Feeding Your Reptiles: Frozen/Thawed Rats and Mice

One of the first questions that comes up whenever I tell people that I have pet snakes is inevitably, “what do you feed them?”  People are incredibly curious about how snakes eat, what they eat, and where you get such things.  And many people reveal during these conversations that the only reason they’d never looked seriously into getting a snake as a pet was because of a fear of (or simple distaste for) the idea of feeding live prey.

Most people are a bit surprised when I tell them that I simply buy frozen mice or rats, usually in bulk (packages of 12 or 24) so that I don’t need to worry about going to the pet store every single week.  I can then thaw the prey items out, one at a time, much like you’d thaw out a chicken breast before cooking it.  It’s fast, easy, and convenient.  And my snakes get a good meal whenever they need it, without me having to trek across town to the pet store, or worry about keeping live rodents in my apartment.

 

So Why Frozen/Thawed Instead of Live Prey?

There are people who make the argument that live prey is more “natural”, because a snake in the wild has to stalk and kill its prey.  I find such arguments to be patently ridiculous, because there’s really nothing “natural” about keeping a snake in a glass enclosure in your home.  Most snakes in the pet trade were captive-bred — they’ve spent their lives living in “unnatural” conditions — and many were selectively bred for traits that would get them killed in the wild (ie, albinism).  Snakes in the wild rarely live for more than a few years, while in captivity they can live for decades.  Perhaps a frozen/thawed mouse is a bit unnatural, but it’s certainly no more unnatural than feeding kibbles or canned food to your cat or dog.

Many shops that carry reptile products do offer live prey items as an option, but any argument that a live mouse is somehow “healthier” or contains “more nutritional value” than a frozen one is purely specious — if anything, the frozen prey will be healthier, because pet stores often don’t have very good housing conditions for their prey items, don’t properly feed them, and don’t monitor for health problems the way that a dedicated rodent production facility has to do.  Live prey items might also carry parasites picked up at the store (or elsewhere), which freezing will kill off — live prey items are a potential source of mite infestations, for example, or may contain parasites in their guts.

The biggest risk with live prey, of course, is that it might fight back.  Rodents have long, sharp teeth that can seriously injure your beloved snake-friend.  A snake that misses on the first strike, or gets a bad grip on its prey, can be severely bitten (even killed) by a cornered, fighting-for-its-life rodent.  Vet bills for reptiles get expensive quickly — since they’re an “exotic” pet, even walking in to the vet’s office or emergency clinic with them can be a $100 appointment fee, before any tests/surgeries/medicines/etc even enter the picture.  And many vets are untrained in reptile care, and will be able to do little to help your injured friend — especially if you’re going to an emergency clinic or the like.  Herpetological specialists are rare, and their offices may have limited hours.

 

What If My Snake Doesn’t Like Already-Dead Food?

There are instances where a snake doesn’t immediately take to eating things that have been pre-killed for it.  Wild-caught individuals (which you should never buy — animals taken from their natural habitats are usually illegal and have to be smuggled across borders, are typically less healthy, and you may be destroying natural ecosystems by participating in their sale), or animals who were raised on live prey in captivity (there are still some major breeders out there who feed live, despite the risks), may not immediately recognize a frozen/thawed rodent as a food item.

There’s the odd animal who will simply never take to eating frozen/thawed, especially if this type of prey was not introduced to them until they were an adult.  But in 99% of cases, a bit of care and attention will get your animal eating f/t prey.  A few tricks to try, if you’ve got a fussy eater on your hands — I’ll arrange them from least to most macabre:

