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How do YOU thaw?

How do YOU thaw your frozen rodents?

  • Throw them directly into a bowl of hot water... my snakes dont mind em' soggy

    Votes: 40 35.4%

  • I put them in a baggie first then in hot water... I don't want soggy rodents

    Votes: 55 48.7%

  • Other... allow me to explain...

    Votes: 19 16.8%
  • Total voters
    113
Lore

Lore

Insert Witty Phrase Here
I was thawing some mice this afternoon, and I know some put them straight into a bowl of hot water, I put them in a baggie then in the bowl of hot water or if there are plenty in the vacuum sealed bag, I just put that directly into the bowl of hot water...

I'm curious to know how the majority thaws their meeces. :rolleyes: :cheers:
 
well, i use rats but, i put them in a bag, then put them in a flask of hot water, the reason i use a flask is because it keeps heat so u dont have to keep changing the hot water, and then i sqeeze his head and belly and if hes all soft hes all done :p and next time i do it ill be cutting holes in it too cuzz ive herd this helps digestion
 
I employ the soggy method unless I have a picky snake that doesn't like them that way. I don't have any like that at the moment. They're usually only picky about it if they were live-only feeders that recently transitioned to f/t.
 
i use a 6qt tote thing, i just put in the hottest tap water i can get, then just toss them in. for best results serve warm
 
I slice them, put them in a ziplock bag and then put them in a convenience store cup and put the lid on it to keep them in the water.
 
I use a ziplock or vacuum bag if I have had time to vacuum seal them in single serving or single day serving sizes.
 
in the water

straight into the water.
when I used to place them in a bag first they smelled nasty.
Actually I think it partially cooked them too, I had a few burst.
Some of my snakes refused them as well.
When I started thawing in the water the smell wasn't as bad, never had any burst and the snakes didn't refuse them.
So, my vote obviously was just toss them in warm water.
 
I get the mice, put them in a large cup full of hot water. Let them sit 5-10 minutes, then take them out, blow them off with a hair dryer and warm up to room temp.
.
Ryan McCullough
MC Reptiles
 
Jimmy Johnson said:
straight into the water.
when I used to place them in a bag first they smelled nasty.
Actually I think it partially cooked them too, I had a few burst.
Some of my snakes refused them as well.
When I started thawing in the water the smell wasn't as bad, never had any burst and the snakes didn't refuse them.
So, my vote obviously was just toss them in warm water.
Click to expand...


I must not use hot enough water... not had one burst on me yet... Of course, I just started putting them in baggies when Gourmet food starting putting theirs in indivdual packages :) Kieran doesn't care how I serve it as long as I keep serving them :)
 
I used to put them directly into hot water. But then I had to dry them off. I hate the feeling of soggy mouse hair. To me it feels slimy and nasty. Now I know this is strange, but I put them next to the vent of my laptop where the fan blows out hot air. Pinkies take about 10 minutes to thaw, fuzzies, 15, anything larger can take up to a half hour to defrost though, but I only have 5 snakes so its no big deal.
 
My mice come in they're own baggies which I put in the water, so its not quite the option you put. But im currently getting some online so that might change. :shrugs:
 
jazzgeek said:
I put my f/t into a "snack" sized ziploc bag and accelerate the thawing by either running them under warm water (not hot - pinky skin can "cook", turning a milky gray, while not adequately thawing the innards), or if I'm multitasking at my 'puter, by simply putting the bag between my leg and the chair.

Yes, I sit on my feeders, so to speak. 98.6 plus the reflection/insulation of a leather chair makes quick work of it, without 'cooking' them.
:laugh01:

Then again, I'm only feeding three juvenile corns and a hatchling redtail - the largest prey item is hopper size. I wouldn't try this with adult mice.

Those ziploc bags will go in my armpits. :laugh:

regards,
jazz
Click to expand...

