GAH! rats got left out

[nemo66]

ok so the other day i fed my bp. she got one hopper rat. this was at like 12:00 at night. i went to bed shortly after and got up at 5 in the morning. and noticed i left the bag of rats out on the kitchen table. they where all thawed. now i dont have any money to order any more rats until sometime next month as i did not plan on having to buy rats for awhile. and theirs not a single pet store where i live. shes still on a weakly diet. ive never ran into a problem like this before i dont know what i was thinking when i left them out. but i would hate to make her wait that long for another meal as shes used to eating weakly :doh . the rats dont appear to be rotten (they dont smell horrid). i put them back in the freezer right away. how long can a rat set out before it would be classified as bad? :?:

advice?

 

[Red Earth Exotics]

not sure, some people say it's fine to refreeze. i don't do it, but i have retics that are garbage disposals.

also, it won't hurt your ball if you don't feed it for another month or so until you can get some more. most of mine stop eating in the winter for at least 3 months. when i went to iraq my big female ball didn't eat the whole time, 6 months. my wife tried to feed her every 2 weeks, wouldn't take them. she was perfectly fine when i got home and started eating for me then.

 

[Beasty]

Well if it were me I'd pull once out when time comes and see if she'll take it.
I've done it before with a Dumeril's boa and a red tail too, no probs. Tegus are easy like that, like monitors. If it's furry it's lunch!
Good luck.

 

[nemo66]

Well if it were me I'd pull once out when time comes and see if she'll take it.
I've done it before with a Dumeril's boa and a red tail too, no probs. Tegus are easy like that, like monitors. If it's furry it's lunch!
Good luck.

you dont think it would make her sick or anything with how long it sat out?

 

[Beasty]

Her system isn't as delicate as ours. As Americans we are absolute clean freaks compared with many countries. Some places people eat rats and I'd bet they aren't as clean as what we feed our animals and they are fine. Sometimes we are clean to the point of lunacy.
If the weren't swollen and didn't stink yet, I'd use them. I doubt the snake would be sick on a rat it she would take it down. IF she was to get sick, she would only throw it up, nothing more. I did it before and mine were just fine, no problems, no puking, just a fat, happy snake. Try it before you throw them out anyway. Even then I'd try to find someone with a monitor or tegu to feed them to before I'd chunk 'em.

 

[Beazer]

If I'm not mistaken tegus eat carian (spelling?) in the wild as well and their system is even capable of digesting anthrax? Just make sure that it has a proper basking area just so its stomach bacterias stay in order. I think thats in monitors as well, though I am not positive. However, it should be fine. When I worked with halmahera pythons, there were times I had to leave the rats in the cage for almost 24hrs and then theyd eat it, and tegus have much stronger stomachs so I'm sure its fine.

-Jon DeLong

 

[Beasty]

:lol: nemo66, the OP or original poster has no tegu. They were asking on behalf of their female ball python.