Welp, I'm really glad I'm almost done using feeders from outside sources. I fed a few of the snakeys today, and let me tell ya, my frozen mice REEKED. My boyfriend says he hasn't noticed a smell from our store-bought batch, but they've always stunk to me. And they seem to have gotten worse lately. Or my sense of smell has gotten much better lol.
I'm not sure if it's due to them being at the top of our freezer and going through a thaw-freeze-thaw cycle when we open it, but it's terrible. I haven't noticed any smell with the ASF we froze ourselves, which are kept in pretty much the same conditions, so I dunno. Thankfully I only have about 3 weeks worth of the smelly mice left.
With some luck, my rats will start ramping up production soon. Just another reassurance that home grown feeders are the way to go!!!