F/T rat "burst" - what did I do wrong?

[jjc]

Simon's f/t rat pup managed to pop a leak after nothing unusual in the thawing process. It wasn't that horrible until Simon dragged it all over his enclosure, leaving blood pools on top of a hide and smeared all over the glass. That was kind of gross. What causes this without any obvious trauma? Were my water temps (for thawing) too hot? I tried searching with various terms, but I didn't find anything related to this topic. In previous threads, I've seen mention of something like this, but I can't summon up the keywords to find those threads.

Essentially, the f/t rat pup looked normal while frozen. After thawing and trying to dump it out of the baggie, it presented with a smallish hole in the abdomen with a small bit of "guts" poking out (I noticed the blood in the baggie). I still gave it to Simon, because I figure he won't care if the guts are sticking out a tiny bit, but I guess I forgot that he might "fight" with it and squish even more "goodies" out. His enclosure now looks like a massacre has taken place, because "Special Simon" has been trying to eat his f/t rat sideways for about an hour. He'll definitely eat it, but he's made a horrible mess of his enclosure. His hides, the glass, the bedding...all bloody and gross, lol.

Anything I can do to avoid the Rat Gut Explosion in the future?

[romankea]

Had something happen like this last week but it didn't "burst" kinda spilled out I figured it was due to high thawing temps and pressure from being squished! And my pastel is trying to eat sideways as well he's getting better though at eating doesn't take him as long to scarf it down.

[Darkice]

It was cooked not thawed. I let the rats sit out for a few hours and get to room temp. Then i just warm it up in some hot water for a few min. They never pop.

[crusher]

lol dont worry it happens sometimes with my f/t as well... happened just a little while ago actually... the part i hate the most is that i think the intestines or something in there smells terrible. im gonna guess its the stomach acid or something.

[SnakeGirl3]

Yeah, when you get them too hot it makes the skin around their stomachs weak, and can cause them to burst when they are squeezed. I too use the room temp for a while, then dip in hot tap water method.

[SiscoReptiles]

It has to do with the length of time the rodent was frozen. The fresher the rodent, the better the rodent's skins elasticity.

Rick

[jjc]

I guess I might have tried to thaw this one out "too aggressively". I didn't do anything terribly unusual, but we have a water cooler with a "hot water" function, and I might have used hotter water than I have in the past. Normally, I use the hottest tap water (often mixing in some of the "hot" water from the water cooler) and just refresh a time or two before feeding. This time, I started with the hot water from the water cooler and just added hot water from the tap as it cooled off. Perhaps the "hot water" feature of the water cooler is just way too hot for f/t rat pups. I think I'll go back to the old method. Death is one thing, but the murder scene that is Simon's enclosure (and my living room) is a bit much for every 5-7 days.

[pavlovk1025]

I leave em out to thaw to room temp and then sandwich them between two human heating pads set on low, warms them up quickly and keeps them warm while youre making them dance around or whatever.