Hi everyone, I have a potentially dumb question. I bought a pack of frozen mice at a local expo this weekend (trying to save on shipping costs). I was sorting them by weight today and I noticed they smelled like mouse bedding and some of them had some feces stuck to their fur. The bag also had some bedding in it. Are these mice safe to use? I typically buy from Perfect Prey or Big Cheese and those come vacuum sealed and I’ve never noticed a smell or feces before. The mice themselves look fine but I’m worried they’re not safe. I’m still kinda new to all of this so any advice or insight would be appreciated
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First of all @anon5387911 there IS NO dumb question here!!! Personally I have never encountered the bedding situation with frozen rodents.
However if there is actually bedding stuck to the rodents you can always wash the rodents with Dawn dish soap. Although that will affect the smell of them.
Sometimes there will be a tiny bit of feces on the rodents from Petsmart but I don’t worry about that because when a snake eats a ft rodent, whatever poop is inside gets eaten as well……
Probably not much help but……. 
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Yes, they’re perfectly fine. They live in bedding and poop, it’s occasionally going to get stuck to feet and pulled into processing. Basically as long as feeders don’t smell rotten or have weird lumps/bumps/wounds, I’d say you’re alright.
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Okay great! Thanks for the replies. I was hoping it was fine, but I wanted to double check. I haven’t encountered anything like this before, but I also haven’t been keeping snakes very long. I figured if a snake eats whole prey, they also eat the poop that’s inside the mouse. I removed the bedding and wiped off the poop already. The mice smell like mice, not rotten or anything, and they look perfectly fine. I’m glad I asked though as this give me peace of mind
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Agreed with the others. Some suppliers tidy them up a bit more, but they should be fine to feed. Heck, your snakes probably prefer smellier ones!
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I also agree with the others, especially about the smellier comment by @solarserpents lol.
I always have to make sure I’ve got mine ziplock sealed for smelliness for a couple of my picky eaters when thawing them out/heating them up.
One of the biggest tips for getting a mouser onto rats is getting dirty mouse bedding and rolling the rat in it for the smell. lol
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That’s actually great info! Thank you so much. I have a new baby boa on the way and she’s only a couple months old. The breeder said she’s currently on hopper mice because she’s still small, and boas are less “stretchy” than colubrids. But eventually she will need to eat rats. I might not need to scent rats (she is a boa after all and they like to eat) but just in case I’ll definitely remember this!
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THIS right here. I think people forget sometimes gassing rodents happens in small or large containers and most will poop before or right at death. It just happens. When I gas mine and I notice poop or shavings stuck, I’ll pull them off and go about my feeding day as normal.
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You definitely shouldn’t have to scent for boas! And all my boas went straight from mice to rats on first feed! 
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