Humane Euthanization?

Hey folks,

I'm curious about humanely euthanizing mice. Particularly pinkies and fuzzies. I know that a CO2 chamber is a usual and acceptable method, but what about if you don't have access to a CO2 chamber?

I will eventually be building the Homemade CO2 Chamber that PJCReptiles has posted information about in their personal forum. But for right now, I'd just like to know about other methods that are humane and will suffice for the time being.

Butter knife (or other blunt object not for cutting) placed behind the head on the neck. Sharp pull from the base of the tail breaks the neck quickly.

D80

Freezer? Maybe slow but not messy. I have always wondered too for those without a CO2 chamber how they do it. I have heard of breaking their necks by pulling on their heads while holding their body still will sever their spinal cord instantly, but the pop would probably unnerve me a little.

I've heard that placing them in the freezer is extremely inhumane. Something about ice crystals forming and making the process very painful.

And yes, the spinal snapping might be too much for me. But if that's the best way to do it, then it will have to be done that way. :shrugs:

Your brave, lol!! I would like to add a few more snakes, but then breeding your own feed is just more economic and I am not ready to kill a little mousey. I get them delivered f/t and don't mind slitting and cutting them, but looking at their little faces when they are alive and I'm not sure I could do it. Funny true story: Last year one of my friends and I go to our local pet store for insects and feeders. They CO2 them there which is nice because then you always have a fresh meal. We get a few rats and bugs heading home with me holding the bags. All of the sudden I feel the bag moving and at first think it's all the bugs, but then the movement got stronger and I thought I was imagining things but when I look at the bag its moving for sure. I say Wendy look and she to sees it moving so I open the bag and right there was a cute little rat with a brown nose and patches looking up at me- it lived somehow. We figured it would die soon, but no luck it got more and more active so she didn't feed her. Even still we thought in a day or two it would croak, but a year later patches is alive and well, lol!

Whoa, that's quite a story!! I have two pet rats now. The first one we bought from a reptile show... she was slated to become a feeder, but we brought her home as a pet and then a few days later purchased another one so our first wouldn't be lonely. So now we have Gwen and Clare!

I'm hoping to get a new snake and if I get the one I want he only eats live. I can pay $1.99 for a live pinkie or I can pay $1.99 each and get a few full grown mice to start my own colony. Which is something I had been debating anyway. It may end up being more expensive in the end, but for now it seems better.

You mean you want a snake that only eats live? I may rethink that if that is the case. While a pinkie can't do much damage as that snake ages and needs bigger prey feeding live could kill or disfigure it never mind infections from wounds. Switching a snake young to frozen thawed can be enough of a pain, but the older it gets the harder it will be.

Please excuse me if this sounds rude, but I am well aware of that. Which is why I've been asking about humanely euthanizing snakes without a CO2 chamber. I would MUCH rather prefer feeding F/T. None of my snakes currently take live and they never will. I would be doing my VERY best to change him over to F/T. Trust me on that.

I do appreciate your concern, but as somebody who speaks strongly against feeding live, I would not be doing it myself.

danielle said:

You mean you want a snake that only eats live? I may rethink that if that is the case. While a pinkie can't do much damage as that snake ages and needs bigger prey feeding live could kill or disfigure it never mind infections from wounds. Switching a snake young to frozen thawed can be enough of a pain, but the older it gets the harder it will be.

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I beg to differ on this. I just had 3 adult snakes of different species (1 corn, 1 rat, 1 boa) switch over to f/t for the first time tonight. They all struck and took it without a problem. Are these animals a rare case? Possibly. This was my first mass f/t order. Until then, all snakes on pinkies to hoppers were fed live. Anything more than that was freshly killed (that really only started about 4 months ago).
But that's just my experience.

No offense taken I was wondering if I misread you or not thats all

RobbiesCornField said:

I beg to differ on this. I just had 3 adult snakes of different species (1 corn, 1 rat, 1 boa) switch over to f/t for the first time tonight. They all struck and took it without a problem. Are these animals a rare case? Possibly. This was my first mass f/t order. Until then, all snakes on pinkies to hoppers were fed live. Anything more than that was freshly killed (that really only started about 4 months ago).
But that's just my experience.

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Congrats on them switching over so easily Robbie!! I spent 30 minutes last night trying to entice my neighbors new BP who is a year or so and was only fed live and is now one eyed from a mouse bite- she was not impressed and retreated. Growing up my parents had many many many snakes all fed live- back then people didn't really know better and having f/t shipped wasn't an option. However, they were all fed with tongs to reduce the risks of injury and I can't say no one was EVER injured, but it was rare.

