Culling Rodents

[Bobo's Mama]

Hey all-

How exactly do you cull your rodents? I'd assume there'd be many ways, CO2, neck breaking, etc. I am just interested in everyone's way of doing so...

Here is what I do:

For pinkies, I do just freeze them. They have no hair, and will die quickly in the freezer. Heck, if you left a pinky on the kitchen counter, it would die from exposure after a few hours. They need the warmth of their mother to keep them alive.

For fuzzies and hoppers, I thump them. I hold them by their left arm, and thump the back of their head/neck with my middle finger and thumb. Yes, they do flop around a bit, but this is totally natural. As long as you do it right, they never squeak or feel a thing.

For anything bigger than a hopper, I use CO2.

Please don't drown them or bite their heads off, or step on them, or generally torture them. Also, if you think about it, a mouse with water in its lungs is going to have ice in its lungs when its f/t, so might be harder to defrost later on when you feed your snakes

 

[maegann]

what is the easiest way to do the co2 method?

 

[TheHated]

I hope these help
http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/

http://www.rodentracks.com/DIY_Co2_Chamber.html

 

[Fenderplayer108]

I hope these help
http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/

http://www.rodentracks.com/DIY_Co2_Chamber.html

A Regular cooler with a hose attached to the water drain part is also very effective.

 

[Drucifer]

i'am sorry, i just dont like rats or mice, they smell and they bite and there just worthless, and drawning them is just as nasty as breaking there neck... but atleast drawning them makes there life flash before there eyes and they get to remember some good bits of there like, breaking there neck gives them no chance to say goodbye to the world.. muhahahaha

Snakes smell. (ish)
Snakes bite.
You saying their wothless too?

 

[Flagg]

The vinegar/baking soda or dry ice methods aren't really very reliable. There is no easy way to control the amount of CO2 produced with these methods, and thus no way to be sure there is enough co2 to keep the rodents from waking back up.

The easiest and best way, in my opinion, is using CO2 tanks for paintball. There are other threads here where this is gone into in detail.

 

[Mike@boakingdom]

i freeze them. that way they just "fall asleep"

Cold blooded animals "fall asleep" and die painlessly when frozen. Warm blooded animals die a slow excrutiatingly painful death when frozen.

I just thought I'd mention this...

 

[Ssthisto]

Cold blooded animals "fall asleep" and die painlessly when frozen. Warm blooded animals die a slow excrutiatingly painful death when frozen.

I just thought I'd mention this...

And there's some evidence that a reptile that isn't already unconscious when it's placed into freezing conditions is awake and aware of the crystallisation of the water in its tissues - which might well be an excruciating sensation akin to warmblooded animals experiencing frostbite.

Generally speaking, I personally would have trouble putting any vertebrate animal into the freezer that had not first been in a high CO2 environment long enough to deeply anesthetise it.

 

[Ssthisto]

i'am sorry, i just dont like rats or mice, they smell and they bite and there just worthless, and drawning them is just as nasty as breaking there neck... but atleast drawning them makes there life flash before there eyes and they get to remember some good bits of there like, breaking there neck gives them no chance to say goodbye to the world.. muhahahaha

I'm not overkeen on mice or rats either - I much prefer my scalies and not least because I can leave them for 24 hours and not have to worry about who's cannibalised whom. (Although one of my feeder breeder females, Reprieve, is growing on me - even though she's heavily pregnant, she climbs up the water bottle to climb onto my arm when I'm maintaining the cage. It's her nice temperament that saved her from being put into the CO2 box in the first place, and I hope I breed more keeper females like her)

However, there's a big, big difference between breaking a rodent's neck (which is an INSTANT death if done correctly and does not cause them any prolonged pain or stress) and drowning it (which is not instant, and causes a great deal of avoidable pain, stress and fear). I don't believe rodents have a concept of 'life flashing before their eyes' - all they know is "I'm wet and I'm cold and I'm terrified and I'm swimming and I'm inhaling water and it HURTS."

A living thing is a living thing, and it's our duty, because we as humans KNOW better, to reduce pain, stress and fear as much as possible - even in the animals we intend to kill as food, as pests, whatever.

That's why I use CO2 - because it anesthetises the animals, so that they are not in pain and do not suffer from stress or fear prior to death.

 

[Jdizzyfizzy]

I'm not overkeen on mice or rats either - I much prefer my scalies and not least because I can leave them for 24 hours and not have to worry about who's cannibalised whom. (Although one of my feeder breeder females, Reprieve, is growing on me - even though she's heavily pregnant, she climbs up the water bottle to climb onto my arm when I'm maintaining the cage. It's her nice temperament that saved her from being put into the CO2 box in the first place, and I hope I breed more keeper females like her)

However, there's a big, big difference between breaking a rodent's neck (which is an INSTANT death if done correctly and does not cause them any prolonged pain or stress) and drowning it (which is not instant, and causes a great deal of avoidable pain, stress and fear). I don't believe rodents have a concept of 'life flashing before their eyes' - all they know is "I'm wet and I'm cold and I'm terrified and I'm swimming and I'm inhaling water and it HURTS."

A living thing is a living thing, and it's our duty, because we as humans KNOW better, to reduce pain, stress and fear as much as possible - even in the animals we intend to kill as food, as pests, whatever.

That's why I use CO2 - because it anesthetises the animals, so that they are not in pain and do not suffer from stress or fear prior to death.

putting it like that, i agree, it was a bad suggestion,