Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how do you guys prekill your rodents? I simply put them in a bag and smash that bag against the wall really hard...it always seems to work for me. I have had limited success with the head-grab-tail-pull method. Maybe I am doing it wrong. C02 seems like the best way to go. Any other methods?

I feed rats and I let the snake do the killing as long as the rats are small and not a threat. Anything bigger I swing em by the tail into the corner of the cage or somthing else solid. If you know what your doing its probobly the quickest.
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Jason

I pick mine up by the tail & thump them, but, I'm going to start using CO2, now that I'm playing paintball. Last time I killed a large batch, I vented my CO2 into a gallon sised ziploc baggy fill of mice. Everything stopped moving within a couple seconds. I'm going to get a preset On/Off switch, so I can regulate CO2 & snuff 'em. A preset on/off screws onto a CO2 tank, and it has a valve on it that you turn on & off. Find a plastic fitting that the threads fit, and attach it to a bucket, and cover the top of the bucket.
http://www.firstcallpaintball.com/pages-productinfo/product-735/smart-parts-smart-parts-preset-on-off-valve.html?zenid=d61f489baf8659f1b71c4c2c3872c311
that's the on/off I'm talking about. You can find other things, but that's the cheapest I've found.
For CO2, you can get a small tank under $10. Look for a 6 or 9oz. Refilling is normally 10-15 cents per ounce, and I'd imagine that a 6 oz. tank would be good to kill a 5 gallon bucket worth of mice (i mean.. filling the bottom of it.. not the whole bucket..) a handful of times. At least 6 or 8 batches. You only need to vent a tiny bit of CO2 to put them under.
Works great. I've thumped mice for years, and every once in a while, you thump one too hard and blood squirts. When you do the bag thing, every once in a while the bag will break, and rodents fly out.

Dry Ice works to.
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Jason

Dry ice works the same way, because it replaces all of the oxygen with CO2. But, dry ice is more expensive, and sometimes people have a difficult time getting dry ice. I know in my town, I can't get anything less than a block of it for $20. Plus, dry ice is a one time thing. Use it once, it's gone, go buy more.
For a lot of people, paintball CO2 tanks is cheaper & easier.

I agree, CO2 in a 20 oz paintball tank is the best way to go. Controlled release, always on hand, cheap refills. Sure there's an initial cost outlay but after that refills are free or 1.00 for me.

Dry ice and baking soda/vinegar are very unreliable and impossible to control the CO2 output. Dry ice only lasts for so long in the freezer and most goes to waste. Considering the cost per use, refillable co2 tanks are far cheaper. Not to mention it's the only real humane way ti euthanize feeder rodents, short of proper cervical dislocation.

I have no idea what dry ice costs, I just know it works also. But I would agree that a bottle of co2 would be alot more convenient.
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Jason

correctly!! Picture speaks a thousand words!

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2.1 RTB (Zander, Ridick, Liliana)
1.1 Burms (Vladamir, Natalia)
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic (Katerina)
1.1 100% Het Tigers (Nicholi & Charlamaine)
2.3 Silver fox rabbits
many, many, many, many rats
"So, just how big a boy are ya???!!"

Actually I had my son do it for me.He whacked the mouse so hard it broke the plastic bag open and mouse guts went all over the wall, the mouse disinegrated....I told him to hit it hard so it would die right off and not sit there half dead and suffer, I only CO2 now, that I can handle..
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lol oh geez...mouse guts all over the wall does not sound like a pleasant experience....maybe I will just try the head-neck-pull method....

I've tried it all, save for gassing. My girlfriend is an expert swinger (no funny comments, plz ). She grabs the tail, whirl, whirl, whirl - rat faceplant.

I used to be real good at thumping, but once I thumped him, and dropped him in the feeding cage, just to check back in an hour and see him sleeping on top of my ball. I also accidently busted an eye...and that is probably worse than spilling guts.

Now I lay them on a table, let them crawl a few inches, then press the edge of my hand firmly against the ridge of the skull and pull straight up on the tail. They kick 2-3 times then stop. Very easy, and as ethical as physical euthanization can be.
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1.0 Saharan Uromastyx (Jaina)
1.1 Armadillo Lizards (Turbo & Jet)
0.0.1 Chinese Water Dragons (Indra)
2.2 Ball Pythons (Scooter, BigBoy, Fatman, Wookiee)
0.1 Red Tail Boa (Killer)
1.1 Emperor Scorpions (Hacker & Chopper)
1.0 Rose-Hair Tarantula (Hera)
0.1 Stripped-knee Tarantula (Zeus)
1.1 Gerbils (Pinky, Factory) ^_^