__________________

Hi Queen 'O Green,

First off let me state "I am by no means an expert" in this field, but I would like to try to help you.
As you know, feeding live is NOT an acceptable practice in the Herp World. It is too great a chance for your snake to either get hurt or get some sort of a parasite.
Now as for "bottom shelf"ing a rat, I have done it on a few occassions and then frozen them. We prefer to kill them, freeze them, then thaw and feed, as it will also kill any parasites that the rat may or not have.
Jsut my 2 cents!

__________________
Smile and the world will think that you are up to something!

Steve

I get all my rats at expos, its the cheapest way to do it. Or you can order them online . Id feed f/k or f/t, never live and as Steve stated f/t is safer because it kills any parasites the rat may have...when storing them in the freezer put them in a ziplock bag and then in a plastic container if you have one. This will help keep them fresh

Thanks guys! I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some special method for freezing these guys. And yes... In general I wouldn't feed fresh, but there have been times when I just haven't had the time to thaw... and in this case the poor guy is a week overdue because of the darn pet store's issues... Anyway, I'll do as you suggested. Thanks again!

__________________

Missing a week with the feeding is not a big deal so don't worry about that. As for freezing just throw the DEAD rat in a baggie and toss it in the freezer.
I emphasize DEAD because I talked to someone once who thought it would be more humane to just put them in there and let them freeze to death. Her line of thought was they would get cold and just go to sleep.
She was mistaken.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

What is the most humane way to kill the rat? Carbon monoxide? CO2?

__________________
Amy

With CO2 they just go to sleep and don't wake up due to oxygen deprivation, but it takes a little time and some paraphanalia!.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

OK, thanks. I'm not planning to kill any rats, but thought I'd ask.

__________________
Amy

When I get pinkies and if my kenyan does't eat it just before it's gonna die I freeze them. Pinkies have about 2 days before they can't be away from there mom's anymore. So I freeze them if she doesn't eat on the 2nd and my other female kenyan will eat frozen.