Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there some sort of "spring loaded concussion" device?

It eats me up every time I have to "whack" a mouse several times to knock it out. this little white guy today withstood some horrific attempts to knock him out, it still is bothering me.

We spoil our feeder mice rotten right up to the last moment, and we have too many snakes to keep buying frozens....

Live feeding is interesting to watch, but it hurts me more to see a mouse bite one of my snakes.

If you ever have live prey hurt a snake, be sure to put some antibiotic on the wound, or it may become infected.

Thanks for ANY advice.

Wayne A. Harvey

Some of our snakes - Click here

No "execution" machine that I'm aware of on the market, and even if there was, I seriously doubt it would be as effective as forcefully slamming the rodent onto a concrete floor. I'm not trying to be funny, or grotesque here either, just bluntly honest.

I've raised tons of rodents when I had the proper facility, but I don't live where I used to anymore, so I find that buying frozen by the bulk, is extremely cheap and convenient, when compared to feeding expense, cleaning, etc...for live rodents, it just isn't worth the hassle and stink for me to raise them anymore.

And yes, after 41 years of owning thousands of snakes, I've had live rodents hurt some nice specimens too, which is yet another good reason for feeding F/T feeders. I'm not about to risk a rodent gnawing on a rare, expensive snake of mine anymore.

Also, the freezing kills any potentially harmful parasites from the prey rodent. So after all is said and done, this is why so many choose to feed frozen.

Large scale rodent companies usually kill their rodents with Co2 gas, it's fairly quick, and harmless to the snake's they are fed to. To be honest, I think "whacking" the rodent HARD on the concrete is a much quicker, and humane way to go, versus being slowly suffocated by the animal. They don't even know what hit them if you do it correctly. If you're going to kill them yourself, I think the "SLAM" method is actually nicer to the rodent, it just "seems" more grotesque to certain humans.

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks Doug, and I love that snake you posted.

I was just feeling really guilty after whacking this tough little mouse 4 times and it still wouldn't "go to the light"

We keep the mice well, so there really is not much stink. Even though they are feeders, I try to be as good to them as I can.

Think about it, if a farmer was abusing his beef, the burgers would never make it to the store.

Fortunately I inherited a 40 acre place, so we should not be moving anytime soon.

I have been obsessive with snakes since 1970, to the point now where I built several wetlands and a hibernaculum in our back yard.

Raising food is not a problem here, We even have a "Slug farm" in the basement for feeding the little ground snakes during the winter.

Where does it end?

Some of our snakes - Click here

I totally understand, and I'm glad you have the facility to properly raise the rodents, in addition to all the other interesting things you have going on there. I like animals as well, and hate to see things get mistreated, and I agree, just because they are feeder rodents, surely doesn't mean they should have sub-par living conditions. Sounds like you're doing a great job of keeping them nice and healthy.

Just try to make absolutely sure that when you slam a rodent, do it HARD enough to make it count. As I mentioned before, a hard, swift slam to a concrete slab will ensure that they do NOT feel a thing,.......this is the humanest way I know of, ......honest.

Oh, and thanks for the compliment of the snake photo, It has a genetic color mutation, and they are known as an "Extreme" hypomelanistic Honduran Milksnake. If you didn't know already, hypomelanism literally means........reduced melanin(dark pigmentation. The "extreme" gene, takes this even further, and the snake is left with silvery gray bands, instead of lighter black ones, and even has "ruby-red" eyes(hard to see in photo).

Here is a normal example of the same type of snake, so you can get a good idea of what a big difference this genetic mutation has on the look of these animals.

best regards, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

The prescribed method for dispatching feeder rodents, according to the health department here in AZ,is to hold their head against a counter top and pull back and up on the tail with a quick, strong motion. The result should be a rodent with a broken neck and a relatively quick and painless death. Of course, this takes practice and many things can go wrong. Once you get the hang of it, though, you can be a regular executioner!
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Diego

Ah,.....that's very interesting, but that's a little more "hands-on" than I usually care for!..LOL!, and like you said, unless done correctly, many things can go wrong(which I can easily picture). The swift way I used to "whack" them before buying bulk frozen, they never new what hit them.

I can just picture someone who's already hesitant and squeemish trying to do the "yank" method you mentioned, and failing miserably,......and wind up just slamming it against the floor anyway...LOL!.....meanwhile, the poor rodent is being tortured the whole time until it finally meets it's demize against the concrete floor.

I don't have to "whack" many these days, but if I do, I won't try to "reinvent the wheel", I'll just do it the way I've done it for decades,.....velocity, and concrete!..LOL!

later Diego!, ~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I feed f/t mice to all my snakes that I purchase in bulk, but there have been a few times where my only option was live feeders from a pet shop...to me it's just not worth the risk so I had to kill them, and I used the method just described (hold head down and jerk tail). It isn't hard and is very quick.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Hannibal)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
0.0.1 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amel. corn snake (Morgan LaFay) RIP
0.0.2 baby corns (Romulus and Remus)
- 1 normal, 1 ghost
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.1 garden phase amazon tree boas (Pegasus, Lenore)
0.0.1 baby yellow amazon tree boa (affectionately called
Snuggles)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (maybe Octavian)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 bassett hound/black and tan coonhound mix (Luke)
0.1 Boxer (Zoe)
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)
2.0 rats (Pan, no name yet)

a couple of other options, at home depot or my favorite harbor freight tools you can get a spring loaded center punch. basically a pointy bit of metal attached to a heavy spring. (used by machinists, cast about $5.00) when cocked you press against the rodents head and pop dead rodent. Also I use 14" hemostats (get these at a medical supply store, your vet or doctor (or yellow pages) can tell you where to go) for feeding. Mine are surgical steel and will last a lifetime. they come in different sizes too. grasp the rodent by the neck and give a quick hard squeeze. cervical vertebrae are crushed and spine severed = instant death. plus side no blood.
cheers
mike

CO2 works really well and is my preferred choice. I go to university and so just get a little chunk of dry ice from the science labs, then put the mouse in with the ice for 20-30 seconds; the gas puts the mouse right to sleep (the way I'd prefer to die, rather than slow freezing or snapped spine or THUNK). Just be careful to take the mouse out as soon as it stops moving, so it doesn't get too cold.
I have been feeding my BRB this way since I got him three months ago and it works beautifully. Also it's the least "hands on" which is good for a squeamish girl like me!