freezing rats, or throw them out?

[smeagel]

OK, a rather large wild rat somehow got into my rat shed, and chewed through the screen into one of my breeding colonys. There was a fight and all 3 females and my pne male were injured. I had to put all of them down. My question is, is it safe to freeze them and use them as feeders, or should i throw them out just in case the wild rat had some kind of a diseese or sickness, or will the freezing get rid of that?

[Davey312]

personaly i think if there was anything transmited threw the wild rat that freezing your rats would take care of it.. so im assuming that it would be alright to use them as feeders...

Davey

[Bartman]

Yea ive read and been told that freezing kills off pretty much anything harmful.

[Andy_G]

I wouldn't risk it. Freezing doesn't kill everything.

[smeagel]

OK, well i'm not sure if it is worth the risk, but i'll wait till i get some more answers before i do anything. Thanks to everyone that has answered me so far though, i appreciate it.

[mark129er]

For the cost of a few rats versus a trip to the vet if your snake gets sick I say throw the rats away.

Better to be safe than sorry.

[Linds]

I don't *think* anything would be problematic, but again I'm really not 100% certain. A good rule is that when in doubt, then don't ;)

Originally posted by Bartman
Yea ive read and been told that freezing kills off pretty much anything harmful.

Freezing is most effective at killing some (not all) parasites, but that's it. Parasites aren't much of a concern anyways, as they aren't the usually the kind that are capable of infesting your snakes. It doesn't kill bacteria (labs actually store bacteria in feezers) amongst some other things that can be present in living organisms.

[Phrasty]

Agree with Linds.. parasites are one thing but what differs with the wild rat in addition to the parasites is the bacteria its carrying....not worth it IMHO, throw em out and buy a couple more and get thicker screening ;)

btw sorry to hear about all that. that sux.

[smeagel]

thanks guys. i'll throw them out.

[RepTylE]

For peace of mind it is probably worth throwing them away as wasteful as that may seem. Who knows what that wild rat might have been into before it attacked your breeders