Thawed delivery of frozen mice

[Dumdum333]

So my order of frozen mice arrived today, but it arrived slightly thawed. The animals were clearly no longer frozen (but were still cold, and some still kind of hard). My question is can I refreeze them? what are the potential consequences? I've asked for a refund and all that so just wondering whether its safe to refreeze and use.

Thanks

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I would ask for a refund, they should arrive frozen if they are not it's an issue.

[EL-Ziggy]

I agree with Deb. I'd ask for a refund as well. Which supplier did you order from btw? Were they fully thawed or half thawed? You can try re-freezing them and offering one to your snake. If it smells sour I'd discard the the lot. If it still smells fresh then I'd use them. How many feeders are we talking about anyway?

[Dumdum333]

like i said in the original post I have asked for a refund, and I know it's an issue, my question is can I still refreeze them considering they weren't fully thawed.

TSMPetsupplies, its in the UK. Ordered once before with no issues

[Stewart_Reptiles]

From the feeding standpoint anything thawed or partially thawed on arrival is not something I would re-freeze to offer at a later date, not worth the risk to my animal, not worth the unpleasant experience of exploding rodents.

Ultimately YOUR snakes and your choice.

[Dumdum333]

what is the risk to the snakes I guess is my main question? Is it just "bacteria"? Would freezing not kill the bacteria? it was in a sealed box and all that so nothing would have made its way in

[Kcl]

Freezing will not kill all bacteria. Some can go dormant but survive, only stopping their growth. Additionally, a dead bacteria is not necessarily a safe bacteria. Some produce toxins such as the botulism toxin or can otherwise be harmful even when dead. This is why food safety rules are something to the effect of throw food out after it has been at room temperature for two hours and not either throw it out or freeze it. That being said, I'd probably eat partially thawed food that I refroze personally, but wouldn't feed it to my snakes out of an excess of caution. It's likely fine but who really knows what happened to it?

[zina10]

Freezing changes and weakens cell structure. That's why its so important to freeze FRESH product, as fast as possible.
As soon as thawing begins, the cells further break down, rapidly.

Freezing and thawing all over again can leave you with a nasty internal mush. You might be lucky, but you may end up with some smelly and busting open kind of rodents.

Doing that with muscle meat is bad enough, but we are talking about WHOLE prey. Organs (already rather mushy) guts, etc.

You get the picture

Can it get done ? Sure. Would I do it ? Nope. I would save whichever are still icecold and stiff, any that move and bend easily and don't feel ice cold anymore, I would have a feeding day with and discard the rest.

[cletus]

I would ask for a refund. I would never refreeze one that I euthanized and froze myself let alone something that I didn't know exactly how many times it had already been thawed.
You pay too much for that stuff not to be perfect. I hope my live source never runs out. lol

[Dumdum333]

yeah should get a refund or at least some store credit, will call tomorrow when they're open
ended up taking the more frozen ones and keeping them and throwing the rest away, just not worth the hassle
thanks for the info!