Oh no. I'm not a fan of live. But I'm not going to turn down a perfectly good snake because that's all it eats currently. Sure it may take some time, but hopefully eventually I can switch him. If not, then I would have to use EXTREME caution when feeding live adult rodents. At the very least I can put him on fresh killed or stunned perhaps.

I really do NOT want this thread to turn into a debate of live vs F/T. I just want information on as many methods as possible for killing feeder mice (humanely I mean) apart from C02.

The yanking the tail thing seems like a winner at least it is fast. I just talked to my dad I wanted tips for my neighbor with her BP and he said he used to just grab a live mousey head first with the tong, hold it in a bag, and sqeeze- eww, but I am trying again with breena the BP later I will let you know. He says not only is the mouse super scented but still twitching and warm!

All of it seems so unpleasant...

But, one must do what one must.

Well my neighbor ended up going through with my dads yucky way and guess who just ate? So it isn't frozen thawed but it did work. My neighbor said it didn't spurt mousey everywhere thank god, but she thinks it semi paralyzed it or something. She made her husband do it, lol I would have begged mine to do the same thing.

If you're squeamish about killing them yourself, if you get your mice at a reptile store, they can do it for you. That's what I used to do.

(Hold it's head with tongs in the bag and squeeze) that sounds rather painfull for the little guy. I personally can never in a million years kill them myself, I would feel too bad, cute little mice. I'm f/t all the way.

Oh, and that story of the rat surviving the co2 and still alive to this day was refreshing!

Every living creature has to eat. I'm not saying I would enjoy killing the mice or anything like that, because it is going to be really hard for me. Especially since I have two pet rats of my own, but it's just the way things are.

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but for the longest time feeding mice bothered me, I've gotten to where I dont' see "MICE" as mice. I see them as snake food. I have to look at them that way because if I don't I wouldn't be able to keep snakes. And since I want to be as self-sufficent as possible, I feel I need to be able to suck it up and produce my own mice.

I pay a lot of money per mouse (I don't see shipping as any cheaper because of the shipping cost. $20 for mice and easily $50 jsut for shipping) to get them locally. I might as well be putting that money into mice that I know are healthy, I know what's going into them, and be able to have access to them whenever I need food for my snakes. There have been times I've gone into the petstore to pick up mice and they were out of the sizes I needed, forcing me to go back yet another day. Which is a waste of gas and of my time.

I don't want to have to kill little mice. But if it must be done, then I will do it.

As mentioned earlier, the tail yank works really quickly with mice. Rats are another matter, though. Too much musculature in the neck, I suppose. I've met a lot of other breeders who switched to CO2 as soon as they got into rat-eaters. With rats, I learned that a hemostat placed 1/4 to 1/3rd way down the neck and a quick clamp breaks the neck instantly, but that said, I'd never go back from CO2 (or buying f/t) now.

As for keeping a feeder animal, I have kept two rats as pets destined for feeders myself. One when I was a teen that I offered live to a big black rat that wasn't in the mood to eat. He essentially "fought" with his meal, and was losing so I removed it after several bites. The rat suffered some sort of damage and couldn't fully use its hind legs, though wasn't fully paralyzed. I named him Ironsides and he would ride in my remote controlled car! He never recovered but to memory lived quite some time and made many trips up and down my driveway over the course of his life instead of being digested.

The second one was just a couple of years ago. A local breeder here had some hairless rats and wanted me to sell or feed off the males he produced. I had all plans of putting them down, but one was just too interesting! I put a running wheel in the cage and he went right up to it, stood on his hind legs and spun it with his hand. Best part was, he would spin it as hard as he could when his brother would get in it! I sold his brother, and his behavior got even more interesting. He began to run in the wheel, but only if he thought no one was looking. Every single time, he would run so fast the wheel would flip him *until* he saw a person... then he'd get out and spin it with his hand! I got such a kick out of him I kept him around until a kid in the store wanted him for a pet. FWIW, I've never felt okay feeding "tumored" rodents to my snakes, even though I know consuming cancerous cells can't cause cancer.




*some details in this post may be inaccurate, due to the fact I'm recalling events that occurred when I was about 14.

:eatpointeI know youre asking alternatives to CO2 but it sounds like the butterknife method or hurry up with the CO2 chamber, for sure! I am feeding f/t, but find myself in the same position, if i 'aquire' more snakes, i certainly would like to breed, however i love all animals, even mouseys, so i couldn't kill my new pet, i would have to just not think about it, put it in the chamber and walk away. let us know what you come up with though, it will certainly help me in the future!