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How do you thaw your rodents?

toyah said:
This is a quote from an article on the Ratsnake foundation website:



With that in mind I don't allow food to defrost in water, although I will dip the heads in hot water to heat them for my royals.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, though I have a little trouble comprehending how the mouse being thawed impacts whether or not water inside the rodent that thaws either way leaks out, and I'm also curious as to how much of those nutrients that are in water inside the mouse are usable to the snake anyway.

If the water will leak out when a rodent is thawed in water, it seems to me it would also leak out when thawed dry.
 
I place all my mice in ziploc bags (that I save and re-use) when I thaw them for meals.

At home with my hatchlings and yearlings, I place the sealed bag in a hot water bath.

At school with my yearlings, subadults and adults, I place the sealed bags on top of a fish tank light. They get flipped so each side is warmed efficiently and then feed at some point during the school day when I have a chance.

During the summer at school, I leave the bags on the counter during the day until I'm ready to take a trip in to my classroom. They're usually thawed out by then, and in my room they get placed on the same fish tank light to get warmed up for a few minutes as I top of water and clean out necessary water bowls and spot clean poo.

I agree with all statements regarding not placing my mice directly in water:
1. I don't want to 'wash off' the mouse smell.
2. I don't want to 'waste time' drying off mice.
3. I don't want to feed wet mice that will collect extra debris in the cage.
4. I never thought of the vitamins/etc. leeching into the warm water, but it makes complete sense considering it's the same deal with vegetables (yes I know boiling veggies is at a greater temperature.).

D80
 
I always thaw in hot, running water. But I may try dry thawing on a couple hunger strikers. Last time I tried boiled mice- just dunked them (thawed) in and out of boiled water for a second. What a fiasco. So as I tried to dry off the first mouse, the tail skin pulled off. Then, I didn't hold the second mouse by the tail, and the abdomen skin ripped. Both corns refused, but Chocolee had no problem eating them up! They were disgusting- I won't be repeating that feeding trick...
 
FunkyRes said:
That's interesting, though I have a little trouble comprehending how the mouse being thawed impacts whether or not water inside the rodent that thaws either way leaks out, and I'm also curious as to how much of those nutrients that are in water inside the mouse are usable to the snake anyway.

If the water will leak out when a rodent is thawed in water, it seems to me it would also leak out when thawed dry.
Click to expand...

Well, quite - most of the nutrients might be usable for the snake, they might not, but I just prefer to err on the side of caution.

The issue isn't vitamin-laden water leaking out of the mouse - the vitamins may well be in other parts of the mouse, but as they are water soluble they will dissolve into the water that the mouse is defrosting in.
 
I suppose it wouldn't be too much trouble to throw my mice in ziploc bags before thawing them, it certainly can't hurt to do it.
 
I heat u[ a cup of water for a minute in the microwave, and then drop the mouse right in. Fuzzies normally take only about a minute to thaw.
 
I do what the package says to do... Thaw the pinkie in hot tap water for 10-minutes... No problems with Mello Yellow eating these things, he is very comfortable and agressive with them.
 
I just set mine in a bag and let the sun do the work. I also use this time to clean suzy's cage. Although i heard letting them defrost and warm up this way can lead to problems as well.
 
Depneds on what and whp we are feeding.. Sometimes the whole bags of frozen gets tossed into hot tap water.. Never boiling, I want to thaw the mouse not make soup out of it..
Other wise we count off what we need on that given night and thaw in hot tap water for the desired amount of time.. Talk about chaos..

Regards.. Tim of T and J
 
For Shreds, I fill up a cup with hot water and just toss the fuzzy in. I let it get squishy and instead of re-filling it with hot water, take a blow dryer to the sucker. Makes it warm and fluffy.
 
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