Freezing Rats

[grahamh]

I've got a question about freezing rats and mice. I used to get my rodents from Reptile Munchies and the smaller ones (pinkies and pups) were mixed in with wood shavings. I just assumed that they were takn from their enclosure like that. Today I read an article on another site which said:

The frozen rodents you buy are put in plastic bags and gassed with Carbon Dioxide. Put in some rats, push most of the air out of the bag then fill it with C02, wait a few seconds and push most of that out then put in more gas and tie the neck of the bag. The critters just go to sleep and don't wake up.
Incidentally- if you freeze them in individual bags of shavings they won't go all brittle and won't stick together. And freeze 'em as soon as they're dead, before bacteria and stuff has time to build up in the gut. Jay.

I'm interested in the 'Won't go brittle' comment - anyone want to elaborate.

G

 

[CHEWY]

I'm not totally sure what the woodchips do, but when my snakes were small, I also had pinky mice. I found the ones that I bought had been frozen for a long time and all had freezer burn. The were brittle and tended to loose their tails or legs.
I find breeding isn't only cheaper, but the rats/mice look better for the snake as you know exactly how long they've been frozen for.
The woodchips I found were a pain in the butt trying to remove them too.

 

[grahamh]

I have it on good authority that the ingestion of sawdust or wood shavings is something to be especially careful to avoid, whereas a bit of earth or even (dare I say) a pellet of Breeders Choice would be less of a problem.

I always run my rodents under a warm tap till all the rubbish is off and then thaw them.

G

 

[Nicole]

I do the same Graham, so there is no chance of the girls eating the sawdust, but I'm curious, what happens if they do ingest? And how did you find out, did PH tell you, if so, good enough for me...

 

[africancichlidau]

And I quote, " a pellet of Breeders Choice", What is breeders choice?

 

[Fangs]

And I quote, " a pellet of Breeders Choice", What is breeders choice?

Dont you dare go there Mr AfricanNeolamprologusbrichardiPerson :wink:

To my way of thinking if snakes can disolve bones then a small piece of sawdust or that "other stuff" shouldnt present a major problem.Having said that I'm sure others will have definate opposing views on it though.

cheers M......

 

[grahamh]

Yep Nic

source correct

I believe the theory was that a snake can disolve bone more easily than cellulose and I'm pretty sure it was concern that there may be sharp splinters that would be resillient enough to cause damage to the highly stretched internals and gut wall as it passes through. For my part I try to make sure my lot eat from their basking rocks - Snap! always eats in mid air hanging from her top log hide (real ambush stuff for her). Anyway original question was to do with the merrits of wood shavings in freezing.

And for my Africanchewydogfish, 'Breeders Choice' is a little know practice whereby when two male snakes engage in combat during a mating session over a single receptive female. The breeder has the choice of separating the combatants and seemingly quite often a small amount of snake defecant is shed and this is know to old snake hands as a pellet of Breeders Choice. There is a company that now produces this product commercially (mixed with a variety of other ingredients - some of which seem a little unusual, plastic, staples and other coloured items) as a cat litter. Apparently the odour of the Breeders Choice pellets (taken from large captive snake breeding programs in Humpty Doo (Northern Territory - not far from Graeme Gow's Reptile Park) causes cats to feel the need to defecate in their vicinity.

This commercial product has many by products and side effects which include the eruption and later subsidance of human emotion. It can sometimes be successfully used as a substrate for reptile keeping.

HTH

G

 

[tony]

you have shown remarkable erudition there, in your answer graham, me thinks afrofish/snakeman might now be completely bamboozled

 

[Nicole]

Hehehehehehe... I've missed you Graham! :lol:

 

[Magpie]

LMAO graham, LMAO

 

[dan_lizard]

Hey Magpie. Have you stopped lovin the glovin?

 

[popp]

:lol: Roflmbao grahamh,i actually have found bc not bad for rats (popp helps graham up of floor)also found quality of froze from pet stores to be very average so now breed my own.Afro you love it,popp hands africa a tin of paint while your at it give this a stirr for me. :lol:

 

[grahamh]

:lol:

 

[africancichlidau]

Lol Graham , but don't the staples etc hurt the cats backside?

 

[grahamh]

That's right Phil and interstingly, the cat has developed a special warning sound (kind of sounds like meeeeeoow!) that it uses to indicate a problem to its owner. This was anticipated by the developers and has the desired effect that the owner knows when the litter tray has been used and can quickly empty it to avoid the accumulation of undesirable odours. It's also worth noting that they have cleverly incorporated some coloured components to attrack the cat into the tray in the first place. These are made of a space age plastic material that does not deteriorate under the stress of feline dumpoeroonie. The company does actually have a return to base recycling option whereby they can recover and recycle these coloured goodies.