I would recommend whacking it against a hard surface, it's quick and as long as your snakes don't mind a little blood, it will still be twitching so any picky eaters will go for the motion. While I don't disagree that CO2 chambers seem to be effective, i have my doubts that everyone always succeeds with this method, plus it's much cheaper to whack or break the neck wih a spoon, credit card or other method. It sounds like it can be difficult to get the appropriate balance of gases in the chamber to kill the aniamls without problems.

While I haven't tried the CO2 myself, i have heard at least a few people mention how they prefer to whack after seeing rodents "gasping for breath, and taking a long time to die" with this method, so it seems like sometimes the amount of gas is not enough to quickly kill the animals. Although from my experience working at a Vet's, animals that are humanely ethanised (sp) will sometimes spasm and make noise even though the brain is not feeling any pain-so really, it depends on your own personal ethics and how many animals you will be prekilling. If this is a long term thing and you need to kill multiple animals around the same time, the CO2 may be more time effective for

you. You can always try what sounds good to you and experiment. best of luck!

[ Hide Replies ]

• quick ways to pre-kill??? - ballfreak, Tue Nov 14 14:19:52 2006
• RE: quick ways to pre-kill??? - reptileinnovations, Tue Nov 14 14:53:56 2006
• RE: quick ways to pre-kill??? - ballfreak, Tue Nov 14 15:19:00 2006
• RE: quick ways to pre-kill??? - darkbloodwyvern, Tue Nov 14 15:27:24 2006
• Clean and quick, and other than CO2 - amarilrose, Tue Nov 14 18:35:03 2006
• RE: Clean and quick, and other than CO2 - ballfreak, Tue Nov 14 19:02:42 2006
• RE: Clean and quick, and other than CO2 - amarilrose, Tue Nov 14 19:18:54 2006