Seriously gross. What's causing this? (Graphic picture)

[Tiny Boidae]

This is a first for me. I got a month's worth of mice for my animals and they didn't look terrible when I got them. There was no blood on them and the limbs were intact. It wasn't even obvious when they were frozen, but as I started to thaw a few out for feeding I noticed they all had disgusting abscess that goes straight through the body cavity. Blood and guts were everywhere and they smelled terrible. Needless to say, I didn't feed them off. But I did thaw out the rest of my package and out of 15 mice, 9 of them had this. And it's not like they were all the same age either. Out of them, I had fuzzies, hoppers, and small adults. This abscess was present in all of them. I threw out all the bad ones and I'm changing where I get my feeders, but does anyone have an idea what's going on? Because I don't.

http://i67.tinypic.com/ehd4zb.jpg

[Scubadiver59]

Who is your source to begin with?

[Tiny Boidae]

Oh sorry. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, but I'd gotten these mice from a local pet store. It's a Feeder's Supply.

Edit: I also should add that I've bought my feeders from them for about 4 years and this is the first time this has happened.

[REM955]

I will make a guess: Decomposition.
I don't know if all the breaking down inside the rodent is enough to cause enough gas to explode through broken down tissue, but mom mentioned something like that happening in her time as a paramedic. I think. Fuzzy memory.

[Tiny Boidae]

This was a brilliant moment on my part. I think this was entirely my fault. I usually thaw them by just setting them out for a few hours, but very recently I began putting them in hot water to thaw. I didn't think the water temperature really mattered, but a short Google search told me otherwise. My bad, carry on with your day. Nothing to see here.

[Minkness]

My pinkies and fuzzies always do this...what does water temp have to do with it?

[Tiny Boidae]

I googled various answers and they said various things about water temperature. I didn't really put much thought into it- I just put hot water from the faucet in a cup with them. It's just never happened to me before, not even with the fuzzies and the adult mice did it too.

[TRD]

I use hot water too, just from the tab... never saw anything even remotely close to this.

[Scubadiver59]

Mind you I've only been doing this for about eight weeks now:

1. I thaw in the fridge
2. Bring to room temp (75F)
3. Heat to 105F
4. Deliver to snakes

Steps 1-3 are just like preparing any steak, filet mignon for me, but the rest only pertains to the snakes!

Only time I've had a near burst, or a "fall apart at the seams", was when I left it in the zip-lock bag for an extended period of time. Then it left a snail trail when the snake took it, but it still took it!

[Andy_G]

I use hot water too, just from the tab... never saw anything even remotely close to this.

Same here.

[GyGbeetle]

How hot is your tap water? I use hot water from the tap, and this has never happened to me. Holy cow! Or holy rats!

[MM1]

Yeah that's never happened to me. My guess would be they weren't handled properly before getting to you.

[Tiny Boidae]

How hot is your tap water? I use hot water from the tap, and this has never happened to me. Holy cow! Or holy rats!

It went up to 132*F when I measured it. I mean I was planning on ordering online soon anyways, I guess I'll just start doing that from now on and hope this doesn't happen again.

[dannybgoode]

I looks as though perhaps an air pocket has heated and expanded and blown out.

I used too hot a water once and it cooked the mouse so now just thaw out at room temperature and then run under the tap to heat for those snakes that prefer warm prey.

[SnoopySnake]

I also use hot water, never had this happen. Closest thing to it was me forgetting a rat in water...come back a few hours later and picked it up and my finger went through its stomach. :sorry: Could they possibly have been thawed and refrozen?

[Tiny Boidae]

Could they have been rethawed? It's possible. Did I? No. I never refreeze my rodents. If someone doesn't eat, they go to someone else. Lately it's been the rat snake. I'm kind of thinking that Danny's right, but I'm going to be switching my supplier regardless.

[dannybgoode]

I'm cautious when it comes to food and even if I've accidentally let them thaw I don't even re-freeze, I chuck them out. Now this may be being over careful but I prefer not to take the chance. With prey looking like yours the whole lot would go.

That said I'm lucky that I have a reliable local store so don't have to worry a out things like shopping adding to the costs.

[Tiny Boidae]

I threw out all the ones that exploded and fed off the good ones. This is really the only one of two local suppliers that I have (the other being PetSmart) and it's been hit or miss. They often run out of certain sizes so when I get the mice, I've been handed bags with bloody mice covered with feces before. It's just frustrating really.

