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Feeding day

Then how do you heat it up?

Boiled pinkies are highly recommended for non eating snakes so I see no harm in it being a little cooked.

I don't feed pinkies but when I did it was in the water then out after less than a minute. In my experience it was never long enough to cook it. Believe me I had to use a boiled pinkie once for a non eater and that think SMELLED cooked, gross.

Now I feed fuzzies and full grown adults. The fuzzies still don't take too long to thaw and heat up. Just a couple minutes. The big mice take a bit longer so I start them out with warm water instead of hot water then dunk them in hot water to warm them up.
 
Also to add onto the above. When I worked at the local pet store I fed all of the snakes every week. The only time I had a mouse "explode" was with an over zealous brooks kingsnake. He grabbed and wrapped so fast it almost tore the mouse in 2. He still ate it no problems with very little mess(frozen mouse helped I imagine).
 
Yeah so confused now...thaw in warm or cold? Because it's a snake, I would imagine they can handle bacteria differently than humans plus the point is to somewhat mimic live prey with some heat, no?
 
Im not sure what the correct way is, I have my pinkies individually wrapped, I fed "Crescent" last night, I took mine out of he freezer, let in sit out at room temperature and when it was soft to the touch I fed it to him, no issues, no explosions, no water, no microwave...I don't know . LOL
 
Spencer said:
Okay. So the mouse explodes before or during feeding. Damage...clean up a dead exploded mouse. Not fun.

Here now I need to address a more serious issue. To the people thawing mice in hot water. Please stop it! Please. Very bad for your snake. If you haven't had issues yet, you've been lucky. First...hot water can start to cook the mouse. A cooked mouse is bad for snakes.. second...foodsafe 101. To unthaw meat, you always use cold water. Google it. It's dangerous. Cold water is just as quick for a small item.
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This is actually a pretty good point and it is true, but because mice aren't huge steaks and don't take several hours to thaw out, I don't think there is enough time for bacterial growth to occur. It happens to large roasts that are left out for a very long time to thaw, not little mice. I don't think unless it's human error and someone leaves a mouse under burning hot water for twenty minutes or it's as simple as a bad mouse it's going to get substantially cooked, either. Just my opinion though, of course I could be wrong if someone has evidence of bacteria and all that jazz growing on their feeder mice. I have a slinking feeling that leaving a dead animal sitting out to thaw out at room temp isn't exactly the most sanitary thing either considering what might be attracted to it. (This probably doesn't happen, but it still kind of freaks me out!)

Cold water will work just as well as hot water and possibly even better, but there are many, many people who use hot water and have been for years and haven't seen problems too.
 
yea I am going to have to agree to disagree aswell.. I totally understand where your coming from if it was a steak or chicken being defrosted in hot tap water.. but its not.

the mice like stated before are only in the water for all of 1-15 mins depending on feeder size and tha not long enough to cook them.. and also stated above boiled pinks are like a staple for getting a picky baby to eat, if it were bad for them I'm sure that top breeders like Nanci and Kathy Love wouldn't be recommending it to everyone.. I trust Nanci, she was the one that told me to defrost the mice this way and I haven't had one issue my snakes are both growing like crazy, and never one regurge.

so I think ill keep doing what I'm doing, lol and for my hoppers and adult mice I put them in a baggy in a cup of cool water for 25-35 mins. and then once their playable they come out of the bag and go.in the cup of hot water.. works like a charm and they are nice and warm and ready to go in about 3-5 min!
 
Xerneas said:
I have a slinking feeling that leaving a dead animal sitting out to thaw out at room temp isn't exactly the most sanitary thing either considering what might be attracted to it. (This probably doesn't happen, but it still kind of freaks me out!)
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You don't let it sit out all day! :p Just until it is thawed (1-2 hours). It wouldn't start rotting or anything, if that's what's worrying you.
You would also put it in a baggie or container of some sort, to keep air and bacteria - and other pets - out. It's just like thawing out chicken or fish in the sink :)

There are so many ways to thaw mice, I personally just don't use hot water for fear of cooking the insides. I would think that is the most "unnatural" for snakes out of everything discussed here. Don't know if it's the most harmful though.
 
if you really wanna talk about the defrost methods being "unnatural" or "natural" ... NONE of these methods are even close to what a snake would "naturally" be eating..
their already dead, been frozen, and then thawed again for consumption, none of that's natural in anyway, no matter which way you choose to defrost and warm.it..

if you wanted a "natural" style and way too feed it'd be live. but everyone knows that the risks of feeding live far out weigh the risks of thawing in hot water or at room temp, IMHO. :eek:
 
NH93 said:
You don't let it sit out all day! :p Just until it is thawed (1-2 hours). It wouldn't start rotting or anything, if that's what's worrying you.
You would also put it in a baggie or container of some sort, to keep air and bacteria - and other pets - out. It's just like thawing out chicken or fish in the sink :)

There are so many ways to thaw mice, I personally just don't use hot water for fear of cooking the insides. I would think that is the most "unnatural" for snakes out of everything discussed here. Don't know if it's the most harmful though.
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Oh, yes, I know, haha! It was more along the lines of something nasty like insects being attracted to it, but I had completely forgotten about the baggie. :)

Honestly, I think that the "natural" debate ends the second a snake is put into a viv. Nothing is really that natural about keeping snakes in tanks with a water dish having mice handed to them. Food from a can isn't what wild felines would eat, but it's still what the vast majority of people feed their cats. But regardless, in the end all of these methods get the job done, so do what works for you! :)
 
I have thawed all mine out in hot water from the tap, from the smallest pinkies to jumbo mice. All have been fine, none have popped, perfectly healthy and active snakes.
 
