Frozen Mice Problem.

**DarkMagician207** · #1 04-04-2007, 04:21 PM

about three weeks ago I recieved an order I had placed online for frozen feeder mice. they looked great and I was so happy with them. i put them in a seperate freezer and have only been using 3 a week (i got 50 of em). last week however the bag must have been keeping the little door in the freezer open because this time when I opened the bag my mice were kind of discolored and partially thawed out. i thawed 3 out the rest of the way and fed them to my snakes. they ate them with no problems and there hasn't been any regurges so i'm assuming they were alright. now I put the mice in a bigger freezer that we have in a brown and plastic bag to see if they would freeze again. they have though they are still kind of discolored and look to have freezer burn which is annoying because I still have almost 40 mice that may be going to waste. if I put my nose in the bag there's a slight smell but I don't know if frozen mice have a smell to begin with?

is there anything I can do? will thawing them out and feeding them to my snakes be safe or should I just toss them? any help would be appreciated. i guess next time i'll have to check the freezer after I shut the door!

**schlegelbagel** · #2 04-04-2007, 04:59 PM

i don't know. its pretty much judging how one would judge meat we eat. I know ground beef (as an example) is good in the fridge for a good 5 days. You say the mice were still mostly frozen? I would think they would be OK. Its not like they sat around in the sun for a day.

But if they aren't THAT expensive (I don't know what they cost) then just pitch them if it worries you.

**kenman1963** · #3 04-04-2007, 05:47 PM

the fact that they were discolored would frighten me. Did you notice any odor to the ones that you did use ?

**Merlin** · #4 04-04-2007, 07:13 PM

It will depend on how much they mice had thawed and how long they were thawed. Are we talking a couple of hours or several days? If the mice were still partially frozen they should be all right.
I have completely thawed and warmed mice and rats to feed that were refused and I immediately froze them again.
The frozen mice will have a scent. After all they ARE mice! However spoiled meat of any type will have a very bad odor that will almost make your stomach churn.

**DarkMagician207** · #5 04-04-2007, 10:50 PM

i ordered them from Rodentpro and including shipping I paid 56 dollars for a bag of 50 large frozen mice. it was much cheaper in my opinion to go there instead of paying around 80 bucks for the same amount but of a much smaller size that a pet store in my area sells them for. for some reason no matter how many times I say "large" they still give me the same thing every time. so I decided to try ordering online.

i did notice a smell when I opened the bag when I first got them but it was like a "cold rodent" smell lol if that makes any sense. when I smelled them this time the smell was a little stronger.

i was using a small fridge that we keep drinks in. i used to use the little freezer inside it to freeze my bird food but now I use it for frozen rodents. i think the corner of the bag was keeping the little door to the freezer open. they were not sitting out on a counter or outside they remained in the freezer but I guess the cold air was getting out into the fridge.

thanks for the replies so far. i will see what they are like this weekend when I go to feed. i'm thinking if they don't look all that great i'll probably just pitch them and try all over again.

**DarkMagician207** · #6 04-07-2007, 09:47 PM

well today I went through the mice and got rid of the nasty ones, about a dozen or so unfortunately. but I managed to salvage about 5 weeks worth of them that looked good so I guess they weren't all affected. i separated them into individual bags (3 to a bag since I only use 3 at a time) and put them in a brown paper bag and back into the big freezer instead of the little one I was using. this way I can take out what I use each week without messing with the other ones. hopefully that will work. next time I order I think after they arrive I will separate them like I did this time to try and avoid that problem again. we'll see how it goes.

**schlegelbagel** · #7 04-07-2007, 11:13 PM

sounds like a good solution.

**DarkMagician207** · #8 04-08-2007, 01:18 AM

i thought so too, i was relieved. apparently at least some of them survived and seem good. we'll see when I go to feed next week.

**Merlin** · #9 04-08-2007, 11:16 AM

Even a little bit of decomposition won't hurt the snake. Snakes in the wild have been occassionally reported eating carrion.

**DarkMagician207** · #10 04-08-2007, 11:04 PM

they were fine after last week when it happened so I think it'll be alright. i got rid of the nasty ones and refroze the ones that were still looked good to me so we'll see what happens next feeding. i didn't think a little bit of that would hurt them but I wanted to be sure because i've only recently gotten into using the frozen rodents.


Everything Above Disappears When You log In Or Register!

Direct Navigation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264