Can you refreeze mice after there been thawed out?

[Pythoninfinite]

Well, of course. For snakes I wouldn't suggest more than once, for carnivorous lizards such as monitors, the sky's the limit - I've seen a couple of Lacies inside a hole in the guts of a pig that must have been dead about 10 days. They were gorging themselves on the putrid contents of the pig's abdomen... yum !

Just use common sense - if the food animal smells OK, it's probably OK to feed a snake. A snake's digestive system works more slowly than ours so putrefaction is often a part of the digestion process with big prey - it can take a couple of weeks for a scrubby to break down the bulk of a large wallaby, during which time it rots faster than the digestive processes can prevent, but eventually the digestive juices clean it all up and sterilise the mass of decay bacteria.

Jamie.

 

[congo_python]

Just to clarify - My NO was for husbandry reasons not the digestive facts of your snake system. I just wouldn't like dealing with the smell and cleaning up the mess in the enclosure of a twice frozen rat/mouse's guts breaking out of the now weak belly skin as the snake hits the rodent and wraps/squeezes it every where. It also happens if you leave the rodent in hot water longer than needed from my experiences.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Just to clarify - My NO was for husbandry reasons not the digestive facts of your snake system. I just wouldn't like dealing with the smell and cleaning up the mess in the enclosure of a twice frozen rat/mouse's guts breaking out of the now weak belly skin as the snake hits the rodent and wraps/squeezes it every where. It also happens if you leave the rodent in hot water longer than needed from my experiences.

I've never had that problem, but you would if the animal had either been thawed too long previously or wasn't held at the appropriate temperature while frozen. I wasn't suggesting that you put a half-rotten rodent back in the freezer, but a rodent thawed quickly in hot water, offered and refused over an hour or two, is usually fine to re-freeze, unless it was poorly frozen in the first place. Some people just bag up numbers of these things after they've been killed and put them in a freezer as a lump, which means they freeze very slowly in the middle of the heap. To freeze rodents efficiently they should be killed, allowed to cool by spreading them out on a bench for 20 mins/half an hour, and then packing ONLY ONE LAYER DEEP and placing in a freezer. They should not be stacked in the freezer until thoroughly frozen or at least extremely chilled. Very rapid chilling can be achieved by putting a small desk fan in the freezer to circulate the air.

And then there's the problem of the working temperature of the freezer, given that many people keep their rodents in an old "beer fridge" or something similar (mum won't let them keep dead rats in the kitchen appliance!). Many "second" fridges are old and have poor sealing, so it may well be that the rodents are deteriorating far more quickly than they otherwise would in an efficient freezer.

I frequently re-freeze uneaten rodents because if I have offered it to one snake and it's not eaten, I don't then offer it to the next one because in my opinion that's a very good way to spread disease. That rodent is then only offered to the same snake next time round. In 40 years I've never had a problem with illness caused by feeding re-frozen food items.

Jamie

 

[Snowman]

If we have learnt anything on APS Jamie, it's that 40+ years experience is nothing compared to a newbie with one snake

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Ahh Trent - 40+ years of dealing with herp people (of all sorts!) - surely retirement isn't too far away ! My skin is so thick it's like a suit of armour lol!

J

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Jamie said what I was going to say but sooo much better.
I feed the off rodents to the ravens and when i kept monitors they would get them.

 

[LadyDiamond]

I receive a lot of enquiry for small quantities of frozen food to be delivered. Just because some suppliers do it doesn't mean it works. You need thermal mass to maintain temperature without refrigeration and so shipping small quantities can lead to dissappointment. Just becuase some suppliers do it doesn't mean it works all the time. Having said that we have shipped small quantities by overnight post and they have arrived frozen but i wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis. The packaging reqired was'nt worth the risk, but in an emergency-Maybe.

I know they were on Dry Ice, but for some reason AAE couldnt find them, so i believe going by the shipment date that they left the supplier to us picking up them up, was 3 days and they were not fridgerated over those 3 days!!

 

[daniel101]

Great thread, ive had the same problem with buying frozen rats my scrub would never take them and when she did it was very unwillingly, had to sit there and baby her. Would normally throw them away because they smelt like ****

 

[wokka]

I know they were on Dry Ice, but for some reason AAE couldnt find them, so i believe going by the shipment date that they left the supplier to us picking up them up, was 3 days and they were not fridgerated over those 3 days!!

That might be the problem. My understanding is you cant send dry ice in air freight as it is considers dangerous goods. As it thaws, it produced CO2 and so grandually gasses the cabin crew which is not desirable.