For warming, after thawing in refrigerator, I use a large crock pot, controlled by a thermostat, not the one on the appliance, but a temperature one that the probe is in the water. I keep the constant temp about 110*F. Individual bags are used with the snake names on them and the correct amount of food per meal. I of course rotate scheduled feeding frequency.
Thank you for including all the little details, that truly helps. I'll be getting some pinky mice for my female bearded dragon today, she's starting to lay eggs for the first time since I've had her. I'm thrilled that she is healthy enough, so pinky mice are in order!
We are happy to help. We generally feed our breeding female beardies “velvet rats”. They are half way between a pinky and fuzzy rat. The extra size and extra fat keeps the female from becoming depleted and emaciated. Congratulations on the first clutch. Is this the first time that you’ve bred bearded dragons?
@@CookiesCritters This is a female that I adopted/rescued in January, she's 4.5 years old, and has had several rounds of antibiotics in order to reach good health. So these eggs are her first clutch with me, and a cause for celebration that her health is good enough to even have eggs, so I'm thrilled!
@@CookiesCritters The first 3 bacteria that showed up were klebsiella, aeromonas, enterococc - if you look those up, those are from either stagnate water or the human sinus-digestive tract (little kids had her before me, and they aren't always clean, god bless 'em), and then pseudomona showed up, which is from dirt. I had a great vet who did the swab and sent that off, so the right meds were chosen. It has been an ordeal!
@@DoubleDragonHotel that’s the biggest hurdle right there. Finding a vet that understands reptiles can be difficult. I’m glad your little one has recovered 👍 thank you for sharing your experience with us.
I learned the hard way that, especially mice, if defrosted too long (as lot of people suggest overnight defrosting in the fridge) tend to eviscerate/disembowel under the pressure of any constructive feeding. Your method, the same method I use, ensures the whole prey item gets to temp quickly and reduces time for any abdominal expansion/weakening from any remnant gut flora. I really like storing my meal item batches in freezer bags, placed in air tight borosilicate (oven-rated) glass containers. It really keeps down the chances of sublimation and freezer burn. At the very least keeps errant odours at bay, either way. Your tip to use a spare bay in your rack to maintain water temp is brilliant. Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to give us some feedback. We really appreciate it. In the past I’m sure we are guilty of overheating small mice and pinky rats. It’s not a pleasant experience having a rodent explode everywhere. What snakes do you own?
@@CookiesCritters I love the content: Particularly the Beardie content. There's just so much chaff and regurgitation of out-dated or just outright incorrect information about such a common species. I suppose the licensing system over there in Oz keeps the barrier to entry slightly higher, but that's just my, an outsider's, perspective. I've stuck to Boidae but Carpets seem to call out to me.
@@ALAPINO unfortunately our licensing doesn’t restrict ownership to competent keepers. In fact, some states you don’t even need a license for some species. The biggest restriction to our licensing is no exotic species can be kept only natives. What carpet python would you own if you could?
@@CookiesCritters Oh, my. That's unfortunate. Honestly, it's one of the only group of Pythons where they are all appealing to me. Not really a morph person, I'm a big fan of wild phenotypes. If I had to pick, I.J.s and Jungles, of course the most expensive subspecies in my area especially with COVID eliminating reptile conventions.
Where do I put the frozen rat/mice? My family definitely don’t want them in the freezer where we put our food, so I don’t know where I should put them if I ever buy some, should I get a mini freezer perhaps?
I use a large chest freezer to store my rodents. My wife would kill me if I put it in the kitchen freezer. I would definitely recommend a small seperate freezer just for the rodents. Otherwise a dark container to hide them in the freezer 😂
The question I have that nobody seems to detail is if you buy a bulk amount of frozen mice/rats. How do you properly remove 1 from the vacuum sealed bag? Do you just snap it off from the batch and grab them as you go? Cuz if you thaw 50 mice from the vacuum shipping bag, separate them into smaller ziploc bags, can you refreeze them again? I heard that once thawed, you cant refreeze cuz bacteria starts to grow
That was a great video my albino carpet never strikes have to leave the rat in there until he wants to eat it he use to strike than all of a sudden nothing it’s sometime annoying cause sometimes he won’t eat but sometimes he will and tips on that
@@jasonrussell6461 thanks for the details mate. It sounds like he is possibly refusing his feed because the frequency is too quick. An animal his size could easily go 3-4 weeks between a feed.
