I've spent about an hour searching this forum in case someone's already asked, but I can't find my 'problem' discussed. Maybe I'm using the wrong search words, so here goes.
I bough some hoppers on Sunday. The trouble is they are frozen into a solid chunk of mouse meat. I noticed they were all crunched at the bottom of the bag (vacuum sealed) when I bought them but it never dawned on me that they'd be impossible to separate.
Is there some trick to doing this? I've considered thawing them until I could separate them but then refreezing them seems risky, so I eliminated that option. There are a couple of them at the top of the pile that I could pull off, just their tails popped off but most of the hopper is intact.
Also, there is an awful lot of blood in the bag, something new for me. No other frozen pinkies or fuzzies I've bought so far had any blood seepage. Is this normal, or does this suggest that maybe they were thawed previously? If freezing weakens the cell structure, having them thaw out in the bag could explain the blood. They were vacuum sealed, so does that cut down on spoillage or should they be pitched in this case? When I got them they weren't frozen rock hard, but still 'crispy'. I kept them in a cooler all day wedged between 2 ice packs. They didn't seem any softer by the time I got home than when I got them.
I've still got a few days before feeding day, so there's time to get new ones if there's a chance these might be risky to feed.
Thanks
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