HerpsOfNM said:
I wouldn't thaw overnight. Too much time, even in the fridge, for gut bioflora bacteria to go all nuts and possibly spoil the mouse.
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I disagree, if the mice are sealed in a ziplock bag and in a fridge set at about 34 degrees there is almost no possibility of them spoiling within a day or even two. Mine get thawed for about 12 hours then the bag goes into the sink and hot water is used to warm them up from the fridge, usually about 10 minutes, and they are not hot at all, just warm to to touch.

I find this method easy and safe for my snakes, and they never touch the water so they are dry and warm when I feed them.

Everyone has their own way, find what method suits you best and stick with it.
 
smigon said:
I disagree, if the mice are sealed in a ziplock bag and in a fridge set at about 34 degrees there is almost no possibility of them spoiling within a day or even two. Mine get thawed for about 12 hours then the bag goes into the sink and hot water is used to warm them up from the fridge, usually about 10 minutes, and they are not hot at all, just warm to to touch.

I find this method easy and safe for my snakes, and they never touch the water so they are dry and warm when I feed them.

Everyone has their own way, find what method suits you best and stick with it.
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^ This. About the "best" way I've personally found too. Almost no chance of bacterial growth, warmed easily without possibility of "cooking", and dry which is something I've found to be pretty important for some picky eaters.
 
I take mine out of the freezer in to the fridge and go to work...then when I get home, I take out of the fridge and put in a large Tupperware container. Then close the lid. Bout 30 to 40 minutes later, I put my snake in said container.
On the other topic. Iwould use room temperature water not hot.everyone talking about size and time. A steak would take 11 minutes to thaw in hot water.
It's still recommended not to do it.
 
Spencer said:
On the other topic. Iwould use room temperature water not hot.everyone talking about size and time. A steak would take 11 minutes to thaw in hot water.
It's still recommended not to do it.
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A steak in turn gets cooked to perfection before consumed by a human being. A mouse/rat on the other hand, doesn't. I use hot water because pickier eaters won't touch something that isn't warm. I don't use scalding water, just whatever comes out of my hot tap. I can't think of any valid reason to use cold or room temperature water vs warm or hot water when it comes to thawing and warming a mouse/rat for a snake.
 
I believe someone earlier in this thread mentioned they put their feeders in scalding water for about 20 minutes. that's specifically what I was referring to. I see cold and warm and hot water to not make enough difference to matter in terms of time. So I use what is safe for sure, as oppose to a method that you haven't had an issue with...yet
 
Cold vs Warm/Hot is not a matter of "safe for sure" vs "haven't had issue with...yet". Hundreds or more herpers have been using warm to hot (ignoring cases of boiling or beyond) water to either thaw and or warm their frozen rodents for decades. Without issue. Until you can provide documented cases, proven biological or medical fact pertaining specifically to snakes, or further empirical evidence proving a negative health effect of thawing or warming with hot water as opposed to cold then both are equally "safe for sure".

In fact, I can name at least one scenario that isn't too niche, where a cold thaw and no warming can in fact be detrimental to the snakes health. The case of picky eaters. Which happens. Quite a bit. So by that right, your "proven safe" way is theoretically slightly less "safe" than my and others "haven't had issue with...yet" way.

Ultimately, there's no real "right or wrong" way to do this, as long as the rodent is fully thawed, not cooked, and the snake eats it. But all this "Please stop using hot water" and "Warm and hot water isn't safe" stuff is just FUD.
 
Again, Nythain has taken the words from my mouth.
I would like to see a reference, because considering that we have many members here with hundreds, if not thousands of snakes, some of the top names in the hobby at that- and they are saying warming mice in hot water is fine, then it is fine. These are not little people, they won't get sick from mice that are warmed up in water for a few minutes.

When I worked at the zoo we would thaw rodents over night in the fridge, then put them in hot water to warm up before feeding. I usually let my mice sit out in a sterlite for a few hours and then use warm water to heat up some for the picky ones. The others will eat room temp, and some I would bet would eat then completely frozen if they had the option.
 
Nythain said:
A steak in turn gets cooked to perfection before consumed by a human being. A mouse/rat on the other hand, doesn't. I use hot water because pickier eaters won't touch something that isn't warm. I don't use scalding water, just whatever comes out of my hot tap. I can't think of any valid reason to use cold or room temperature water vs warm or hot water when it comes to thawing and warming a mouse/rat for a snake.
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WAIT! What about people who eat very rare or "blue rare" steak? I don't even consider that cooked! ;)

(I'm just bugging now) I'm also not much of a steak-eater, lol!
 
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