Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anybody have any experience with using co2 to kill rabbits and chickens? I buy rabbits and chicks in bulk and live. I need a humane and efficient way to kill them prior to feeding or freezing. I have heard you can gas them with co2. where can you aquire the gas/equipment to do it? Any other ideas?..Thanks

I think that Co2 isn't efficient enough with larger animals (rats the largest it's used on in laboratories). It is definately not the way to go with rabbits. They will freak out and probably hurt themselves (break back) prior to death. Ask a farmer how he does it or better yet, stick to buying prekilled

Ian

co2 will kill any size animal as long as you have enough of it.
I think most people use paintball canisters. You need to make sure that the container is sealed well enough to keep the co2 in but you also need the oxygen inside the container to escape. I imagine you could also use nitrous or helium with the same effect.

I kill rabbits with CO2 also, even the big 12-15 lbs. rabbits i can get into my 5 gal. bucket. CO2 is a heavy gas which will push the O2 right out. I have killed up to (2) rabbits at a time and they just lay down and die, no mess, no freaking out or anything like that. Just do it very slow, this way, the fall asleep first and eventually stop breathing altogether. It usually take about 1-1/2 to 2 min. for the job to be completely done. It works for me just fine.

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2.1 RTB (Zander, Ridick, Liliana)
1.1 Burms (Vladamir, Natalia)
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic (Katerina)
1.0 100% Het Tiger (Nicholi)
2.3 Silver fox rabbits
many, many, many, many rats
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Here check this out, it's a link to a "how to" on using the CO2 method:
CO2 Chamber "how to"