Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my ball python for about a year now with no feeding problems up until now. I have been feeding my ball live mice and rats since he has been born and it seems that the bigger the food item, the more they want to fight back. Luckily they haven't bitten or harmed my snake in any way but they are starting to scratch at him with thier hind legs while being killed. I know I'm probably going to take a lot of heat from everyone out there about feeding live but I believe in letting my snake hunt for his food. Plus he won't eat frozen...I've tried. Anyway my question is, would anyone be able to tell me a humane way to kill rats? I'm not talking about taking them by the tail and smacking thier heads against the table, I don't agree with that. I know the rat will eventually die, just not by my hand. I'm looking for the most humane way to do this for the protection of my snake and peace of mind for me. If anyone can help me with this I would greatly appriciate it. Thank you.

will work but rats tolerate high CO2. Mice knock off much more quickly with it. The smacking technique is actually quite humane if done properly. It's a learned skill.
Scott J. Michaels DVM

Don't kid yourself, they all die by your hands. Whacking is probably the easiest and one of the most humane ways to kill rats, but if you've got the time to set up a CO2 chamber, knock yourself out.

Thanks for the quick reply's everyone. My girlfriend works at as a vet tech and can get the chambers at wholesale prices for me. As of right now I think I might try that and see how it goes. When I stated earlier that I tried feeding frozen I did mean that I thawed it out...not offered right out of the freezer. One thing I do wish to know, when I think of C02 I automatically think of the bottles you can get at almost any paintball shop...guess it's cause I used to work at one and that's what quickly comes to mind. Could I just go to the paintball shop and buy a bottle of C02 and use that for the chamber? Any other information would be useful on how to go about this procedure. Thanks again everyone.

When I was in college and getting a lot of free mice (in the late 70's) I used to put about 50 mice in a large plastic garbage bag, then with a 5 second blast with a CO2 fire extinguisher, they were all dispatched. This technique didn't work as well for rats. SJM

First of all I hope you did'nt try frozen. I hope you thawed and warmed to the right temp. The rodent in Question should feel warm to the touch. Frozen would only get puked up, thats if the snake were dumb enough to swallow it in the first place. Pythons have heat sensing organs,{those little holes along the lips} and they can tell if is warm enough at a glance. Most prefer warm blooded prey. Thats how they evolved heat sensing pits. Necessity is the mother of all invention.
Tony.

As your pray gets bigger you can hold the tails of the prey items just above the ground. Let your BP come hunt for it and strike it in the air. With the mouse/rat dangling in one place, they 99% of time get a good head strike and the kill is quick and swift.

Right now my BPs are small so I use leather gloves and hold their adult mice by hand. I would suggest that tongs would be best.

It has worked well for me since balls are not as fast or as aggressive hunters as Rainbows and Redtails.

Good luck.
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-Iman

1.1 Sugar Gliders
2.0 Balls (Spot and Speck)
0.1 Colombian BCI (Belle)
1.0 Colombian Rainbow (Rex)

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Unless you're killing a large number of mice/rats with CO2 a chamber can be a real pain to set up. I know cause I tried just for feed my two snakes. It's actually less work to switch over to frozen/thawed. Spend a few feeding session with 2 prey items. A small live one and a small f/t one. First sent the f/t one with the live one by putting them in the same container. Try to include some shavings from the live ones cage. Feed the live one and right after your snake does that last little stretch of the neck where you hear the bones break introduce the f/t one. It should take it cause the feeding response is one. Also try leaving a f/t over night a few times when it passes feeding day. This way it's hungry and out looking for food at night. Missing a few days of feeding is not a big deal. In the long run it's a whole lot easier than gassing mice every week.