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Catch and freeze?

J

Juxtaposition109

New member
I've moved into a new house and as usual my snakes are living the rough life that they have always lived of hiding, pooping, and eating LOL. Anyway I have seen a mouse or two scurrying about in our garage that is not attached to the house. I was mainly curious about an idea. If I were to set some mouse traps that I will check everyday and once a mouse has been caught/killed by the trap. If I were to freeze the mouse in a plastic bag for a few days would this kill off many of the parasites and thus when I thawed the mouse out make it a suitable to be eaten by my snakes? This isn't what I'm planning on doing at the moment but I'm just curious as to whether or not the idea may work.
 
Hey as long as you got the money to throw at the vet by taking these risks with your animals to save a few bucks........go ahead !
 
I knew someone would take shots at me for asking that. I'm asking it more from a scientific standpoint of freezing mice to get rid of parasites. No need to be a smart ass.
 
I'd go with no- you don't know what the mice have been eating, including pesticides or poisons. We had a guy here who lost a bearded dragon by feeding WC insects. They can travel miles, so even if you aren't using pesticides in your yard, the neighbor might be. Who knows what mice have been eating.
 
I understand about the pesticides. Still though I think it would make a neat project in my next biology lab if I caught 5 or 6 different mice from different locations, froze all of them for a week and compared the biological results to that of a F/T mouse bought at Petsmart/Petco etc.....
 
Do it, i wanna see what happens, just don't feed one to your snake on accident... keep them away from your F/T lol

How are you gonna compare? do you have a lab available?
 
Hey Juxtaposition109,

I would think that almost all the parasites would be dead if you froze it down to 0 or less. However, I would not feed the mouse because of what everybody said about pesticides or poisons. Please let us know what happens in your lab tests.

Love the Fatman
 
I would say definitely don't feed any to your snake, but for sure do the experiment! Keep us all informed on the outcome!
 
No lab at the moment. I may take another Bio class during winter term and I would assume that the Professor might let met do this experiment for a side project. I am curious about it also b/c I would assume that just like every other business in the world that the Reptile business will tell you all sorts of things to keep you buying products b/c in the end it's a business and it's about $. I am curious as to if it was business as usual when a sales person told me that I should get ZooMed aspen snake bedding instead of Kaytee aspen bedding b/c of the danger of not getting an aspen bedding made by a company that doesn't specialize in Reptiles. It's the same stuff but obviously cut different and the Kaytee was a lot cheaper. It always seems to stir up a lot of trouble when you apply science and math to things instead of just doing what someone else tells you is the right thing to do. If I was able to factor out pesticides and other harmful things that wild caught rodents carry then I could save a lot of $ in the long run. I won't do anything to put my Snake's health in jeopardy but I'll still eventually do the experiment and reveal the outcomes. Have a good one guys and gals and remember to tell all your friends that mathematically they are at a lot better chance to be attacked by a dog than a snake so they shouldn't shriek when you tell them you have pet snakes LOL.
 
Juxtaposition109 said:
I knew someone would take shots at me for asking that.
Click to expand...
Honestly, if you have to ask you should learn more about the animals you keep, this is common sense stuff.
Doesn't every snake keeping book out there go over this ? I believe they all say...no...don't do it.

Juxtaposition109 said:
I'm asking it more from a scientific standpoint of freezing mice to get rid of parasites.
Click to expand...
Yes it gets rid of parasites, unfortunately you're also killing the mouse in the process so you're not actually doing the mouse any favors...from a scientific standpoint.
Juxtaposition109 said:
If I was able to factor out pesticides and other harmful things that wild caught rodents carry then I could save a lot of $ in the long run.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's not very scientific...(see post #2)


Juxtaposition109 said:
No need to be a smart ass.
Click to expand...
Youuuuuuuuu asked.
 
Juxtaposition109 said:
I've moved into a new house and as usual my snakes are living the rough life that they have always lived of hiding, pooping, and eating LOL. Anyway I have seen a mouse or two scurrying about in our garage that is not attached to the house. I was mainly curious about an idea. If I were to set some mouse traps that I will check everyday and once a mouse has been caught/killed by the trap. If I were to freeze the mouse in a plastic bag for a few days would this kill off many of the parasites and thus when I thawed the mouse out make it a suitable to be eaten by my snakes? This isn't what I'm planning on doing at the moment but I'm just curious as to whether or not the idea may work.
Click to expand...

