exploding rats

Hey all,

I would like some comments on your past experience with rats busting open when feeding !!!!!

in all my years I've had it happen a few times and I just hate it when it does... I was sure I knew why it did that, but had it happen again on the week end ??

a little history

back when I only had a few snakes, I would just toss them in hot water and dry them up before feeding.
never had a problem with this way other than drying some rats isn't fun..
then as the collection grew, I started using zip lock bags, keeps the rats dry and they smell more like a rat than one who just took a bath :-D always went well this way too. And no rat soup to deal with

then I tried what some do and leave the rats at room temps for while early in the evening and them just warming them up in hot water a few minutes before feeding.
Well!!! this way of doing had almost every rats rip apart when the snakes squeezes them
my taught were, the gas builds up in them too much and this happens. so I never tried that again. went back to the zip lock bags and lived happily ever after >>
so I taught, on the week end I had a few rip apart from the zip lock method..
they were defrosted in the same way as always..

hot tap water, rats in the bag, remove excess air in bag, submerge bags..
after a while I change water and flip the bags.. then feed once they are nice and warm/defrosted...

why else would you think this can happen...?

I got my latest rats from the same supplier and the quality is top notch..!!! is it possible that they thawed out and got frozen again, would that cause this to happen ??
or is it just something that happens here and there and not much can be done about it .

ohh and the smell :-( not fun at all, most of the time when this happens , the snakes won't eat the rat..

thanks for sharing

steph

I've only had it happen once and it was because I thawed them in water that was way too hot (I thaw in zip bags, in Tupperware in the tub). I still thaw the same but don't use very hot water anymore, it's now on the high end of lukewarm.

thanks April, That makes sense..
I also put the bags in a Rubbermaid tub but I use straight hot tap water.. far from boiling but still quite hot... that could very well be a reason why some do that.. I will tone down the hot water, maybe that would do the trick, would take a little longer to thaw out but if it avoids dealing with that stinky smell of rat guts all over the cage,, because when that happens, I have ne choice but to fully clean the cage. I wouldn't want my snake to smell that all night... it soooo awful..

Yeah that should do the trick and it will take a little longer but not too bad. I also found flipping them and refilling the water more often thaws them out faster.

It is awful, one of my boas was half way through swallowing when the rat popped so she had guts hanging out her mouth and ug! it was disgusting!

I just had this happen ... the rat was never frozen, it was PK ... blood everywhere, good thing my dumerils ate it.