Unintentionally thawed feeder mice.

[Tim Benzedrine]

In an all-to-typical misstep, I forgot to put a box of F/T mice back in the freezer and they sat out overnight, probably at least 16 hours. Naturally they thawed out. I stuck them back in the freezer to refreeze until I could figure out if they would be safe to feed to the rat snake. Thus this thread. If it is relatively safe, I'd like to use them, I didn't buy bulk so I paid the premium price associated with pet stores, roughly three bucks a mouse. iIdidn't notice a rotting smell, but they are individually sealed in little baggies, which I didn't think to open before putting them back in the freezer.

What do you folks think? Keep them or pitch them? Naturally, if I notice a rotten odor after I thaw one, I'd dispose of them, but if there is no odor would that mean there was no dangerous decomposition yet?

 

[Sentinel]

In an all-to-typical misstep, I forgot to put a box of F/T mice back in the freezer and they sat out overnight, probably at least 16 hours. Naturally they thawed out. I stuck them back in the freezer to refreeze until I could figure out if they would be safe to feed to the rat snake. Thus this thread. If it is relatively safe, I'd like to use them, I didn't buy bulk so I paid the premium price associated with pet stores, roughly three bucks a mouse. iIdidn't notice a rotting smell, but they are individually sealed in little baggies, which I didn't think to open before putting them back in the freezer.

What do you folks think? Keep them or pitch them? Naturally, if I notice a rotten odor after I thaw one, I'd dispose of them, but if there is no odor would that mean there was no dangerous decomposition yet?

I never use frozen, so I wouldn't know. My ball python starved for 3 months because the store I got her from lied about what she really was eating. She only ate live. So I only feed live.

I wouldn't say they're dangerous. You can try dipping them in warm chicken broth to make them more appealing.

 

[The Snark]

Very tough call. A foul smell is normally an indicator of anaerobic bacteria. But that isn't the only kind. Refreezing of edible products is generally considered a biological time bomb waiting to go off. Spores have been released and are in stasis waiting for an opportunity.
On the other paw, if your animal normally has carrion in it's diet this probably wouldn't matter.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Eh, I probably won't risk it then. It only amounts to about 14 bucks. 14 dollars is 14 dollars,but it isn't worth risking harming the snake and I'm more disgusted at losing food meaning I have to go replace them sooner than I had intended. I had intentionally stocked up on them to last me a little while as it can be a pain to go get them and I hate running out. Plus, i had decided to try large mice so i bought two boxes of them and two boxes of medium. The snake had no issues with the large, and so of course that would be the box I left out. Last yeasr I bought bulk from Loxahatchee Rodents. Some of them which I had to toss as well, but that wasn't my fault, the freezer went bad and they thawed unbeknownst to me. They would have been safe as they did not get warm, but have you ever had rodents that while they were vacuum packed? Disgusting. Anyway, there were only three left in the box out of 4 so it so I'm not really even out the full price, just 3/4 of it. (Of course at one large a week, that was nearly a month's supply, on the other hand)

 

[The Snark]

And of course you are assuming that the supply chain has carefully maintained their staying frozen. Taking into account shipping frozen goods costs up to 100 times ordinary shelved goods and relying on the product being unquestionably kept below freezing is a strong argument for buying live feeders and doing the job yourself.

As a foot note, you would not believe the debacle when our local city started offering imported frozen foods WITHOUT established refer trucks, refrigerated storage and logistics. The Ben and Jerry's ice cream I wanted to give my wife for a special treat could only be called a science project. Not a question of maintaining temperature but how many times it had been thawed and refrozen.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Yeah, that's an area that I just have to try to take in good faith. Next spring, I think I'll buy bulk again. I trust the supplier, last time the mice arrived packed in dry ice and solid as a rock. It would have been fine if my stupid freezer had not broken down. I ended up saving nothing on that little venture. but if the freezer had not have broken, I'd have paid a little less than half the pet-store price, including shipping..

 

[The Snark]

Ah yes. Takes me back to the olde screwe upe daze at Caltech: Toddle on over to the gas place and grab a couple of bottles of liquid N, hit the convenience store for an assortment of styrofoam cooler boxes and get back in say, 10 minutes?

If they came packed in dry ice the company is doing it right.