I would like to know how do they kill the rodent. I always thought that they just Stick them in the freezer when they're alive. Or Electrocuted them. Because they cant Kill them any other way to be used for animal food.
Rodents are gased with carbon dioxide. CO2 removes the oxygen and puts the rodents to sleep. Eventually the lack of oxygen will euthanise the rodents. This is painless and the most humane way to do it.
Food prep laws vary by area wildly. Most prey item breeders I know out in my area (North America, east). Use oxygen displacement using an inert gas. Some I know use Carbon Dioxide, which I disagree with as CO2 has environmental implications. The Nitrogen method seems to be conceptually acceptable but I don't seem to see people it. I suspect most small breeders just freeze them.
@@ALAPINO in Australia most small rodent breeders will euthanise their stock with CO2 as it is easy to obtain. Nitrogen would be for larger commercial operations. We would never support breeders who are freezing their rodents alive.
This is actually pretty sad to watch. I wonder how the mouse got killed did they just put him in the freezer or did they straight up killed him? Still sad
Amazing video, think this guy should be way more popular. We need more Aussie reptile youtubers like this guy!
For warming, after thawing in refrigerator, I use a large crock pot, controlled by a thermostat, not the one on the appliance, but a temperature one that the probe is in the water. I keep the constant temp about 110*F. Individual bags are used with the snake names on them and the correct amount of food per meal. I of course rotate scheduled feeding frequency.
Thank you for including all the little details, that truly helps. I'll be getting some pinky mice for my female bearded dragon today, she's starting to lay eggs for the first time since I've had her. I'm thrilled that she is healthy enough, so pinky mice are in order!
We are happy to help. We generally feed our breeding female beardies “velvet rats”. They are half way between a pinky and fuzzy rat. The extra size and extra fat keeps the female from becoming depleted and emaciated.
Congratulations on the first clutch. Is this the first time that you’ve bred bearded dragons?
@@CookiesCritters This is a female that I adopted/rescued in January, she's 4.5 years old, and has had several rounds of antibiotics in order to reach good health. So these eggs are her first clutch with me, and a cause for celebration that her health is good enough to even have eggs, so I'm thrilled!
@@DoubleDragonHotel were the antibiotics to combat an excessive parasite load, coccidia or flagellates?
@@CookiesCritters The first 3 bacteria that showed up were klebsiella, aeromonas, enterococc - if you look those up, those are from either stagnate water or the human sinus-digestive tract (little kids had her before me, and they aren't always clean, god bless 'em), and then pseudomona showed up, which is from dirt. I had a great vet who did the swab and sent that off, so the right meds were chosen. It has been an ordeal!
@@DoubleDragonHotel that’s the biggest hurdle right there. Finding a vet that understands reptiles can be difficult. I’m glad your little one has recovered 👍 thank you for sharing your experience with us.
Thank you for the time and thoroughness you put in these videos they are really helpful for new keepers.
I learned the hard way that, especially mice, if defrosted too long (as lot of people suggest overnight defrosting in the fridge) tend to eviscerate/disembowel under the pressure of any constructive feeding.
Your method, the same method I use, ensures the whole prey item gets to temp quickly and reduces time for any abdominal expansion/weakening from any remnant gut flora.
I really like storing my meal item batches in freezer bags, placed in air tight borosilicate (oven-rated) glass containers. It really keeps down the chances of sublimation and freezer burn. At the very least keeps errant odours at bay, either way.
Your tip to use a spare bay in your rack to maintain water temp is brilliant.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to give us some feedback. We really appreciate it. In the past I’m sure we are guilty of overheating small mice and pinky rats. It’s not a pleasant experience having a rodent explode everywhere.
