• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

A slow thaw ?

Droptines

Droptines

New member
How long can a mouse be thawed, without any bacteria worries ?.
What I mean is,,if I take a fuzzy out of the freezer in the morning and put it in the frig,,will it be OK for an evening feed ?.I was just thinking it would warm up much faster in the hot water,,than if it was still solid as ice.
 
I would assume that the rules are the same as other raw food. Which are as follows:
Potentally hazardous foods (including mice) should not be held between 41-140*F for more than 4hours. And not held in the fridge for more than 7 days.
Hey I guess I did learn something in all my cooking classes :);).
 
I go directly from freezer to hot water to thaw. An entire bucket of large adult mice (about 45 plus one jumbo rat for my boa) takes about 20 minutes to thaw. I change the water about 3-4 times to keep it hot. My bucket o' mice for my smaller snakes (pinky to weaner size) takes much less time. A single fuzzy should thaw within 5 minutes in hot water.
 
DogStar5988 said:
I would assume that the rules are the same as other raw food. Which are as follows:
Potentially hazardous foods (including mice) should not be held between 41-140*F for more than 4hours. And not held in the fridge for more than 7 days.
Hey I guess I did learn something in all my cooking classes.
Click to expand...

The only difference is that a whole mouse has all of it's bacteria [in the gut] ... so you're on a much shorter clock. I find that thawing in running warm water only takes 10-15 minutes, and only requires a slow trickle to dramatically reduce thaw time [as compared to standing water] by increasing convection.

Basically, if the water is still, there will be a colder zone around the frozen mouse, but if the water has some flow, there's always fresh & warm water heating the mouse up.

What I do:
1- toss frozen mouse into the "snake chow" container [an old leftover container with a crack that I salvaged].
2- put it under the bathroom sink tap with just a trickle of warm water.
3- wash hands, get feeding tubs ready and add snakes.
4- let snakes settle in, adjust mouse-thawing temps.
5- once mice are thawed, put tap on full hot for ~30 sec, remove and dry nice warm mice [this is admittedly the grossest part].
6- deliver mice before they cool.

This works well if you have a fairly small number of critters [two here] to feed in one shot ... I'm sure I'd have to adjust if I was feeding dozens.
 
True, I didn't think of that. We never learned about whole carcases;). But now I know next time I do a pig roast. :p


---Kenny
 
DogStar5988 said:
True, I didn't think of that. We never learned about whole carcases;). But now I know next time I do a pig roast. :p


---Kenny
Click to expand...

I hope you're not roasting the pig undressed!! :puke01: :puke01:

Nanci
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top