• Warm the prey item to approximately body temperature by immersing it in hot water until it feels warm to the touch.
• Wiggle the prey item around in front of the snake’s face (you may want to use tongs or forceps, rather than just holding the prey item in your hand — it’s not unheard of for a snake to mistake a human hand for a yummy rat, especially if you’ve got rat-smell all over your fingers).
• Cut the prey item open a little bit, to get a stronger “blood” smell for attracting the snake.  Anecdotally, puncturing or crushing the skull is the best way to do this (apparently brains smell delicious), but if you’re squeamish it may be better to go for a less-gruesome tactic.
• Try purchasing a live prey item, but killing it just before feeding it to your snake.  I’ve seen various YouTube demonstrations of how to use vinegar & baking soda to make a CO2 chamber at home, or how to use CO2 cartridges for the same purpose, but such DIY creations tend to be unreliable — often the prey simply falls asleep, and doesn’t actually die.  And there’s an argument to be made that suffocation may not be particularly kind, even if it looks (from an outside perspective) like just falling asleep.  If you’re not terribly squeamish, snapping the spine is one of the most humane & painless ways to euthanize a rodent.  If you feel confident in your ability to do so, snapping the neck manually is the most precise and “gentle” method.  Many people teach to simply whack the rodent (hard) off a table or other hard surface, which is less precise and may only stun the prey item, not actually kill it … plus it just looks & feels fairly brutal.  My chosen method (because I hate feeling bones snapping in my hand) is to place a hard, thin object like a screwdriver over the rodent’s neck, hold the tail in my off hand and the screwdriver in my dominant hand, and push (sharply) down and forwards.  It’s fast and precise, and the prey item feels little-to-no fear or pain, because it all happens in less than a second.  I don’t like doing it, but I’m pragmatic enough to understand that this is still far less traumatic to the animal than being dropped into a tank with a live snake, and then bitten & squeezed to death, would be.  Always wear gloves when handling live rodents; they have big teeth and can deliver mean bites.

If absolutely none of the above suggestions work, and your snake has gone a long time without eating, you may have to resort to live prey.  If that’s the case, feeding smaller prey items with greater frequency is usually the way to go.  A snake that could eat a medium-sized rat twice a month, for example, might do better if fed rat pups, every single week.  Younger/smaller prey items are less likely to be able to fight back or inflict serious injuries on your snake.  Never feed live prey without supervising the feeding process (have a set of good, thick gloves on so that you can pick up a struggling rat or snake should things go badly), and be aware of risks like parasites — check incoming live prey thoroughly to be sure it’s not carrying mites or the like, and always check your snake out visually following a feeding to look for bite or scratch injuries.

 

Are There Any Risks With Frozen/Thawed?

Now that I’ve outlined how f/t is the safer and more humane way to go, I’ll go over the couple of risks that may come along with feeding frozen prey items.

Most important is making sure that the prey item is thoroughly defrosted.  Snakes are cold-blooded.  A prey item that feels warm to the touch, but still has a big chunk of frozen meat inside of it?  That could cause your snake’s internal temperature to drop enough to cause serious problems, or even death from organ failure.  The same is true if the prey becomes too warm (which is why you should NEVER use a microwave to defrost frozen prey — the internal organs of the prey item will heat much faster than the outside, and can get hot enough to cause burns).  The microwave also risks actually cooking the meat, and snakes don’t have the same biology that we do — their bodies aren’t designed to digest cooked meat.  Defrosting a frozen prey item is best done by immersing it in hot water and leaving it to sit until it’s thoroughly thawed out (the larger the prey item, the longer it needs).  Give the prey item a squeeze, to make sure there’s no big frozen parts inside.  If it still feels cold to the touch, it’s not ready yet.

The other risk (which isn’t really limited to f/t items, but is more of a concern because they’re probably being stored in your freezer alongside your own food) is transmission of any rodent-borne dirt/bacteria to your own food & utensils.  Keeping separate “snake utensils” is recommended — a set of tongs & a “defrosting bowl” that are for snake-related uses only.  Frozen rodents are unlikely to have any parasites or diseases still living on them, since most bacteria and viruses and the like can’t live at freezer temperatures, but double-bagging frozen rats/mice & being sure to wash your hands after handling is a useful “just in case” measure.  Double-bagging also helps to prevent freezer burn, and may help to disguise the bag of frozen rats from any friends/family who happen to open your freezer and peek inside (I’ve definitely had friends scream and drop glassware upon going into my freezer to grab the bottle of vodka I keep in the freezer door, because the other shelf in the freezer door is the “rat shelf” … several broken glasses later, I’ve learned to warn people of this in advance).

 

Costs and Additional Notes

Snakes are extremely low-maintenance pets.  Being cold-blooded, they only need to eat a fraction of the amount that a warm-blooded mammal or bird would — and (generally) the larger the prey they eat, the less often you need to feed them.

