Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am getting rabbits from a local chicken farm and I was wondering how do you break a rabbits neck or better yet where do you get co2 from and how do you use that.

Number one, you want to, of course, kill the rabbit in the most humane way possible. Breaking the neck, while effective and quick if done properly, can be needlessly inhumane if not done with absolute precision every time. Instead, do this: Check around at the various grocery stores in your areas, starting with the biggest chain stores like Kroger, Tom Thumb, or whoever happens to be the Big Chain Store in your particular area and see if they sell dry ice. One of them will, you can be sure. Dry ice is quite inexpensive, especially when considering what it will do for you, and is usually sold by the pound. Simply run on down and get yourself a half pound or so, or if not that small a quantity, the smallest amount you can. Take it home and put the chunk of dry ice inside an escape proof enclosure. Some people say use a trash can with a lid, but I have found your average ice chest to be just fine. Set the ice on top of something high up in the chest so that the rabbit will not bump it and burn itself, but leaving enough room to close the lid. I use a cinder block. Gently place the bunny in the chest on one end, with the ice-laden object on the other, pour a small quantity, maybe half a cup, of water onto the ice and close the lid.
The bunny will breathe in the CO2 and essentially, just go night-night forever. There is no pain, only drowsiness, and sleep, according to my vet. Usually twenty minutes is sufficient for most rabbits, but use your best judgement. Obviously a flemish giant would require more than a regular.
Be careful not to use too much ice, because it can lower the body temp of the prey and potentially make locating it a problem for your burm.
I hope this helps. Please, try it and I think you will see the benefits to it.

Essentially your directions for dry ice are correct and I am sure helpful. There are two discrepancies that I wanted to correct for information's sake. CO2 suffocates the rabbit- the rabbit doesn't go to sleep. It suffocates to death, which means care must be taken to ensure it is calm when it goes into the CO2 chamber. An upset or frightened rabbit will suffer an inhumane death with CO2 as much as with incorrect cervical dislocation. Place the dry ice into the ice chest or trash can first and let it build up to a cloud- when you put a calm rabbit inside it will immediately succomb to the gas and it appears to be relatively painless and quick. The smaller the rabbit (less than two pounds) or the larger the rabbit (over 8 pounds) the more time needed. While I use gas directly from a tank and not dry ice I find it takes about one minute for the rabbit to succomb to the gas. If it takes 20 minutes something is not being done correctly and it will be 20 minutes of slow suffocation. The key to using CO2 humanely is a calm rabbit andallowing the gas to build up before the rabbit is placed in the container.
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Marcia Pimentel
Tango River Reptiles
GiantFeeders

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Welding supply stores sell them and the other components. Unless you have a large need in terms of rabbits it is not feasible however. A small tank, gauges, hose, etc. cost over $200 new- sometimes you can save about 25% of that if you buy recalibrated. The 20 pound tank is exchanged for refills at about $22- larger tanks cost just a little more to exchange but cost a lot more initially.
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Marcia Pimentel
Tango River Reptiles
GiantFeeders

x

I just started using dry ice to kill my rabbits and it's a lot easier and faster than boppin' 'em on the head. I use pretty much the same method mentioned here but what I've found to make things faster is to put the ice in a container, (i.e. a milk jug or a pop bottle) and fill it with warm water. CO2 will be coming out of the bottle real fast and real thick. Then I put it in the cooler close the lid and pull the drain plug on the bottom. When the gas is coming out the plug I put the rabbit in and close the lid. It usually takes about 20 seconds for completion. However, make sure that the gas keeps coming out of the bottom. If it stops, check to make sure the rabbit died.
The container is nice because if the rabbit tips over the gas will still come out and it won't come into contact with the rabbit.

Hope this helps.

Terry

I usually do it this way..
Just buy frozen rabits at the local wholesaler....
or buy the live ones and buy an air rifle. I shoot them through the scull. This is a very quick death! It must be a powerfull rifle though to get the bullet all through. It must not be stuck half way in the scull. That wouldn't be very unhealthy for your snake!
I prefer to buy the frozen rabbits. They are cheaper too! Here in the netherlands i pay about $2.- for a rabbit no matter how big or small it is...

?

I've heard of worse.
I read something about someone geting in trouble after being caught throwing a bag of rats aganced the wall of his garage.
I guess this is the way he killed them. And someone seen him.
The lengths some people will go sometimes.
Seth Mason.