wasted food

[Hollis_Steed]

Any suggestions on how to freeze small portions? When i thaw out what i think the gang might eat today...and then when none of them are hungry...I end up throwing out perfectly good food. I'm thinking if I knew someway to freeze individual portions I might not waste so much. Or, is it advisable to "refreeze" the food that has not been eaten? I'm open for any and all suggestions.

[Eddie]

Do not re-freeze!
Ed

[mustang]

dont refreez? when checker dosnt eat his pinky i re freez it and thaw it out later when hes hungry...i see no prob with re freezing

[Charis]

What are you feeding? If I'm feeding fish fillets, I'll cut them up into little strips & put about one portion in some little ziploc bags that I get at the craft store, beads or things are supposed to go in them. Then I wrap all of the baggies up in tin foil & stick them in the freezer. Then at feeding time I can just thaw out one or two little baggies. Depending on how big an item is & how long it has been unfrozen, sometimes it is okay to refreeze things, but since it is hard to know when something is still good, it isn't recommended to do it at all. Like sometimes I'll buy frozen tilapia (sp?) fillets & will mostly thaw them so they can be cut up into strips & individually repackaged & refrozen, but the fillets are never completely thawed before they go back in the freezer. Fish seems to spoil faster than mice too. I think garters most have a pretty good sense about when carrion is okay to eat or not. If the fish gets to room temp, my garters will refuse to eat it. It has to still be fairly cold.

[Hollis_Steed]

I'm feeding silversides, chopped fresh trout, and night crawlers. I've run out of frozen pinkies but should have a delivery of more on Friday.
Good idea about the small baggies from a craft store. that may be just the thing to use to put individual portions in the freezer. Thanks for the idea!

What are you feeding? If I'm feeding fish fillets, I'll cut them up into little strips & put about one portion in some little ziploc bags that I get at the craft store, beads or things are supposed to go in them. Then I wrap all of the baggies up in tin foil & stick them in the freezer. Then at feeding time I can just thaw out one or two little baggies. Depending on how big an item is & how long it has been unfrozen, sometimes it is okay to refreeze things, but since it is hard to know when something is still good, it isn't recommended to do it at all. Like sometimes I'll buy frozen tilapia (sp?) fillets & will mostly thaw them so they can be cut up into strips & individually repackaged & refrozen, but the fillets are never completely thawed before they go back in the freezer. Fish seems to spoil faster than mice too. I think garters most have a pretty good sense about when carrion is okay to eat or not. If the fish gets to room temp, my garters will refuse to eat it. It has to still be fairly cold.

[Charis]

Yeah, the baggies come in about 7 sizes, the smallest is about 1" by 1". That is the size I use for my babies but there are bigger ones that would work for an adult portion. The baggies are usually somewhere around $1 to $3 for about 100 of them.

[ConcinusMan]

That would work^^^. I do occasionally refreeze pinkies on the rare occasion that my snakes refuse them. As long as they aren't thawed for longer than 15 minutes or so, I just refreeze them, no biggie. With fish, I take out just a little at a time, if they eat it all, I take out a bit more. I do not refreeze fish, I just throw it out.

[oki-inu]

If the fish gets to room temp, my garters will refuse to eat it. It has to still be fairly cold.

I don't have any experience feeding frozen food to garters, but that is not what I would have expected to hear. I was thinking at least room temp, if not a bit more, but maybe that's just my boa experience.

I guess, thinking about it, fish are not usually warm like mammals, so it makes sense.

[ConcinusMan]

My garters don't seem to care either way. They'll eat them while still fairly cold, or room temp. However you serve them, make darn sure they are thawed all the way through. If you don't, it can be fatal.

[drache]

sometimes I just refrigerate defrosted food for a day or two and offer it again. I don't refreeze because I think the back and forth turns the cell fibers to mush.