Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

[clone]

"One disadvantage of frozen prey should be mentioned: Vitamins are lost in the freezing process. It is therefore necessary to add a vitamine supplement occasionally"

I got this from boa-constrictors.com husbandry section. If this is true than our boas are at a disadvantage because I have never had to inject vitamins into a rat and I don't plan to either. I might go back to pre killed just to get her the vitamins she needs.

[s-king]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

I inject one of my boas vitamin supplament (prekilled rats) about once amonth. You have to be carefull though cuz some vitamins such as v. K are harmfull in heavy dooses to a snakes liver.

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

I've never heard about that. Should I be doing injections? I want the best for my babies, I don't want to deprive them of anything that they may need.

[clone]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

Now we're stuck between a rock and a hard place: feed pre killed and risk parasites or feed frozen/thawed with no vitamins in it.

[SLAponte]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

Wouldn't it be enough to stick a multi-vit inside a mouse/rat once a (period of time), dosage depending on size of snake??

Clay, Lori, any info around on vitamine dosage? I know there is info around for Iguanas, because they need Calcium and other suplements regularly. I saw somewhere that the Centrum pills cold be broken/powdered into their food. But this is Iggys, don't know about snakes...

[clone]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

This same website states that you should get a syringe and inject couple of drops of liquid multivitamins in the rat occasionally.

[Doug]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

HI,
 I read the same post in Germany some time ago, and here's my thoughts on this concept, if freezing destroyed vitamins in food thoses vitamin  companies would go nuts telling everyone they need to take their vitamins to replace ones lost in food and I haven't even heard anything about this here.
 How does he know that freezing is destroying vitamins how much ?? most test to measure vitamins and such would require so much processing to measure them you may lose vitamins in the process.
 I do know this many boa breeders feed thawed rats and have never offered any additional vitamins.  Most good rat breeders feed high grade rat food and I have seen improvment in my boa's from eating fresh thawed from rodent pro farms. The rats are healthier looking clean free of urine stains,clean healthy looking fur, (humane death) no bloody noses and broken necks..
 My snakes are growing like weeds on less food and feeding frequency.. so know your rodent sources are feeding quality food and I think you're  Snakes are going to be in excelent health free of parasites..
  doug
 

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

To many people feed frozen/thawed rats to their snakes and have perfectly healthy and parasite free snakes for me to believe that enough vitamins are lost to worry about(that is if any vitamins are lost at all).

[clone]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

Doug, I think you're right. So many people grow large and healthy boas with frozen thawed rodents without adding any vitamins.

[s-king]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

I LOOK AT IT THIS WAY I WAS TOLD BUY A PROFFESINAL BREEDER HE NOTICES A PRETTY COAT GIVING SUPPLIMENTS. ALSO ASK YOURSELF THIS WHERE R U GETTING YOU RATS? FROM A PET STORE THATS WERE I GET MINE. AND I KNOW DARN WELL THAT SOME OF THE RAS I GET HAVE PROBBABLY BEEN IN THE FREZZER AWHILE SO I GIVE VITS. EVRY MONT. i ALSO KNOW FOR A FACT FROM MY VET I CONFIDE IN THAT CEARTAIN SUPPLIMENTS ARE BAD ON A SNAKES KIDNEYS. VITAMIN K AND SOME OTHERS I HAVE THEM WRIITIN DOWN SOME PLACE. MY 2 CENTS STEVE

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

??? I don't know, my snakes seem pretty healthy. The vet that I go to have said the same thing. All of rats come from the local petco in my area. What type of vitamin supplement should I get. I use to use reptivit, but that was just a powder and created such a mess when I sprinkled it on the rats. So I stopped using it. Plus they seemed to ignore the rats when I put that on the them. I haven't seen any liquid vitamins to inject into the rats. So, I have to ask the same as SLAponte, Lori or Clay, do you have any input on this subject?

[Doug]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

HI,
 Well this is a question worth some thought, the one thing that worries me about vitamin supplements is how is the snake going to deal with any excesses, most human's loose vitamins in  their urine because many vitamins are water soluable,take to much and you have a bright yellow urine for a few hours, now them snakes tend to hold that water,will they also retain excesses or will their organs be forced to process them into some type of salt and is this healthy for a snake.?? so if you must use supplements I would try to skip loading  a feeding every other feeding  to be sure your not overloading the animal with vitamins , many can be toxic.. there's proably not , a lot of research in reptile metabolism of different vitamins and excretion..
Maybe you should post this question to the source in Germany that reccomended you do this and try and follow his doasage and specific types of vitamins. I would avoid excesses in Vit A, and some B complexes they can have toxic effects rather quickly.. And dosages per weight is critical more isn't always better.
doug

[clone]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

I contacted Kevin at rodentpro and he said frozen prey animals that stay frozen over a long period of time (9 months or longer) will eventually lose vitamins so we have nothing to worry about. Thats why they say to order only 6 month supply of rodents at a time.

[PythonTamer]

Re: Frozen/thawed rodents lose vitamins?!?!

It should be mentioned, when rodents are 'vaccum sealed' they maintain their integrity for a much longer period than non-vaccum sealed.
PT