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
As some of you know, I'm in college, so I have a roommate. When I told her I was thinking of getting a snake, the only big concern she had was feeders. After a bit of negotiation, we have some mouse-handing rules. For instance:

The mice have to be in an opaque bag in the freezer, but clearly labeled so she won't open them on accident. I have to warn her before I slit the pinks (so she can look away). And of course, mice are not allowed out of the baggies except for feeding. Apparently, she doesn't want mouse-cooties in the drinking glasses. :grin01:
 
I just throw mine into hot water. My snakes dont care if they are soggy or not. I figure they can use the extra water that is absorbed into the mouses skin from the thawing process. Sometimes I just stop the mouse from being dripping wet by rolling them quickly in a paper towel. I used to do the baggie method, but it took to long to thaw, and it did stink just a little more than direct thawing.
 
Some thawing advice from a thermodynamics standpoint:
[I'll try to put this into basic english, because I don't remember exact terms and can't use the complex symbols]

The three things that matter most when thawing something are temp difference, thermal mass, and contact.

Thermal mass is why we use water to thaw rather than just setting the snake-chow on the counter, more mass will add more heat.

Contact should be obvious, it has to touch to warm up the moose, so out of the bag is more efficient, but kind of gross sometimes. I would bag, but get that bag on as tight as you can [ideally, you'd vac-pack them individually] so warmer water is touching the most surface. Remember that you're fighting the fur, which is meant to be an insulator, so either put a bit of water in the bag or get it down tight. Also, weighting down the snake-chow so it stays underwater is helpful. [I just got a mental image of weight on the extra bag material, allowing the object to be thawed to float up but still be underwater, I'll have to try that next time I'm thawing dinner for people here]

Now for the tricky part, temp difference:
Since you don't want to cook the moosie, keeping temp difference low and taking a few minutes longer may be advised. Plopping the snake-chow into hot water will result in a cooked outside and a raw [maybe still frozen] inside. Restaurants thaw meat with cool running water, it doesn't take much flow to thaw 5 pounds of steaks fast, the goal is to have fresh, warmer water on the meat, rather than letting it cool the water it's sitting in.
A small trickle of cool water into a 2-4 cup container [500-1000 mililiters for our metric friends] that overflows into the sink will work wonders here. I thaw chicken breasts that way, and they're done in 20-40 minutes.

Maximize the surface area in contact with the fluid, don't over-do the temp difference, and keep the water moving. Use some hot water [at the end] or the blow-dryer to bring the meal up to a temp you snake likes.

Now I'll admit that I use fresh, unfrozen snake-chow that I hand-pick, and haven't played with frozen rodents. [Only one snake here] But I do know my heat transfer & fluid flow, in addition to applying it every day at work AND in the kitchen. The only major differences I'm anticipating between thawing a cut of meat versus a moosie is size and fur.

If anyone tries this method, please post back with results.
 
Depends on what I'm thawing. The small rats I put into a baggie, then into hot water. The pinkies I just drop into a cup of hot water
 
Jazz- Geez!!

(I'm not using his ex-method!)

I put the pink in a small bowl with slowly running hot water and, using a meat thermometer, bring the temp of the water up to 100-101F, which takes a couple minutes. Then I blot the pink on paper towels, cut four slits in the back with fingernail scissors, place in feeding container, wash hands, get snake.

Nanci
 
First on my list of snake chores is pull dinner for that evening's feeders. I set a bowl full of rodent off to the side while I spot clean, change waters, check "blues," do some handling, etc.

Usually by that time that's done, all but the biggest adults are thawed (I keep my room 80*-82*). As I pull each snake off the shelf for feeding, I toss their mouse in a cup of warm water to heat it up. Before offering, I roll it on a "mouse dabbing" rag to get excess water off.

Oh, and to keep the water hot, we use one of those coffee cup warmers and a soup-bowl sized ceramic cup. We don't leave the mouse in too long to prevent it from cooking. :wavey:
 
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