Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently have 2 breeding colonies of mice 1.4 to each tank, and have a rat colony of 1.2, so far most of my snakes have been eating live, and I have only fed off the hopper mice. 2 of my snakes are used to eating frozen/thawed which i have been buying already frozen.
What is the best way to kill the mice/rat offspring for future feeding purposes. I have heard of CO2 chambers, but looking into that, the CO2 kits are very expensive, and when I try to "whack" them, it usually doesn't happen on the first try. My technique needs some improvement.
Has anyone ever tried vaccum packing?

I vacuum pack mice and rats for later feedings, but only after they are already dead, and frozen. Vacuum sealing a live rodent would certainly kill it, but...dang! That's harsh. Even with the whole "is it humane" issue set aside, there is at least one more thing to consider. It could get messy. I have learned to freeze mine (for at least a couple of hours) before I seal them just for that reason. Even the home-use vacuum sealers can turn a pinky into jelly. It wouldn't be AS bad for full grown mice or rats, but I suspect it would still be unpleasant.

Killing by C02 doesn't have to be expensive. If you kill several at one time or even within a day or so, Dry ice and water are pretty easy to come by in most areas and not too expensive. I say 'within a day or so' because dry ice won't last much longer than that in your freezer, and you usually buy it by the pound. It becomes cost-prohibitive if you are buying a pound of dry ice to kill 2 rats. I have heard that some people generate C02 by mixing vinegar and baking soda (a la science-fair volcanoe). I actually attempted this a few times when I first started breeding. I wasn't too successful. It took a whole lot of both ingregients to produce enough CO2, I made an enormous mess, and the rodents ended up smelling like pickles.

One thing that DID work pretty well for small "batches" was the little bb-gun CO2 cylinders. In the camping gear department of your local Targetwalmartwhatever, look for a camp-stove pressurizer. Someone apparently go tired of having to pump air into his camp stovelantern to pressurize it every 15 minutes. So they came up with this little device that screws on instead of the cap. You pop a CO2 canister in it, turn the knob and the gas is released. is you have a small number of rodents and a fairly small container, this does work. You may also visit the "head-shop" in your town (don't lie, you know where it is). They often sell "crackers", or "poppers" or something like that that people use to open nitrous oxide containers (similar in size and shape to Co2). My store was out of them when I asked. Must be pretty popular.

Disclaimer: Crotus does not believe that inhaling anything other than air (and occasionally helium to sound funny) is very bright. Those people who do so to "catch a buzz" are stupid, and deserve what they get.

One thing I forgot to mention about the little bb-gun CO2 cannisters. They don't JUST contain CO2. There also seems to be a small amount of some sort of oil inside, probably to lubricate the air-rifle-type devices for which they were intended. If you use one of these things, stick it in a sock or something before you toss it in with your rodents. The sock with allow the CO2 trhough, and stop any spattering of liquid CO2 or oil droplets that may occur

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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Gray Ghost & Pink
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
1.0 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Silvered Black - Pluto
1.0 Powder Blue - Corner
0.1 Dumbo Siamese - Lily
Plus the breeders & babies
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

hmm, i had never thought of dry ice as an option. How much do you think it would take to kill off around 6 mice or 3-4 rat pups? a pound or 2? and how do u make sure the job is done?
I know you're supposed to use hot water with dry ice, but after a while it gets cold, and then the dry ice can take quite a while to finish disolving. Also what kind of container would u reccommend? most of the plastic stuff i have now, i dont think would work as the lids arent air tight (rubber maid storage containers- shoe box sized to 44 quart i think)

1 pound is going to be way more than enough. You don't have to use hot water, but the change in state from solid to gas would probably occur a little faster if you did. Your container doesn't need to be air tight. In fact is is better if it isn't. As the CO2 begins to fill the container (from the bottom up, CO2 is heavier than air)the "regular air" is pushed upwards and out of the container. The real concern is making sure that the container is deep enough to keep the rodents from escaping out the top or being able to stick their heads above the CO2 'cloud'. There have been many posts here describing everyone's favorite technique for dry ice. The main points are:

Dry ice (Solid CO2) water = CO2 gas
Do something to keep the rodents out of the dry ice/water mixture
Some people use a 2 container system, other use a platform of
some kind etc. The point is you don't want wet or frost-
bitten mice, just dead ones

As far as how long it takes, that will dependa lot on how big the container is compared to how much CO2 is being produced. Also, don't try to dispatch pinkies with CO2. They are MUCH more resistant to it's effects than even the slightly older fuzzies. They will eventually die but it could take up to (or more than) 10 times as long, and that just doesn't seem right. For mice, it'll take a couple of minutes at most once the "fog" really starts to roll in.

like crotus said it dosent need to be air tight.

A couple months ago my friend and i got some dry ice (that i got in an order from rodent pro) and decided to see how much dry ice and water it would take to make at small soda bottle go well "boom". It wasnt very bright but were just teenagers and had to see.

well needless to say it blew up in my hands screwed up my hearing for about a month.

Sorry got off topic.....

Id say make sure there is a little hole so pressure dosent build up...for your well being..

hahaha i got off topic

RV
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Corns
0.0.1 03' Amel
0.0.1 03' Normal
0.0.1 04' Ghost