I have done that exact thing with wild mice years ago before there were mice breeders everywhere. Unless you own a stable or other building with lots of grain in it, your supply of mice will run out in about a week. It's not worth the risk when you can buy frozen mice in bulk.

I had a mouse problem in my garage a few years ago also. About the same time I caught a black rat snake in the yard and released it into the garage. I haven't had a mouse problem since. The wife wouldn't go into the garage for a few weeks though!
 
TripleT said:
Honestly, if you have to ask you should learn more about the animals you keep, this is common sense stuff.
Doesn't every snake keeping book out there go over this ? I believe they all say...no...don't do it.


Yes it gets rid of parasites, unfortunately you're also killing the mouse in the process so you're not actually doing the mouse any favors...from a scientific standpoint.

Yeah that's not very scientific...(see post #2)



Youuuuuuuuu asked.
Click to expand...

If the mice are pests, chewing up electrical wires and such in his garage, then they are going to end up dead anyway. I set mousetraps without remorse, I do not see how "not doing the mouse any favors" has any point in this argument.

I say do the experiment and let us know. It will be interesting to see if they end up with the same amount/less parasites of a lab grown one. I am interested in the outcome.
 
I would say that if you are going to run that experiment, you are going to need more than five or six mice in order to assume that it is safe, and even then you wouldn't be able to generalize because the environment is not constant. Your neighbor could put out poison or spray pesticides at any moment, and then everything would change. A new mouse population infected with tape worm could move in and pass it to your population. It is a potential disaster.
 
I'll gather them from around the state in various ecosystems etc... as I get to travel a lot for work. I'll be curious what a bacteria and such that a wild caught mouse from a forest far from humans will produce and what the outcomes will be from the mice I usually get from Rodent Pro.
 
Outcast said:
I do not see how "not doing the mouse any favors" has any point in this argument.
Click to expand...
Read the thread ?
He wants to know if freezing mice will kill the parasites...from a scientific standpoint.
So does freezing the mouse kill the parasites ?....yes.
But really what he wants to do is save money in the long run by feeding his snakes wc mice...he's just dancing around it with the scientific standpoint about whether or not freezing kills parasites.
The first post he just wants to know if freezing kills parasites which later turns into saving money in the long run.(which was what I thought this thread was really about...see post #2)
Again, read the thread.
 
TripleT said:
Read the thread ?
He wants to know if freezing mice will kill the parasites...from a scientific standpoint.
So does freezing the mouse kill the parasites ?....yes.
But really what he wants to do is save money in the long run by feeding his snakes wc mice...he's just dancing around it with the scientific standpoint about whether or not freezing kills parasites.
The first post he just wants to know if freezing kills parasites which later turns into saving money in the long run.(which was what I thought this thread was really about...see post #2)
Again, read the thread.
Click to expand...

I have read the thread. Maybe you should look into to progression of the thread. He has been told of possible pesticides and stuff, and wants to look into that also. He was asking a simple question that does not need attacks, I know if it came down to it, and I could not afford to feed my snakes I would go out and get wild mice and freeze them to feed them to my snakes. I do not see that happening any time soon, and that would be a last ditch effort to keep my snakes from dying of starvation.
 
If it ever got to the point of not being able to afford to buy rodents to feed my snakes then i would pass them on to someone who could.

As to weather freezing would kill parasites then i would say yes.

BUT, the thing that is most dnagerous is what the wild radent has eaten, ie, poison.

Wild corns would have built up some kind of defence over years of exposure but domestic corns will lose this natural defence and be much more susceptible....

In my opinion (and it is only an opinion) wild rodents should never be fed to domestic reptiles....
 
Outcast said:
I have read the thread. Maybe you should look into to progression of the thread. He has been told of possible pesticides and stuff, and wants to look into that also. He was asking a simple question that does not need attacks, I know if it came down to it, and I could not afford to feed my snakes I would go out and get wild mice and freeze them to feed them to my snakes. I do not see that happening any time soon, and that would be a last ditch effort to keep my snakes from dying of starvation.
Click to expand...

I agree, i only have one snake so odds of my not finding a little under $2 a week to feed him are slim to none. But if i had to, i suppose i would use WC and do everything i could to keep it safe as possible (which i know is limited but i'd try)
 
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