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Frozen mice: Hole in their chest?

patm1313

patm1313

Pyromaniac
Well, as I was warming up my mice, I realized that some had little holes in their chest. I'm going to take a guess and say that the breeder pierced their heart to kill them. Am I correct, and is this a humane way to kill them?
 
That's what I thought. I got them from a local petstore BTW. And actually this was the first time I hav gotten quality mice from a local place. Some of the mice dont's have holes in them though...
 
Are you sure it isn't freezer burn?

If nothing else, go to the supplier and ask them.
 
Jrgh17 said:
Are you sure it isn't freezer burn?

If nothing else, go to the supplier and ask them.
Click to expand...

It's a perfect round hole in the dead center of their chest. They look really fresh. I highly doubt that it's freezer burn. I'm going to take the pictures right now.
 
Oops, must have fed the ones with the holes to my snake... So no pictures. What I'm worried the most about (if anything) is that it was a syringe. That's not cool.
 
patm1313 said:
Oops, must have fed the ones with the holes to my snake... So no pictures. What I'm worried the most about (if anything) is that it was a syringe. That's not cool.
Click to expand...
Are you seriously suggesting that instead of cervical dislocation or co2, these mice (which you fed off before getting a picture of :uhoh:) were killed fiendishly with a heart-piercing implement?
Really? Honestly? Cross your heart?
 
patm1313 said:
Oops, must have fed the ones with the holes to my snake... So no pictures. What I'm worried the most about (if anything) is that it was a syringe. That's not cool.
Click to expand...



if you were really that worried about why would you feed it to your snake? what if your thinking is right and they did pump it full of something until it died(im not sayin thats right, cause i really have no idea what the hole is) you prolly should have asked the question before you fed if your that worried about it
 
It would need to be a HUGE syringe to leave a hole big enough for you to notice in the heart. When injections to the heart are given as part of the euthanisation process (for pets, not feeders), they tend to be given with very fine gauge insulin syringes ... certainly not going to leave enough of a mark for you to notice through the fur!
 
Yes, there were 2 mice out of 10 that I got with a perfect, absolute prefect hole in their chests. I doubt it's a needle, but I thnki that that was what was used to kill them. I doubt the breeder used co2 as they were pinkies and pinkieas are naturally resistant to co2 euthanization.

About feeding them to my snake, I just wasn't paying attention.
 
Nanci said:
So how do feeder breeders kill pinks, or do I even want to know?

http://tinyurl.com/2drr8q
Click to expand...

Not so sure you want to know.....
from what I understand most pinkies are killed by freezing.
I am sure their death is sheer agony for them, but I understand death takes place in a minute or less.

I am a wuss who buys all food frozen so if I am wrong, please correct me :)
 
Pinkies being "immune" to CO2 comes up quite often - now, as mammals, pinkies do indeed breath oxygen, so they will certainly be asphyxiated by high levels of carbon dioxide. The confusion comes in because pinkies are very good at surviving on very little oxygen for periods of time ... because of the way they pile in the nest and are often smothered, they have evolved to be able to cope with low oxygen levels for periods of time. This means that CO2ing a pinky takes much longer than CO2ing an older mouse.

With older animals, ice crystals forming while the animal is conscious means that freezing is a painful and horrific death, but with new pinkies they are so small that unconsciousness occurs before the crystals have time to be created, so freezing is humane for them. I can't find any references to this at the moment but I'll certainly check the lab standards for this if anyone really is interested.
 
I have a feeling that some large scale feeder breeders flash freeze (liquid nitrogen) pinks and fuzzies. I think that's why places like RodentPro have some broken limbs/heads in bags. Evidently this method of freezing makes the item REALLY brittle for the first minute or two. Flash freezing would be humane because under 3 seconds they would be dead.
 
blckkat said:
I have a feeling that some large scale feeder breeders flash freeze (liquid nitrogen) pinks and fuzzies. I think that's why places like RodentPro have some broken limbs/heads in bags. Evidently this method of freezing makes the item REALLY brittle for the first minute or two. Flash freezing would be humane because under 3 seconds they would be dead.
Click to expand...

i was wondering the same thing about rodentpro
 
blckkat said:
I have a feeling that some large scale feeder breeders flash freeze (liquid nitrogen) pinks and fuzzies. I think that's why places like RodentPro have some broken limbs/heads in bags. Evidently this method of freezing makes the item REALLY brittle for the first minute or two. Flash freezing would be humane because under 3 seconds they would be dead.
Click to expand...

This makes me feel worlds better!
 
All pro breeders either use c02, flash freezing, or normal freezing. Freezing live pinkies is no problem, as they are almost immediatley unconcious, so that ice crystals can form without them feeling pain. C02 works great on older mice, and especially in large quantities. Flash freezing: You probably can't do many mice at a time, bt it is humane, and some companies even boast that flash freezing preserves them better.

I'm not really worried about the holes, as I have already fed them to my snake.
 
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