to feed pet store mice...or wait for the frozen?

[escm]

its time for my ball to eat again...he last ate last monday and hes a hungry lil fellow. I just ordered some rat pups from rodentpro.com. I would have ordered them sooner but I had planned on just picking up a pet sotre mice for this week. When it came down to it I just couldn't bring myself to buy a pet store mice. They had what seemed like hundreds of these mice in one 10G tank. who knows what kinda funky diseases could be floatin around in there...I would hate to feed my snake a funkified mice...but now I have a bit of dilema: could I wait another few days for the rats to get here or should I bite the bullet and feed him the mice so he doesnt go hungry and risk some sort of sick mice infecting my baby?

[Linds]

Well, the good thing about funky rodent diseases, is that for the most part they are host specific, which means your snake can't catch them. If you are worried about them carrying a heavy parasite load, freeze them overnight, that will rid the host of any undesirable guests :)

[Dom]

As for waiting a few days .. I doubt it will be a problem .. I am sure yur ball can wait a bit ..

The question is, can you? lol

[escm]

hmmm well Im thinking if I wait he'll be good and hungry for his first ever f/t meal....first ever rat for that matter. Hes a good eater so Im not to worried about the switch to f/t but getting him good and hungry couldn't hurt. If the rodentpro shipment seems like it will take more than 3/4 days Ill just whack a petstore mice and freeze him (THANKS LINDS!!!). thanks for the help guys!

[Lisa]

i wouldn't worry about a week. or even 2.