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I know ya'll will hate me for this but I have been feeding stunned mice to my boa. She is about 2 foot now and now eating small mice, I'm now ready to make the change to frozen/thawed. My question is how long and what method do you recommend for thawing the mice out? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
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Re: how long to thaw?
HI,
I usally thaw in warm water in the sink, this take about 30 40 mins depending on the size of the rat Iam usally thawing large to very large rats.
SOme people thaw in baggies to prevent that rat smell from being washed off thsi can add thaw time but some fussy snake require the rat smell.
You should try also to convert you snake to rat products more protien for the buck and will improve the growth and health of your snake. Excellent your planning to convert . remember any fresh killed rodents mayhave transfered some parasites to your snake so have a stool checked after you convert to fresh thawed by a good reptile vet. The care sheets have numerous suggestion about converting to fresh thawed.
I usally buy all rodents online from a reptuable rodent breeder they are always fresh and clean looking animals that have been feed the best possible rodent food. and for the large aniamls they cost about 1/2 the price in a reptile pet store.
doug
[ftp]http://www.redtailboas.com/carelinks/index.html[/ftp]
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Re: how long to thaw?
Thx Doug, the only problem is I don't think she's quit big enough to eat a rat yet. I've seen the rat pinkies and they are still to big. But I promise as soon as she is big enough she will be eating rats.Comment
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Re: how long to thaw?
HI,
I always start all baby boa's on pinky rats they can handle it, after acouple days the bulge will go down
here's a baby I bought from clay and he started on almost fuzzy rat pups.
same guy after his first small rat,
the bulge you see goes down in three days I never hold any of my boa's for a couple days after feeding.
same guy more recent he easily handles one med rat a feeding.
he has never had mice only rats. and rat pups fuzzy and pinky rats .
Check the care sheet's most boa a pretty easily converted to rat products your food item should be only slightly wider than thickest part of the snake.. I usally go up alittle during that growth phase if they tolerate the food, feedings are timed and recorded on 3/5 cards this boa ate 3/14/03 1 Med rat.. I have records on all my boas back to purchase date.. The older your boa is the less frequently you should feed the boa.
My sub adult guyana's only eat around once a month.
Good luck post a pic of your baby.
doug
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Re: how long to thaw?
Just a thought on the thawing of rodents. Make sure they are completly thawed before you feed. They should not be cold to the touch at all, in other words if you hold it and can still feel cold eminating from the rat it is not thawed enough yet. If you feed uncompletly thawed rodents it can cause reguritation. By the way good job on converting to F/T rodents.
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Re: how long to thaw?
Thx Doug, here is a pic, although not to clear, to show you how big she is. She is next to a quarter. She is about 4 and 1/2 months old and about 22 inches long. Let me know if you still think she could handle a rat pup or pinky.Comment
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Re: how long to thaw?
she probably could handle the rat my baby is 30 inches long and she can gulp down a pretty good sized meal lol if i can only get the lil turkey to eat the dang thing after i spend forever thawing it lmao i tried everything on all the care sheets and in the books , guess my baby is stubborn just like her mommy heheComment
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Re: how long to thaw?
I don't know if there are boa, colombians that is that are born too small for a pinky rat...
Eric aka...redComment
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Re: how long to thaw?
HI,
Be sure her first thawed rat food item is warm it shoudl feel like body temp. They respond to heat almost as much as smell..
She's a cutie pie.. good luck it nice to see concerned owners.
hey visit some of my kids i have an album on the this forum under dougs kids. :
.
DougComment
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