my bp is retarded at eating,

[Buttons]

In an earlier post you stated that you put the mouse in hot/boiling water for only a minute... are you sure they're thawed out before feeding him??

[unrezt]

In an earlier post you stated that you put the mouse in hot/boiling water for only a minute... are you sure they're thawed out before feeding him??

Yeah, what he said. You should let the mouse thaw in a bag in water for a few hours minimum. A snake eating partially frozen food would surely have some problems...

[Lolo76]

Yeah, what he said. You should let the mouse thaw in a bag in water for a few hours minimum. A snake eating partially frozen food would surely have some problems...

I was about to comment on that too... I thaw mine for a good 2-3 hours, and then give it a last dunk in newly hot water (since the original gets cool).

[mrshawt]

And I wouldn't use boiling hot water, either. That can end up cooking the prey, which is bad for digestion.

[Patricia]

My mistake with our first mouseicle was thawing it in the "Rodent Pro" bag it came in. It ended up wet inside the bag.

Thereafter, I followed someone's recommendation here to just put the mouseicle on a paper towel and leave it out for a few hours for gradual thawing to room temperature.

[Neal]

My mistake with our first mouseicle was thawing it in the "Rodent Pro" bag it came in. It ended up wet inside the bag.

Thereafter, I followed someone's recommendation here to just put the mouseicle on a paper towel and leave it out for a few hours for gradual thawing to room temperature.

A wet mouse won't hurt the snake. When I feed f/t I let the mouse sit out for a few hours and thaw out, then I run hot water from the sink which gets pretty hot, put it in a pot, put the mouse inside a ziplock bag in the pot, then put a cup on top of the bag to hold it under water. I do that till the water cools off, then I get another thing of warm water, and by the time I take it out, it's ready to go.

[mainbutter]

I was about to comment on that too... I thaw mine for a good 2-3 hours, and then give it a last dunk in newly hot water (since the original gets cool).

Just to add to this, there are many ways to thaw.

I thaw directly in ~90-100°F water, 10-20 minutes gets a completely full thaw

[TraviZ]

im pretty sure mine are completely thawed with my boiling water method, i time it at about 2 minutes max and thats in a baggy in the water, and when i pull the mouse it, it definitely is squishy and limp feeling, definitely not frozen. I have been feeding snake like this since I bought him a couple months ago without problem, now after his shed hes being stupid about it. but in good news, I went ahead and tried again just now and I did my usual method and he went for it and got it! he popped its guts out after constricting it, but then he couldnt figure out again which side to start from so he ended up dropping it and slithering away..

damnit why he is so dumb, this is only an 8gram mouse and he is aprox 65gram snake.

[Bundu Boy]

Even if using boiling water to thaw rodents works, it tends to cause the exploding guts problem.

Same thing happened to me when I used freshly boiled water to defrost a rat one time. It caused the guts to swell up and as soon as my ball constricted the rat exploded. Smell was real bad and mess was real bad. First and last time I used that method.

Now I fill a sink with hot water from the tap, pop the rats in and leave 'em for an hour or so, I take 'em out, pat 'em dry with a cloth and they are ready to go...