Here in Southern Ontario, small “pinky” or “fuzzy” mice cost about $1-$1.50 apiece, while adult mice may be $2-3.  Medium-Large rats may be more in the $5 to $8 range.  If you’ve got an especially large animal, you may need to be feeding a larger prey item like rabbits, which can cost $15-20 depending on availability in your area … but on the plus side, such larger animals often only need to eat once a month or so.  Buying in bulk can get you discounts, but you need to have freezer space for storing 24 or 50 or 100 prey items in order to make such discounts a viable option — and remember that like with all food, there’s a limited amount of time that something can be kept in the freezer before freezer burn starts to set in & nutritional value is lost.  Airtight storage bags & a clean freezer without frost on the walls will help with longevity in storage.

If you’re getting a new snake, ask the breeder/store/rescue where you’re acquiring it if it’s already eating frozen/thawed prey.  If not, be prepared that you might have to spend some time teaching your new pet to take f/t, and be ready to potentially buy some live rodents & kill them yourself, to get things started.  If that doesn’t seem like something you’re prepared for, ask for another animal that’s already taking f/t, or ask if they’d be willing to “test” the animal on f/t food for you, before you commit to buying/adopting.

And if you really love the idea of having a pet snake, but really *can’t* stomach the idea of handling dead mice/rats, there are a few species out there that eat other foods — like eggs or fish.  Dasypeltis, an African breed, is a commonly known egg-eating colubrid snake which you may be able to get your hands on (although they’re much less common than other colubrid species in the pet trade, and finding a captive-bred specimen may be challenging) — they are usually fed quail eggs in captivity.  Many species of garter snake prefer to eat fish (although live feeder-fish carry high risk of parasites; do your research before deciding on a fish-eating snake as a pet, and you may want to go frozen/thawed with fishy feeders, too, to kill off any parasites).  Other colubrid snakes may eat eggs, fish, or earthworms — but they may require vitamin or calcium supplements added to their diet, as these foods are not as nutritionally valuable as mammal prey.  Thorough research is necessary before acquiring any pet — don’t simply trust what “some guy at the pet store” said.  There are myths out there about snakes eating insectivorous diets and the like — these are MYTHS, and a snake won’t get proper nutrition eating only bugs.  But if you’ve done your research well, a non-rodent-eating snake may be a very beautiful and rewarding pet choice.

Fascinating Animals: Tuatara

The animal in this picture is not a lizard.

No, this isn’t some Magritte-esque ceci n’est pas une pipe kind of philosophical thing — I’ve been posting too many philosophical ramblings lately, and I’m trying to get back into posting more regular updates about not-my-personal-drama kind of things.

The animal in the above picture is called a tuatara (genus Sphenodon), and it is one of my absolute favourite animals in the world.  They are found only in New Zealand (I suspect that they may feed occasionally on hobbits), and they are incredibly ancient.  Tuatara are the only surviving members of order Rhynchocephalia, which flourished around 200 million years ago (back in the late Triassic/early Jurassic period).  This is about the time that the first mammals (some of our early ancestors, small shrew-like critters that bore little resemblance to us) were just evolving.  By that point, rhynchocephalians already looked pretty much like their modern ancestors do — check out this fossil of an extinct species from the order:

Tuatara are distantly related to modern squamates (lizards and snakes), as well as to archosaurs (the ancestors of dinosaurs and birds), which makes them very interesting to scientists — because the two groups diverged so many millions of years ago, studying tuatara may be able to tell us a lot about how modern lizards, snakes, birds, and crocodilians evolved.  Although they look similar to lizards on the outside, tuatara possess many traits that show just how ancient they are:  their brains are more similar to those of amphibians than to those of reptiles; their lungs are single-chambered and don’t have bronchial tubes; they have a remarkably well-developed ‘third eye‘ under the skin of their foreheads (something which most modern animals have lost to evolution); they have no external ear structures and their internal ears are incredibly primitive; their vertebrae resemble those of fish and amphibians rather than those of other amniotes; they have an acrodont tooth structure (their teeth are fused to the bones of their jaw rather than being separate structures); and they have sex in the same way as birds, by simply rubbing their cloacas together, because the males don’t have penises.

