bloated f/t feeders

[Robilyn]

Lovely title I know...anyway the other day I thawed out a frozen rat and noticed the abdomen was very distended and swollen. I didn't notice if it was swollen while it was still frozen. I decided to ditch it as a feeder because I was not sure of the cause. At first I thought perhaps it was just hemorrhaging from trauma at time of death, but then I worried a malicious bacteria might be multiplying inside the abdominal cavity. What do you guys think? bloated feeders bad?

[The Snake Guru]

Sometimes when things start thawing out like that, because it is dead, and in a constant state of decomposition the gases from the organs decomposing start to build...causing the condition you described. Next time just give it a little squeeze to relieve the pressure and gas before you feed.....because if you don't and that snake grabs it.....well you know what happens when you pop a balloon.....messsssy! LOL

But otherwise still okay to feed.

~B~

[nickthegreek]

Lovely title I know...anyway the other day I thawed out a frozen rat and noticed the abdomen was very distended and swollen. I didn't notice if it was swollen while it was still frozen. I decided to ditch it as a feeder because I was not sure of the cause. At first I thought perhaps it was just hemorrhaging from trauma at time of death, but then I worried a malicious bacteria might be multiplying inside the abdominal cavity. What do you guys think? bloated feeders bad?

I wouldn't even try feeding any feeder with a distended stomach just because I've had a few feeders pop when I was trying to get snakes to eat them, of course that was probably from reheating them 2-3 times LOL
BTW, a 4-5 pound rabbit makes one hell of a mess when the guts pop!

[bebo]

I've seen that before too. Many times it could be from the items not being frozen quickly enough, and as mentioned decompositon setting further in than desired. Or that the items were allowed to thaw a bit then re-frozen. But then it could be as Brad mentined too. :)

[Robilyn]

Heh I've cleaned up my share of rat guts from re-heated dinners. Lol. If slightly decomposed organs are no big deal then I won't worry in the future, but I'll remember to pop it myself. I did have visions of Monty exploding the rat balloon all over his cage. Lol