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killing mice

phazei

phazei

New member
What's the best way to kill mice?
I usually get froozen mice, but once in a while I get live ones.

I asked the pet shop and they gave me a few suggestions non of which worked well.

With once mouse a pushed his neck down with a pencil and yanked his tail, but he kept on twitching. I'm pretty sure I snapped his neck the first time but he kept moving so I kept yanking his tail till his eyes almost poped out. I didn't like that very much.

The other suggestion was the grab them by the tail and smack them really hard on a hard counter. I figured they'd get knocked out pretty fast. Well, I had to smack him 3 times before he stopped moving and was dead. It was a bit bloody as well.

For a few of them I had I figured whip-it's would be good. The dentist gives it to patients to knock them out, so I figured it would be painless. So I had like 6 mice in a plastic bag, I pushed most of the air out, then cracked a NO2 cartridge into it. They all looked like they started having seizures. They twitched for a minute or so then stopped moving.

A few others I just tossed the bag in the freezer with them squirming around. I didn't have to watch them twitch, but afterwards I thought that was probably painfull for them to freeze to death.

How can I kill them fast when I need to without pain? I thought gassing them with laughing gas would be the best but they twitched to much. Help?

Thanks,
Adam
 
I don't kill mice myself, but I know that many people who use feeders construct their own "CO2" chambers. Run a search for that, there are loads of threads about it.

Just out of curiosity: why do you buy live mice if you kill them before giving them to your snake?
 
Get a small tupperware container and cut a hole in the top of the cover....fill it about half way with warm-hot water and put some dry ice in.....put the cover on and put the little dryice/water container in a box....allow the gas/smoke to seep out and cover the whole bottom of the box...then you can put your mice/rats in (careful not to put them in/on the dryice/water container as they could get frostbite) and within minutes they are knocked out.
 
I work in the LAS (Lab Animal Science) department for a Biomedical research corporation where we work exclusively with mice and rats. The dry ice works with adult mice, but not pinkies or fuzzies because they breathe so little oxygen they could survive for serveral hours in a container with CO2. Here we usually behead the young mice or snap their necks.
If the mouse is twitching when you snap it's neck that is completely normal. You are cutting off the nerve centers to kill them, but in essence their muscles and everything below their neck is still alive. The muscles can remain in contact with the nerves in the brain for up to 10 minutes after the death of the brain. Don't worry, they don't feel anything, they are dead, but can continue to twitch and move.
Spinal pithing also works, but can be messy. That is where you take a styllus probe and push it into the base of the neck. Hold the mouse on the table, from the base of the neck pointing toward the head/brain push it in, then twist it back and forth. This instantaniously severs the spinal cord and nerves, but again the mouse will continue to twitch.

Good Luck!
 
i snap the neck and as soon as you feel it snap and they start twitching put them in the freezer till you need them or feed them to the snake
 
JenC said:
Get a small tupperware container and cut a hole in the top of the cover....fill it about half way with warm-hot water and put some dry ice in.....put the cover on and put the little dryice/water container in a box....allow the gas/smoke to seep out and cover the whole bottom of the box...then you can put your mice/rats in (careful not to put them in/on the dryice/water container as they could get frostbite) and within minutes they are knocked out.
Click to expand...

Wow,thats a cool way to do it (without sounding cruel)
The supplier where i get mine offers live,dead as well as frozen pinks/mice/rats etc

Mine only eat live (maybe they dont like TV dinners :shrugs: )
At least i know how to know them out if i ever have that problem
Thanks JenC :wavey:
 
Lennycorn said:
Here's a thought....stick with frozzen/thaw mice. :shrugs:
Click to expand...

Uh, some people dont have access to f/t and some need to breed their own feeders....There isnt anythin wrong with it.

