How long do frozen mice last

I just got an adult corn from a friend and she takes 1 large adult every 10 days. They were buying 4 packs of mice from Pet Smart for around $13, which I thought was crazy. I started looking online and found that even with shipping, I could get 50 adult mice for $60.

My only concern is that this is my only snake and she only eats 1 mouse every 10 days. I have a deep freezer with plenty of room and I also can get a vacuum sealing system as well. Would the mice be okay for over a year, or is that too long to be frozen?

Vacuum sealed I would say a year is probably fine. I bought 200 mice for my adults, which would last me about 45 weeks if I didn't have other growups that will probably be eating them in a few months.

Toph_the_Red said:

I just got an adult corn from a friend and she takes 1 large adult every 10 days. They were buying 4 packs of mice from Pet Smart for around $13, which I thought was crazy. I started looking online and found that even with shipping, I could get 50 adult mice for $60.

My only concern is that this is my only snake and she only eats 1 mouse every 10 days. I have a deep freezer with plenty of room and I also can get a vacuum sealing system as well. Would the mice be okay for over a year, or is that too long to be frozen?

Click to expand...

Wow! Great question! However, I don't really know the answer (sorry). However, even though I admit not being the SHARPEST knife in the DISHWASHER, I would just suggest thawing them out first and taking a big whiff (at risk of provoking your gag reflex) before serving it up to your little sneaky one. I would also like to know the answer though since I have been considering shopping online for a bulk shipment of rodents (Mack's wasn't fresh enough in my book to warrant another purchase from me - I purchased 100 pinkies for new hatchlings for approximately $50 with shipping, but there were about 250-300 little legs & tails in the bottom of the bag, which may be the norm, but many of the pinks had freezer burn on them also).

In any case, I would be interested to see other responses to your question also!

<Link - how long foods safely keep in freezer>
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html

Not sure where mice fit into the equation, but I'm personally not going to eat something that's been in the freezer a year, nor will I feed anything like that to one of my animals.

Karl_Mcknight said:

<Link - how long foods safely keep in freezer>
https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html

Not sure where mice fit into the equation, but I'm personally not going to eat something that's been in the freezer a year, nor will I feed anything like that to one of my animals.

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Wow! Who knew? Not ME, since I thought that Hamburger Helper came with another PERSON! :eek1:

Thanx for that link Karl! k_01:

I'm late to this party, but yes broken legs and tails are par for the course on pinkies and small fuzzies. I've seen better bags and worse bags, but I have never seen a perfect bag of those sizes.

Arriving with serious freezer burn is not par for the course. The mouse suppliers should have the facilities and packaging to store without freezer burn or very minimal freezer burn.

One way to minimize freezer burn at home is vacuum packing and double bagging. I double bag mine and the inner bags are resealable vacuum hand pump bags. Sadly ziploc has discontinued these.

Freezer burn (dehydrated spots) happens very quickly in a home freezer. It is not disqualifying for using the feeders and usually re-hydrates when thawed in water.

Many have stored and used mice successfully for up to a year. This is assuming they have stayed frozen the entire time. They lose some nutrition but if they were good quality in the first place it's not a big deal. The smaller the mouse, the shorter the shelf life and pinkies should probably be used within 4 months tops. The longest I've stored is 8 months and those were adult mice. I have tossed small fuzzies just because I didn't use them within 4 months.