Thawed How?

[guidofatherof5]

I thaw my pinkies out in warm water. I like to give my snakes a warm meal and I think the thawed pinky absorbs some of the water it is thawed in. This helps to hydrate my snakes in a roundabout way. I also think the scent is greater on a wet mouse then a dry one which might help in a more aggressive feeding response.
Just my opinion.

How do you thaw your mice and why?

[Steveo]

I usually thaw in air for about 2 hours. I think it gets the smell of rodent in the air to stir up appetites. I do use water occasionally as it does provide a little extra hydration. Water conducts heat 8x as well as air, so it's also a faster alternative.

For the tiny garters I cut up their food while it is still frozen and thaw in air until things start to get leaky.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I run my tap as hot as it goes and fill 2 5 gallon buckets. Then I fill those with rats chicks and mice and after about 10 minutes I pour out the cold soup and add more warm water!

[infernalis]

Shannon, what do have that eats chicks?

[Greg'sGarters]

I will just fill up 1 5 gallon bucket and do the same thing as shannon. I feed from smallest to largest, because the smaller ones unthaw sooner.

[thamneil]

Usually a quick dip in some hot water and feeders are ready to go. They really do get a good drink out of this!

[05brandon50]

I actually made a video on my Youtube channel (that has over 7,000 views :p ) on how I thaw my mice for my snakes. Seen here:
How To Prepare Frozen Mice - YouTube (http://youtu.be/G6P73jRouQE)
I find that putting them in a plastic sack helps retain their scent instead of it getting washed away by direct water contact. Also, the idea of handling a sopping wet mouse or plump pinkie is kind of disgusting in my opinion.

For small frozen pieces of jello and fish I put them under rita's heat lamp on her serving dish. I find that this method makes her get riled up from the scent of it warming up and avoids accidentally cooking the fish somewhat if I had used hot water instead.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Shannon, what do have that eats chicks?

Where to start...

Olive python, Spilotes, blue beauty, cave dwelling rat, black tail cribos, all of my NA rat snakes, all of my carpet pythons, and a few other things I can't think of right now :)

I don't have anything that eat chicks exclusively, I just offer them alongside rodents as diversity... snakes LOVE chicks! And eggs too! So when I can get them, fresh eggs are readily eaten.

[Stefan-A]

Fish in cold water, mice in air (usually on an aquarium lamp or in a bag in warm water).

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Worm and fish in cold water I leave pinkies to thaw out on they'r own because for some reason she liked them better that way

[adamanteus]

Just left to thaw out naturally.

[chris-uk]

Pop pinkies and fish in a jar of warm water. Small pieces I thaw in the air. I've occasionally thawed whole pinkies in air, but that's been when I was trying different things with reluctant feeders.

[ChareiHeals]

Usually we defrost pinkies and fuzzies in a ziploc bag sitting in a bowl of hot water.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Fish in cold water, mice in air (usually on an aquarium lamp or in a bag in warm water).

If I had a small collection I would do my rodents this way. I thaw my fish in cold water, but I don't really have anywhere to lay out 70+ rodents and chicks until they have thawed... it would likely take up a space as large as our whole dining room table! I know some people who pull the rodents out of the freezer and put them into the fridge the night before, then when they get home from work the next day they are thaw. Again... I don't have anywhere in my fridge for all of those.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Worm and fish in cold water I leave pinkies to thaw out on they'r own because for some reason she liked them better that way

did I read this right? you freeze worms? and thaw them out? are they a gigantic pile of mush when they thaw? I have had worms accidentally freeze in the fridge and they turned to mush upon thawing.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

They stay intact when they thaw out every time. Ive only frozen worm bits,it may be a different story if I froze whole worms.

[Invisible Snake]

Usually we defrost pinkies and fuzzies in a ziploc bag sitting in a bowl of hot water.

I do the same thing with all my f/t rodent feeders. I recommend this to anyone who thaws out larger rodents because of the smell.

[infernalis]

Where to start...

