frozen thawed

[Ballpython2]

Ok so below is what i brought from petco (i'm not buying any more but my babies have to eat so i got these until i order my rodent pro food).

how does everyone thaw out frozen food?

Do yo leave it in the bag it comes in (when you buy from petco) and put it in warm water and leave it in there over night? or do you you take it out of the bag and put all the adult mice in a a hot bowl of water and let it thaw out that way?

I use to use a heat lamp but i dont know if that worked correctly and i havent fed frozen thawed in a long time.


http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/g...e/100_0934.jpg

[littleindiangirl]

Leave it out all day to thaw in a bowl or something, then blast with a hair dryer just before feeding. Or put the rat in a ziplock and into hot water for a couple of minutes before you feed.


ALWAYS always make sure the animal is thoroughly thawed. You can kill the snake by feeding them an uncompletely thawed prey item.

[nchapa]

I put mine in ziplocs, place them in ambient temp water fo about 1/2 hr, and then in warm water for another 1/2 hour. they usually thaw out with this process. after that i heat them up with blow dryer next to container where i keep the snakes, and that gets them real interested. my balls like them real hot so i blow dry them for about 5 minutes and then i just dangle them in front of them, they usually take it in 1.1 seconds flat.

The last couple of feedings my balls grab and constrict and then go into their hides, I take the rat pups out and heat them up again, they grab constrict and eat on the second offering, WHY? I dont know but they have been doing that the last couple of weeks.

hope this helps.

[SamuraiZr0]

how often can you re use the mice.. lets say you have a baby snake and you get 6 frozen fuzzys.. is it ok to only defrost the one you need for feeding .... can you re-freeze them?

[frankykeno]

Most good f/t companies lay out their frozen rodents on a tray (much like the one you get your steak on) and then freeze them and seal the bag properly. That way you should be able to simply open the bag, remove just one or two of the prey items from the tray, push out the air in the freezer bag, close it and you're all set for next week.

[waltah!]

Don't put the entire bag out to thaw unless you are using all of the prey items. You can take out what you need to thaw, then put the remainder in a ziploc.

[Ballpython2]

Thanks everyone.

So what im doing now is boiling some water and imma toss the mice in there (while still in the bag so they can thaw out).

once the water gets cold I'm going to boil new water and then let them sit in that how water again..that should do it right?

[Ballpython2]

Thanks everyone.

So what im doing now is boiling some water and imma toss the mice in there (while still in the bag so they can thaw out).

once the water gets cold I'm going to boil new water and then let them sit in that how water again..that should do it right?

ughhh the smell!!! I kind of learned the hard way so i took em out immediately and put them in the fridge for a few seconds to cool em off i just dry heaved at the smell lol

[Ballpython2]

I have never seen this happen.

After i fed my two babies; the male ate the mouse no problem its all the way inside him.

Something i dont get is why did he after eating the mouse go into the water dish for? he's just laying in there (floating) but his head is all the way out of the water.

should i go gently take him out?

why do they do this?

[nchapa]

I dont think you should use boiling water, you'll cook the rodent that way. Just use hot tap water, always works for me, and the blow dryer trick works great to heat up the rodent.

I dont believe semi cooking the rodent is bad for your snake but you also cook alot of important nutrients, and sometimes when they constrict, the skin and hair might fall off ( don't ask me how I know, take my word for it.) and it looks and smell disgusting.

Going into the water bowl is normal, they might be cooling off, or hydrating, or just want to take a dip. I have 2 water bowls, a regular one, and one with a lid and a hole on top. they love soaking in the latter one. As long as the substrate is dry, you dont have to worry about them soaking to much.