After feeding my rats today, I was thinking of ways that i could possibly make the task a bit easier on both myself and on my noodlekids.
I feed my snakes frozen thawed rats and I was wondering about what the results would be for two ideas I had:
1) Removing the hand/footpaws
2) Removing the tail
Shocking? Unnatural? Unnecessary? Detrimental?
I would say, Yes, Yes, Yes, No.
A bit more detail on why I think its at least worth a try
Claws- I can't tell you how many times (with gloves!) i've stuck myself on these dingdang rat claws, it stings and i'm always worried i'll contract WhozaWatchamaCallitCoccus and they often puncture the plastic baggies I use to heat them in the water. There's also the non zero chance they scratch or puncture the soft insides of my snakes. I figure using kitchen shears to snip them off while they're frozen shouldn't be much of a hassle at all (I haven't tried it yet, so i'm not sure how much bleed there could be.)
Tail- Its function for the rat is balancing and dissipating body heat via large blood vessels running through it. If you google "rat tail cross section"you'll see its about 70% bone, the rest being vessels, tendons and a small amount of muscle, which to me seems like removing would be the human equivalent of cutting the crusts off your sandwich. The reason I bring it up at all is that its a lot of unnecessary length for the snake to swallow. A snake's stomach is long, but its not infinite. Do you remember that time you were eating spaghetti and you swallowed, but one of the noodles was so long that it hung halfway out of your mouth but also still down in your throat and you coughed/gagged and hated every second of it? I'd wager that snakes can experience that same sensation. Human stomachs are sacks, so our food falls in and can spread out, snakes on the other hand just have a straight tube. Once that food is in there, it stays in that orientation the entire time (another reason most experts say to feed a single large meal rather than 2 smalls because they have to lineup behind each other). I don't see any harm in removing something thats appears not that nutritious and hangs outside of the stomach for X amount of time to waste space in the esophagus (I also have no idea how much bleed there could be removing a tail, but i'd still try it)
So, what are your thoughts on this? Worth a try? Silly? A hassle?
Captain of "The Good Ship Blip" 
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