frozen baby animals

[msserena]

As I finally just placed my first Hare Today order, I decided to throw in some pinkie mice, pinkie rabbits & 1 day old quail. Has anyone tried these? My mom brought up the gut issue, aren't guts the worst thing for your pet to eat? Isn't that where parasites live? I don't know if the freezing process kills them or just suspends them until defrost day.

thanks

 

[ritz]

The freezing process does kill the bacteria/parasites permanently. Guts are good--they have the liver, spleen, heart, albeit a teeny tiny amount.
I've been wanting to order some pinkies to see if Ritz would like them. She is an adventurous eater (loves chicken heads). She does love quail and rabbit. But I frankly don't want to spend the $25 or so in case she doesn't like them. Maybe with a bonus I might be getting....
My community cat colony doesn't recognize raw food as, well, food

 

[msserena]

well I won't know if my kitty brood likes them until the day I get them. I have a dog so, just in case, she'll eat the leftovers. Dogs will eat anything!

The pinkie mice are $15 for 25. That's .60 a piece. Not too expensive, I think.

 

[ritz]

LOL, and sometimes I think Ritz will eat anything.
It's not so much the price of the food as the shipping co$t$.

 

[ldg]

I've tried the pinkie mice and the chicks. Even though the pinkie mice are tiny, I had to cut them in half (at first) for the cats to "get" they were food. Same with the chicks. Some of the cats liked them, some didn't. Most of mine were older when we transitioned (basically 10), and some - 2+ years into raw eating - will still not chomp even small bones.

I will probably order chicks again, and when I can afford it, I'll try the baby rabbits. But it takes a number of pinkie mice to make a meal, so it was just too expensive.

As to the parasites, yes, freezing kills. But don't forget, these are farm raised animals bred for consumption, not wild caught. So I expect the risk of parasites that need to be killed via freezing is minimal.

 

[roguethecat]

I have three who love (

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• roguethecat
• Jun 2, 2014

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• roguethecat
• May 30, 2014

(some of the prey I feed will spend some time getting thoroughly killed before it's eaten)

 

 

[bugmankeith]

Mabye it's not all captive mice, but mice at pet stores here and where they are bred are in deplorable conditions full of nasty food and diseased animals and nasty carrion beetles infest cages eating the dead mice and housed with other animals as even feeder mice are sold as pets, and shipped with other animals in transit. You can probably search YouTube and see where they come from its not sanitary.

What I'm saying is be careful, other animals they are around could carry diseases and so raw feeder mice could be just as bad as outdoor mice, just minus the fleas or ticks.

Reptiles (the main eaters of feeder mice) aren't affected by mammal illnesses so this doesn't bother them, but many snake owners breed their own mice for this reason as precaution.

 

[ldg]

Yes, like any food, it is best to buy from a reputable source :nod: (or grow your own. ).

 

[citrineblue]

We feed large and small mice, DOCs and DOQuail as well as chunks and minced meat from a variety of animals ie pheasant , quail, venison, and rabbit. Recently we've had from a supplier that supplies zoos Llhama, Kangaroo and Horse.

The Docs and mice come from a raptor feeding supplier.

Ours love the DOQuail, they are smaller than DOCs but a lot more expensive so used as a treat. Small mice are a couple of mouthfuls for a BSH sized cat, a large mouse takes 4 or 5 chews. Favourite food of all pigeon breast given as a slab, yummy.

Anything wild caught ie rabbit, pheasant , pigeon etc I would freeze for a bit otherwise from a reputable source sourced mice, quail and DOCs should be fine ASAP.

 

[andrya]

Back when l started raw feeding l bought my cats 100 frozen mice. They wouldn't touch them!

Those mice graced my freezer for months until l finally ground them into their homemade food.

 

[roguethecat]

 
Back when l started raw feeding l bought my cats 100 frozen mice. They wouldn't touch them!

Those mice graced my freezer for months until l finally ground them into their homemade food.

same here 

 but then I got my hands on pinkie mice and rats, which after some time I didn't even have to cut open to be snarfed up...

next thing, naked hoppers, that tricked them onto naked jumbos, and now they eat anything mouse and rats up to medium (have to be hungry for the medium, though).

 

[roguethecat]

definitely, there's such a thing as mouse quality

. For my very first try on mice, I bought two at the local reptile store... didn't even get sniffed at, no matter how small I cut them (and me with such high hopes!).

Then I tried a living feeder mouse. They went nuts after it but I didn't have the stomach to have it tortured, so rescued it from being carried around (unharmed if slightly soggy) and put it up in my garage with leftover pizza... 

Now, the Rogue purrs when eating rats and mice from my reputable online sources (important to freeze the critters immediately and keep it frozen).