Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a bit of a morbid question for those of you who raise your own feeder rabbits.

Ive been doing it for awhile, but I just cant find a good, humane, efficient, clean way to take care of them.

I do freeze mine before I feed, or at least feed pre-killed.

Im sorry if this or any replies gross anyone out. But if you are into this hobby, this is part of the deal. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Dustin
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

What do you mean by "take care of them"? Do you mean raising them? maintenance? husbandry?

Or do you mean killing them?

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I did mean killing them by this. I know about the feeding and caging and such. Im just tryin to find a quick, clean way to euthanize them.

Sorry for the confusion.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

You mean I wrote all that for nothing? lol. that's fine I type fast with many errors. The thing my pa pa used to do is he had a thick sheet of iron and we would prop that up on a shed or tree or something and grab the rabbits by the hind legs and sling them right into it. Making sure their head neck and back hit it. Do this as hard as you can with adult rabbits(unless you are a body builder or abnormaly strong). This usualy kills them faster than anything, they don't even jump and kick most of the time. You can also break the neck by well breaking their neck. How have you been doing it. I don't realy like to do the hard blow to the head with rabbits or even large rats because they don't die unes you smash the bones in the head. Also it is very bloody.
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Justin

The ones ive had to kill so far I just did the brunt blow to the head. On the larger animals, this worked fine, but I was having a hard time hitting that perfect spot on some of the smaller ones. I figured just whackin em might be a bit more messy, But it looks like thats my main resort. I have an shed with a concrete floor so I will just be using that.

Thanks for the posts. I appreciate the info very much, and any more will also be appreciated.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

Well, I'm just starting out raising them on my own. My grandpa used to raise rabbits for us to eat and I am going to do it the way he did. I'm going to get his large cage system of 10 cages in one. Feed the adults 2/4 cup of food a day. Keep a water bottle filled up. Keep the matings recorded and they should have littler in 31 days. 4-5 days before your expecting the litter put a nest box in with hay. 3 days after she gives birth put her back in with the male for 30 minutes and she will become pregnant again. If you breed them fast ike that the female won't last but about a year and she will be give out. That is easily replaced though. No light is neded for the winter, becasue they don't even seem to eve get cold. DO NOT LET THEM GET WET WITH RAIN. You can also raise worms in the crap they make. They love cudzoo. They will eat it as fast as yuo can put it in there.
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Justin

I just recently started my own feeders also. I haven't been extremely lucky yet but that is becasue the person I got the rabbits from gave me his old rejected breeders so it has been pretty slow going. Anyway, back to your question. The most humane way to euthanize them is to gas them with CO2. This can be done by purchasing a bottle and a regulator form a bottled gas company and then attaching a fitting to a cooler or someother well insulated air tight container. Hose the gas into the cooler and presto. You should have dead rabbits. I have not yet started doing this this way yet becasue it is kind of costly initially to set up. I called around and they wanted about $250 to get the bottled gas and a regulator. After the initial costs though it should not be to bad. I currently do the old thump method. It is hard to do but it is the best way that I have to utilize at this time. I simply grab the rabbit (or rat) by the scruff of the neck and using a heavy metal bar I deliver a hard blow to the back of the head and neck. They twitch for a little while but they almost always die after the first blow. It is really hard at first but do not hesitate or else you jsut cause the rabbit to suffer more. Todd