Feeding "Messes"

[Firefishbrain]

Hello everyone, long time lurker, and I've finally started keeping some ball pythons! The types are listed below.
As the topic suggests, I have a question regarding feeding. When I thaw out the mice (will be trying to switch to rat fuzzies when I can make it over to the next local swap), there have recently been small cuts on the f/t that I don't believe I have created. When I go to feed, if I don't notice these cuts, when the snakes strike (especially my BB, she is an aggressive feeder), a complete, and disgusting, mess ensues...
Is there anything that I can do about this? is it something wrong that I am doing, or is it something from the F/T themselves, such as the supplier. Below is my feeding routine:

Get hot tap water (as hot as it will get)
put frozen mice in a ziploc bag (4 of them in one bag)
thaw mice in a cup of hot tap water
Once they are thawed out (I will generally check in about 20 minutes), I take them out of the bag, and place them on paper towels, as occasionally they are wet.
F/T mice go under a heat lamp for 5-10 minutes (I found I get a better feeding response, I bet because they have a chance to smell their meal and get hungry)
Feed!

Is it possible that putting the thawed mice under the heat causing some gas or something to expand in the gut, and it rips the skin? I've never seen this sort of problem in any of my youtubing... so its something that I'm doing in my routine that should be avoided. Opinions on a better thawing process please?

Thanks!

[John1982]

It's probably due to rough handling of the frozen rodents. I'll get a slit one too occasionally and my methods of thawing haven't changed in years. Do you notice a lot of broken tails, ears, legs, etc in your bags of frozen mice?

[dr del]

Hi,

There are a couple of causes of mouse grenades.

Rodents that have been thawed and refrozen - freezing weakens tissue and the stomach wall is quite thin to start with.

Cooking - thawing the rodents for too long or at too high a temperature. This lets decomp speed up a little but the main problem is it also weakens the integrity of the prey item.

I defrost mine on a 86f heatpad in the same room as the snakes for about 3 hours roughly depending on size then give their head a blast with a hairdrier. This heats it up and spreads the scent very quickly without damaging the prey.

The mouse should never smell rotten or look translucent in the stomach. If they do I'd rather just throw them away to be honest.


dr del

[BallsUnlimited]

ive gotten rats this batch with legs broken off, slits in them as well and a few have popped with aggressive feeders. most tho i dont have a problem with

[Firefishbrain]

Thanks for all the replies!

John- The mice don't look (in the frozen form) bad, they look really good actually, no breaks yet

dr del- Thank you, I'll try defrosting slower, I haven't noticed any really bad smells, perhaps they defrosted a little when I brought them home from the swap and that has weakened the integrity of the tissues... it was a long car ride home.

BallsUnlimited- thanks, thats good to know!

Well, I think next time I will try just letting them sit in some room temp water for a while, monitor their defrost, and then put them under the lamp just to warm them up a bit. hopefully that will work. if not, I guess I'll have to invest in a hair drier. Thanks again, I'll update this post for future reference.

[Alexandra V]

I found that more often than not it's because they've either been frozen really long and are mildly freezer-burnt or they were thawed out too quickly, though it's also possible that they were just handled roughly and such.

Apart from being gross, gut bursts aren't really a big deal. I find most of the time the snake does a pretty good job of cleaning up the "side dishes" as well

[h00blah]

Hey, I believe the problem is that the tap water is way too hot.

I actually just dealt with this problem recently haha, and I also had a BP literally squeeze the guts out of a rodent through the stomach.... [sorry for being graphic].. I just warmed the water til it was REALLY warm, but not HOT HOT HOT, then put the rodents in a bag and throw 'em in (just like you do ). I haven't seen any mouse guts since .

[Firefishbrain]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I'm assuming its something on my end, as only the last couple of feedings have had this problem, I'm feeding today, so my fingers are crossed =)

[Firefishbrain]

Hey! It worked great! Here's what I did

Get water, about room temp (probably a little bit warmer, but not much)
Thaw in ziploc bag
Put under heat lamp for just a couple of minutes, get the smell in the air and warm up
Feed!

no mouse bombs and every took off tongs, even my het pied female that prefers to have it just off the bottom of her box! hooray! thanks for the help everyone!

[Emily Hubbard]

glad it worked out! I actually clearly had a popped belly when I fed the other day. I don't think it was popped when I offered it, I am pretty sure the snake did it; when she stopped constricting, the mouse was squished FLAT where the coil was. Fascinating, but one of those cringe inducing things. haha. All the while she was eating it I was just PRAYING it wouldn't rupture because I had JUST done a tank cleaning and was not in the mood to clean up mouse gut. It didn't burst, to my relief.

Gotta love the unique problems feeding snakes create.