What snakes do you own?
@@CookiesCritters I love the content: Particularly the Beardie content. There's just so much chaff and regurgitation of out-dated or just outright incorrect information about such a common species. I suppose the licensing system over there in Oz keeps the barrier to entry slightly higher, but that's just my, an outsider's, perspective.
I've stuck to Boidae but Carpets seem to call out to me.
@@ALAPINO unfortunately our licensing doesn’t restrict ownership to competent keepers. In fact, some states you don’t even need a license for some species.
The biggest restriction to our licensing is no exotic species can be kept only natives.
What carpet python would you own if you could?
@@CookiesCritters Oh, my. That's unfortunate.
Honestly, it's one of the only group of Pythons where they are all appealing to me. Not really a morph person, I'm a big fan of wild phenotypes. If I had to pick, I.J.s and Jungles, of course the most expensive subspecies in my area especially with COVID eliminating reptile conventions.
@@ALAPINO my next snakes need to be morelia imbricata. I love the pattern and the contrast of colour. 👍
Where do I put the frozen rat/mice? My family definitely don’t want them in the freezer where we put our food, so I don’t know where I should put them if I ever buy some, should I get a mini freezer perhaps?
I use a large chest freezer to store my rodents. My wife would kill me if I put it in the kitchen freezer.
I would definitely recommend a small seperate freezer just for the rodents. Otherwise a dark container to hide them in the freezer 😂
The question I have that nobody seems to detail is if you buy a bulk amount of frozen mice/rats. How do you properly remove 1 from the vacuum sealed bag? Do you just snap it off from the batch and grab them as you go?
Cuz if you thaw 50 mice from the vacuum shipping bag, separate them into smaller ziploc bags, can you refreeze them again? I heard that once thawed, you cant refreeze cuz bacteria starts to grow
Do you put your frozen rodent in the warm water bath straight from the freezer or do you thaw it in the fridge first?
How can i keep them frozen?I will be going to a trip soon and my snake will be going with me and i will need to bring food with me.
That was a great video my albino carpet never strikes have to leave the rat in there until he wants to eat it he use to strike than all of a sudden nothing it’s sometime annoying cause sometimes he won’t eat but sometimes he will and tips on that
Hi mate. It depends on their age, size/weight, heating and enclosure. What is your feeding schedule like?
@@CookiesCritters cheers for the reply mate I try to feed him every 10 days sometimes he won’t eat for like 2-3wks
@@CookiesCritters and his about 2.4m just shed last night last time I weighed him about a month or so ago he was 5.8kg his 3 yrs old
Tank is set at 37
@@jasonrussell6461 thanks for the details mate. It sounds like he is possibly refusing his feed because the frequency is too quick. An animal his size could easily go 3-4 weeks between a feed.
@@jasonrussell6461 what size food item are you offering him?
I would like to know how do they kill the rodent. I always thought that they just Stick them in the freezer when they're alive. Or Electrocuted them. Because they cant Kill them any other way to be used for animal food.
Rodents are gased with carbon dioxide. CO2 removes the oxygen and puts the rodents to sleep. Eventually the lack of oxygen will euthanise the rodents. This is painless and the most humane way to do it.
Food prep laws vary by area wildly.
Most prey item breeders I know out in my area (North America, east). Use oxygen displacement using an inert gas. Some I know use Carbon Dioxide, which I disagree with as CO2 has environmental implications. The Nitrogen method seems to be conceptually acceptable but I don't seem to see people it. I suspect most small breeders just freeze them.
@@ALAPINO in Australia most small rodent breeders will euthanise their stock with CO2 as it is easy to obtain. Nitrogen would be for larger commercial operations. We would never support breeders who are freezing their rodents alive.
Thank you all. I'm glad they do it the proper way and a nice way so they don't go through pain. Thank you. 😊
This is actually pretty sad to watch. I wonder how the mouse got killed did they just put him in the freezer or did they straight up killed him? Still sad
Not sad at all...would you prefer a live feeding? Snakes need to eat too...
womp womp