Toxic Mice - Where did all the red dye go?
"Dog Food Feed is Killing our Snakes" says Jim Jackson of Snake Asylum, Cicero, Il.
90-95% of the mice and rats breeders feed dog food only, and the cheapest brand available. The mice are absorbing the large quantities of red dye into their organs. Their metabolism is twice as fast as ours. They can't eliminate it, and must store it in their organs. This red dye, put into the dog food to enhance it's meaty appearance, of course is passed on to the snakes. What happens is that the red dye kills off the snakes kidneys and gaul bladder, and can cause tumors. Jim and his friends are doing extensive research on this , and if they are right, this will explain the mysterious deaths of otherwise healthy reptiles. This brings us to another closer question. If the snakes are what they eat, shouldn't we be more concerned about what we put into our own mouths?

Parts is Parts
Bargain mice are out there, you just have to make sure that they have all of their organs. Some lab rats have had their reproductive parts, brains and other major organs removed. Some have been bleed for blood serum. Some have been put on special diets to deprive them of certain nutrients. Some have had cancer tumors kidney failure and arterial sclorosis induced, other have been injected with some pretty serious drugs. Some of these mice, rats and other rodents get ground up and made into "feeder sausage". I haven't lost any business to them that I know of. Just make sure that you get the whole mouse and nothing but the mouse. Some "breeders" can be real "rats" themselves.

My Snake Won't Eat Frozen Mice or Rats
People who tell me that are buying frozen mice trays in zipper lock bags. Sure their snakes won't eat them, because often they have been sitting in the breeders freezer for 4 to 6 months and are freezer burned before you get them.

Mice on Ice Mice-Cicles^TM or Rat-Cicles^TM are vacuum packaged with Cyrovac® that locks in the scent. Whatever Scent that was on the moust or rat when we put it down is what your snake will smell when you peel it out of the Cryovac® package.

Toxic Waste
One of our customers reported that he purchased lab surplus rats. They came in an orange biohazard bag. Obviously the lab had intended for them to be destroyed, and they were sold in the market. Who knows what they had been injected with? Our grain fed mice and rats are raised solely as feeder animals.

Blood Sucking Parasites
A mouse breeder in N.E. Florida boasts that he doesn't have any trouble with mites, because he dusts the cage wood shavings with this powder that kills them. Obviously, he doesn't have a clue that the mice will either eat it, or get it in their system, through their skin.
A clean sanitary enviroment is necessary, but I don't care how careful you are, parasites happen. That is why I preach, freezing kills all blood sucking parasites dead, "deader is better," we have guaranteed dead arrival. That is why I freeze parasites, not poison them.

Beware of Amateurs
A veternarian told me he once ordered some bargain pinkies, 20 cents each. But it was CO shipping cost. When they arrived, he saw that they had put them in a styrafoam cooler and frozen them in a block of ice. The shipping cost was $65.00 COD. There are amateurs out there, but we've been doing this for almost a decade, and we know what we're doing.