And your welcome, gnarhimself
 
I made a home-style gassing chamber with 2 ziplock twist top containers, some aquarium tubing and one of those really small cups with the lid, you connect the aquarium tubing from the top of the 'mixing container' to the 'holding container' then you put an additional hole in the top of the holding container and put tubing in there as well. you put baking soda in the mixing container, put a little vinager in the cup, put your mice in the holding container, then seal the lids on. you gently mix the vinager and baking soda and the co2 released will travel out the top of the mixer into the holder, once you're done mixing you block the vent tube on the holding container and wait a coupl minutes. It'll work with pinkies, but it can take upto an hour before they stop breathing.
 
sbourget said:
it work with pinkies, but it can take upto an hour before they stop breathing.
Click to expand...

Up to an hour????? Maybe you have a leaky set up. I have a baking soda/vinegar set up too and my pinkies and fuzzies stop breathing in about 5 minutes....and they are dead within 20 (I leave them in there 20 minutes to be sure, I'm not sure if it takes 10 15 or 20 min, but by 20 they are always 100% dead.
 
JenC said:
Uh, some people dont have access to f/t and some need to breed their own feeders....There isnt anythin wrong with it.

And your welcome, gnarhimself
Click to expand...

If you read the first post....
phazei states "I usually get frozen mice, but once in a while I get live ones."

So I think he has access to f/t mice.
But way would you buy live and then kill them.????

Frozen mice kills all of the parasites and wouldn't harm your snake (bitting and scratching) during feeding. Let alone you don't have to go through the hassle of killing mice. Usually this is done when you don't have access to live or you raise your own feeders but to go out and buy live and then kill them when you have access to f/t mice just make me wonder. :shrugs:
 
It was when I first got my snake. One time I wanted to try getting him live. Another time the pet store I get my mice at didn't have frozen mice big enough. I would have had to feed him 3 at the size they were. The live ones were a little bigger. So I got those.
Recently since he hasn't been eating I've needed to keep thawing and throwing away mice. So I decided to buy a live one so I didn't need to throw it away if he didn't eat. I just held it above him everyday. Then let it crawl around him. He showed no interest so I just put it back in it's own box. After a week I couldn't take care of the mouse anymore so I snapped his neck and threw it away. (my g/f kept taking it out and playing with it, I didn't want to start liking it so I tossed it before I had a pet mouse).

-Adam
 
phazei said:
It was when I first got my snake. One time I wanted to try getting him live. Another time the pet store I get my mice at didn't have frozen mice big enough. I would have had to feed him 3 at the size they were. The live ones were a little bigger. So I got those.
Recently since he hasn't been eating I've needed to keep thawing and throwing away mice. So I decided to buy a live one so I didn't need to throw it away if he didn't eat. I just held it above him everyday. Then let it crawl around him. He showed no interest so I just put it back in it's own box. After a week I couldn't take care of the mouse anymore so I snapped his neck and threw it away. (my g/f kept taking it out and playing with it, I didn't want to start liking it so I tossed it before I had a pet mouse).

-Adam
Click to expand...

Where do you live??
 
It's not so much we have leaky set up. Its that Our mice are healthy as heck. And Are smotherd almost all the time by the mothers. So Their used to it. I'm used to just leaving them in there. Plus at the time we were testing the pinks. We were still adjusting the baking soda/vineger mixture to be perfect.
 
Baba-Lou said:
It's not so much we have leaky set up. Its that Our mice are healthy as heck. And Are smotherd almost all the time by the mothers. So Their used to it. I'm used to just leaving them in there. Plus at the time we were testing the pinks. We were still adjusting the baking soda/vineger mixture to be perfect.
Click to expand...


??? OK. ?????
 
Here we go again! There isn't any real need to kill them. A quick thump on the head will render them harmless as far as hurting the snake goes. If you have "feelings" for rodents, then the "humane" ways mentioned are good. :wavey:
 
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I've tried politely asking them to fall over and stop breathing now.......

But the rotten dirty little scoundrels just will not cooperate........

Here:
CO2 Chamber
 
mbdorfer said:
Here we go again! There isn't any real need to kill them. A quick thump on the head will render them harmless as far as hurting the snake goes. If you have "feelings" for rodents, then the "humane" ways mentioned are good.
Click to expand...

The difference are large productions. I have to kill my mice because I produce more than needed at any one time. So I, like many other people, need to kill them and freeze them for later.
 
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