie dance and now mouse parts everywhere, I just might not make it. I don't know if she will eat it like that. It seems horrifyingly nasty and I cannot imagine she will think it is ok to eat.

[darkangel]

LOL Grossss!

[ZinniaZ]

This fiasco makes feeding live seem like a much nicer option. For ME. AND, let me just say-- I KNEW I would end up caring for this snake! I am so glad I like her! This reinforces my belief that pets are really really really for the parents. Thank GOD I didn't let him get a tegu. I just can't see me doing the tegu care. This sweet little ball python is a piece of cake for me. Even with the nasty mice ickness.

[Kara]

Ahhh...this is where a nice, gentle defrost over the course of several hours (or even overnight) works well, then maybe an hour or so prior to feeding the snake, place the mouse on its back on a warm (but not hot) heating pad. That way the abdominal skin (which is thin to start with and has already been weakened due to the freezing/thawing process) isn't directly exposed to high heat, but the mouse has an opportunity to come up to "heat signature" temperature.

You may want to play with the thawing time/heat pad temps a bit to find exactly what meets your needs, but try that technique & see if you end up with fewer unexpected explosions of the icky rodent variety.

BTW...that's a "You Might Be A Herper If..." you've EVER had to clean mouse guts off of ANYTHING!!!

[Ladydragon]

blech.. I can relate to that icky mouse guts everywhere thing... not fun.

BTW...that's a "You Might Be A Herper If..." you've EVER had to clean mouse guts off of ANYTHING!!!

I my water when I read that.. thanx.

[ZinniaZ]

well at least we are not the only overzealous mouse warmer uppers! We got rid of disgusto mouse number one and have decided to defrost another mouse. Much more slowly and see if she would prefer that one.

[wicked5446]

i feed all of mine f/t and all i do is put them in a container with hot water and after about 15 min change the water again with new hot water and in another 10 min theyre good to go. at least thats how i do it.

[ChicaPiton519]

no, better one

You might be a herper if: you have learned your lesson about microwaving frozen rodents


yeah

[ZinniaZ]

Heh. We had this mouse submerged in hot water, and we didn't microwave it. I think our water was just wayy too hot.

[starmom]

I let all of mine defrost in the snake room all day long and then just zap the head and tummy with a blow dryer for a minute