Unlike most cold-blooded animals, tuatara prefer cool temperatures and will actually die of heat stress if exposed to temperatures much above 80 degrees Fahrenheit for any length of time.  This adaptation to cool temperatures is likely a factor in their longevity — it’s theorized that tuatara could live to be over 200 years old in captivity (although no one knows for sure, because we haven’t been studying them long enough), and even living in the wild (with all the associated hardships and dangers) they commonly live about 80 years.  But because they live for so long, they do their living at a very slow pace:  it can take over a year for tuatara eggs to hatch, and over 30 years for a tuatara to reach its full adult size.

Like many species in New Zealand, tuatara face great risks from introduced predators.  Having lived for so many millions of years on protected islands with few natural enemies, the introduction of animals such as rats and dogs and cats has devastated tuatara populations.  Tuatara are particularly vulnerable because of their slow pace of living:  a year is a long time for eggs to remain undisturbed in a nest when there are hungry rodents about, and a female tuatara is only able to lay eggs once every 3-5 years after she has reached sexual maturity (which can take 20 years to happen).  Like most reptiles, tuatara do not protect their nests or their babies, so unprotected eggs and young are easy prey.  Tuatara are also vulnerable to the effects of global warming — not only do higher temperatures stress them out and cause harm, but their young are temperature-sex dependent:  eggs incubated at lower temperatures will hatch out female, while eggs incubated at higher temperatures will hatch out male.  As global temperatures rise, fewer and fewer females will be hatching.  So even as conservation efforts are seeing success and protection from introduced predators is becoming more stable, there is still the risk of tuatara going extinct in a grand, sad sausage party.

The Difference Between a Bad Pet and a Bad Owner

So, I’ve been a bad blogger and let my personal life completely override my ability to blog, lately.  It’s been a crazy couple of months, to put it in brief.  But I’m trying to get back into it, and today I saw a little piece on the news that got me mad enough to want to rant here.

This is the piece I’m talking about.

And here it is on another news website.

To give you the story in brief:  this week there have been two incidents of loose pet snakes being discovered in apartment buildings, both of which happen to be just a few blocks from where I live.  One was a corn snake, apparently discovered coming “through the wall” (I’m assuming a heating vent of some sort), while another was a ball python, found in a bathroom.

As is usually the case with such stories, the news outlets have completely ignored the reality of the situation (that these snakes are harmless to humans, completely legal to keep, non-aggressive, etc).  Instead they’ve focused on interviews with “terrified” residents, and labeled the animals as “pests” and “dangerous”.  They’ve stirred up anti-snake sentiment, which of course (being as I’m a snake owner and enthusiast) gets my hackles up.

What really bothers me about the coverage of this story is that the focus is in completely the wrong place.  The real question is:  why were these snakes loose in the first place?  Why has no owner stepped forwards to claim them?  If someone’s pet had managed to get out of its cage, why did that person not tell their neighbors, and ask them to be on the lookout for the missing critter?  This is, quite clearly, a case of bad and irresponsible ownership — it’s the humans, not the snakes, who are to blame.

While it hasn’t happened yet, I’m sure that in the coming days there will be an uproar as panicked residents, egged on by the biased journalism, begin the hue and cry for harder crackdowns on reptile owners, tougher restrictions on which pets can be kept in apartment buildings, and other general witch-huntery.  The comments on the stories that I linked to above already show signs of it — people freaking out because their children and pets are at risk from these “dangerous” animals.  Seriously, people?  Maybe if you have a pet rat — but somebody’s loose cat is much more likely to be a danger, in that case.  Cats will kill for fun.  Snakes only kill if they’re hungry.

In fact, a dog or cat (considered perfectly acceptable pets, by most people) is certainly a much more dangerous animal than any legal-to-own reptile, and also much more likely to escape — snakes are generally kept in tanks which are designed to be escape-proof, while your mammalian friend likely roams free about your home or apartment, and may even be allowed to go outside unsupervised.  People are bitten by dogs or scratched by cats all the time, but it doesn’t make the news, nor does it start a witch-hunt scenario with all and sundry calling for “dangerous” dogs and cats to be banned.  If a dog bites, it’s generally the owner who is blamed, because it is the human being who is responsible for training, restraining, and generally keeping control over their pet.  The same should be true of reptiles and other exotics.