Olive python, Spilotes, blue beauty, cave dwelling rat, black tail cribos, all of my NA rat snakes, all of my carpet pythons, and a few other things I can't think of right now :)

I don't have anything that eat chicks exclusively, I just offer them alongside rodents as diversity... snakes LOVE chicks! And eggs too! So when I can get them, fresh eggs are readily eaten.

That is so cool...

[chris-uk]

Shannon - do you feed egg to your garters? If so, how do you feed them eggs and what sort of eggs? I can't imagine that they'd manage anything bigger than quail eggs, so I'm guessing that your mention of eggs is for feeding your larger snakes.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Shannon - do you feed egg to your garters? If so, how do you feed them eggs and what sort of eggs? I can't imagine that they'd manage anything bigger than quail eggs, so I'm guessing that your mention of eggs is for feeding your larger snakes.

No eggs for garters... I have never had eggs small enough for them to eat! they are for all of the other snakes in my collection.


(http://iherp.com/Public/Animals/MembersAnimals.aspx?UserID=2e381da0-fd24-4f0e-aa12-5508db7a5c6b)

[chris-uk]

No eggs for garters... I have never had eggs small enough for them to eat! they are for all of the other snakes in my collection.
(http://iherp.com/Public/Animals/MembersAnimals.aspx?UserID=2e381da0-fd24-4f0e-aa12-5508db7a5c6b)

Thanks. On reflection I'm thinking that even quails eggs would be too large. Do the bigger snakes take the eggs whole, shell and all? I know some garters are quite opportunistic so they'd eat the right sized eggs if they came across them in the wild, right?

[ProXimuS]

I defrost pinkies and fish in about room temp water for my ribbon. And for Tallie I just cut hers up and drip water on it and let it sit for a few minutes, and it thaws out pretty quick.


Funny this was posted. I was talkin with my friend yesterday and we some how got on the subject of frozen pinkies. He says "Those little frozen baby mice are nasty. I used to feed them to my snake and they smell horrible when you dethaw them." I told him that's what I feed my snakes and they don't smell like anything.....Then I realized, and asked "How did you dethaw yours?" "Microwave..." NO WONDER! ICK! I don't even want to know what that smells like...

[-MARWOLAETH-]

LoL that reminds me of when someone posted on another forum,complaining that his snake's rats kept exploding when he was thawing them out in a bucket with water from the kettle...silly billy ;D

[Eddie]

I thaw all of my feeders directly in hot tap water for 2 reasons. 1 its fast and 2 when the snakes eat them warm they can start digestion faster.

[ConcinusMan]

I thaw my pinkies out in warm water. I like to give my snakes a warm meal and I think the thawed pinky absorbs some of the water it is thawed in. This helps to hydrate my snakes in a roundabout way. I also think the scent is greater on a wet mouse then a dry one which might help in a more aggressive feeding response.
Just my opinion.

How do you thaw your mice and why?

I put them in a bag and submerge that in warm water. But before I put them in the bag, I make a few small inscisions in the skin. This makes them leak some blood so the pinkies are wet when I offer them, but not wet from water. The blood sure seems to illicit a downright violent feeding response. I don't seem to get the same reaction if I soak them directly in water. In fact, if I do that, some of my snakes just ignore them. They like 'em bloody.

[Steveo]

I'm currently thawing some pinkies in a Ziploc bag with some silversides thrown in. After a few weeks without feeding rodents they need to be scented.

[Selkielass]

Warm water from the faucet, directly on the rodents and silversides.
my snakes seldom need scenting to encourage eating, but if they do I just drain off the warm water, drop a couple night crawlers in and swirl them around until everything is slimy. Worm sauce seems to be their favorite seasoning.

[Timsreptiles]

I heat up water in a kettle until hot but not boiling.

Fill an empty 2 litre used ice cream tub with the warm water and add the rodents.

Pinkies defrost in a few minutes max

Frozen fish get defrosted in a small plastic tub filled with warm water from the tap. They defrost in a few minutes.