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and also clean. thanks/

Humanely Killing Prey

There are a number of ways of killing prey most of which involve the rapid separation of the vertebrae at the neck just below the base of the skull. Some people can do this quickly by hand; others recommend the use of a spoon. Still others recommend blunt trauma to effect immediate unconsciousness and death.

There is, however, an easier way that is less traumatic to the mammalian prey animal, ensures immediate unconsciousness followed almost instantaneously by death. This is done by setting up a tank, be it a deep aquarium, bucket or rubber or plastic wastebasket set aside for this use, and filling it half full of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Once the tank is thus 'charged,' the prey animal is placed inside (be careful to not get your head too close to the tank as the gas is quite capable of knocking you unconscious, too). It is immediately rendered unconscious and is killed within a few minutes. The killed prey can then be removed (it is recommended that you use long kitchen or barbecue tongs), and set aside to be fed out or frozen for later use. Let the gas dissipate outside by setting the tank outside for a couple of hours.

You can get CO2 relatively inexpensively in a gaseous form in tanks from welder's supply shops, and in solid form (as dry ice) from ice houses; these suppliers may be found in the telephone yellow pages.

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_01.asp

thanks for that very helpful reply.

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!

While I have not ever used CO2 gas to kill rodents, if that method is cost-effective for you, go for it.

I don't use CO2 because the current low-volume of rodent killing that I do just doesn't justify its use or expense (no matter how cheap). I can add however, that I am a college student majoring in Animal Science, and actually asked my Meat Science professor about the safety of using CO2 to kill animals intended for consumption (because I was biased, and was concerned that animals killed this way might be mildly toxic when consumed) - he told me that CO2 actually used to be used for cattle and swine for human consumption (so MANY studies have been done on how safe this is)... that it is perfectly safe, but also that no animals are killed this way anymore for human consumption because the big processing plants just couldn't get enough efficiency out of that killing method.

For my own low-volume killing of rodents, I use leather gloves, a paper towel, and a screwdriver; I think a phillip's-head or torx head is best because they don't have a tip that can snag the floor, unlike some larger flat-head screwdrivers. I prefer using a screwdriver that has a shank around 4" or more. The leather gloves are for me - mice and especially older rats can be mean. I spread the paper towel on any appropriate spot on the floor (in the middle of an open space, and away from any carpet so I have a chance to grab the mouse/rat again if it should get away), hold the rodent by the base of the tail (closest to its butt), pin it down with the shank of the screwdriver held just behind the head, and give a quick jerk to the tail. This is that "rapid separation of the vertebrae at the neck just below the base of the skull." There is no blood to worry about. The paper towel is for the urine and/or feces that are almost inevitably released by the animal as it expires. The animal will still twitch for a little while (but not long) if that is something your snake needs to see. I have been killing rodents in this way for the past 15 years or so, and feel much more confident that this is humane than any of the spoon/credit card/etc. methods, and definitely happier with this than with "whacking" them.

Good luck, and I'm sorry that I am not so quick at explaining this.
~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]

i find your replies to be very interesting and informative. so no you are not rambling on.(lol) as far as the co2 chamber i actually have one and used it a few times, but most of my snakes were not interested in dead. i tried moving the prey around but with 10" tweesers and not hemostats which i intend to buy a 24" one. my promblem with feeding dead is that if i just leave the dead rat in i can not come back to check the next day to see if it ate it or not as my collection as not at my house and i feed and go back every few days so i cant leave a dead rat in there if its not eaten in 24hours. i would love to see the way you kill your rats? why not tape it and post it on youtube.com that would be great. until i move closer to where i keep my collection i have to probably feed only live. unless i try to feed prekilled and wait around an hour then just remove it if not eaten? what do you think about that? thanks again.

Actually, I rambled on in the post just before this one about how I feed my snakes f/t prey (and the same applies to pre-killed).

Wherever your collection is, depending on your arrangement, I would think that placing the prey in with your snake, then checking on it 20 minutes later (my own method) should work a little better for you than waiting 24 hours - this way, any refused prey items can be offered to another snake or frozen for later use before they get stinky... but I limit refreezing for quality control to just once.

...but I am too cheap/poor and short of time to be able to film the process and post it online. Sorry.

Anyhow, good luck
~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]