[SnoopySnake]

Do you have enough snakes that it'd be worth it to buy online in bulk?

[Aaron_S]

I googled various answers and they said various things about water temperature. I didn't really put much thought into it- I just put hot water from the faucet in a cup with them. It's just never happened to me before, not even with the fuzzies and the adult mice did it too.

Try a microwave next time ;)

I also use hot water, never had this happen. Closest thing to it was me forgetting a rat in water...come back a few hours later and picked it up and my finger went through its stomach. :sorry: Could they possibly have been thawed and refrozen?

My guess is the supplier either had someone return them thawed or accidentally thawed them and then refroze them. I think it's a one off incident.


I threw out all the ones that exploded and fed off the good ones. This is really the only one of two local suppliers that I have (the other being PetSmart) and it's been hit or miss. They often run out of certain sizes so when I get the mice, I've been handed bags with bloody mice covered with feces before. It's just frustrating really.

Yeah I can understand the frustration. Finding a good supplier is really tough! I would talk to the supplier of these ones and see if they are willing to comp part of the order or give you a new one for free. I think it's a one off event.

[Tiny Boidae]

It wouldn't surprise me honestly. They ship their rodents in every Tuesday so it's very possible for them to have thawed during shipping and then be refrozen. I'd like to be able to discuss this with someone there, but unfortunately I didn't think to keep the receipt and what I can do without it is limited.

I'll glance around at different websites to see if the prices won't send me through the roof. There's also a reptile show in Indiana that I sometimes go to. I'm thinking I might ask some of the vendors there if they know someone who's more reliable... And local. When I lived in Texas, I used to go to repti-con and a few others and this one isn't even close to the size of those, but I see a lot of the same places everytime so I'm sure most of them are local breeders.

[jay's reptiles]

i thaw mine out in hot tap water. the tap water is about 134 degrees when hot. i have never had this happen!

[Tiny Boidae]

i thaw mine out in hot tap water. the tap water is about 134 degrees when hot. i have never had this happen!

I went back for more mice last week to hold me over until I decide who and where to get different mice from. The mice were cold, but pliable. It might sound like I'm lying, but it reminded me of when I got the last package of mice and the adults were the same. Soft and not frozen. So these were definitely refreezed. The hot water was probably just the match that lit the fuse.

[ttreptile1]

The only time I ever saw this was when a friend was heating his with water from a water cooler hot side. Happened every time. I just use hot tap and slow thaw.

[sattva]

Wow... I thaw mine out to room temperature, then bring water to almost boiling in the microwave, drop them, and the bag their in, into the water for 10 minutes...Living in California, I have a drought mind, so I can't in good conscious run the water until it gets hot... Most of my guys leave a little blood on the paper towels but I never had one do this... :eek:

[Albert Clark]

Yep! Over cooked and almost boiled. I still would go to a different supplier anyways.

[toddnbecka]

I put my frozen rodents in a plastic Chinese takeout food tub, run some hot water into the sink, and float the tub there to thaw/warm them up more quickly and effectively.

[SerpentineDream]

Try a microwave next time ;)

When I was brand new to keeping snakes I did this once. Just once.

It looked like a particularly gruesome death scene from the "Alien" movie franchise had taken place inside the microwave. :shocked: *That* was fun to clean up. Not.

I agree that something's up with those rodents. I always thaw them by dropping them in hot tap water and have never seen that happen.

[Aaron_S]

When I was brand new to keeping snakes I did this once. Just once.

It looked like a particularly gruesome death scene from the "Alien" movie franchise had taken place inside the microwave. :shocked: *That* was fun to clean up. Not.

I agree that something's up with those rodents. I always thaw them by dropping them in hot tap water and have never seen that happen.


Yeah I did the microwave thing once too BUT I was a young kid like age 12 and my mom made me put the mouse into a microwaveable container. I only had to throw that out instead of clean the whole thing.

[ThirteenRavens]

I've had this happen a few times...when I was using the microwave to heat up the water (sans mouse) instead of just using super hot tap water...it is disgusting and didn't take long to realize what the problem was. Have since just been using "as hot as it will get" tap water and no more issues of exploding mice!

[dannybgoode]

Now we have a Aga defrosting is a cinch. There's always somewhere in the kitchen at just the right temperature :)