Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got this guy last year from Paul Farmer. He is 15 months old, and just over 5 1/2'.He is eating large P/K rats every week, but he will also eat F/T.

Anyway here's the pic;

Hi.. nice looking animals. You say you feed on P/K rats? Just out of curiosity.. how do you pre kill them? If you don't mind me asking that is. ; )

Thanks!

most the time I just put the handle of an old snake hook at the base of the rays head, hold down and pull the tail. It works good, no blood, and they are dead. Sometimes If I'm in a rush or the rat wont hold still, I just whip it against the wall or something hard. But I don't like to do it that way because, sometimes the rat will only be KO'd, and will spring back to life when the snake is eatting it(I've only seen this happen once with a friend, but it was enough to make me nervous) and it will cause the rat to bleed.

Why not just feed frozen/thawed?

Because I breed my own rats. I do freeze some pinkys out of ever litter for my sand boa. Once I get a co2 chamber set up I will be freezing the bigger rats, and then start feeding FT.

You breed your own? Wanna move next door to me? I'll cut your grass!
lol

hay, man I'm not sure where you live, but if your close to Tampa I'll help you out.
You know breeding rats is VERY easy. If you want to start your own, let me know. I'll help with what ever I can.

Just for the hell of it, here is another pic of him.

Here is a few pics of my CO2 chamber. Really easy to make and use. The only down, it sure does suck when you run out and alot of animals to feed. I figured I will get a second bottle. This set-up cost about $65.00 total (including fittings, hose, bucket, bottle, valves, but it doesn't include the top cover which I stole from the ole ladies kitchen i.e. one pot missing its lid).

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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
"New strategy R-2, Let the Wookie Win!!!"

Yea, I've seen you post that pic before. That is how I would like to do it. I think with a 5gal, I should be abile to fit a rabbit in it. Have you tried to "put down" a rabbit in that? how did it go?

Oh yeah, no problem at all, I've put down Fan Tail Pigeons, Rabbits (up to 12 lbs.) & rats. I have found that when you go very slow it is less stressful for the animal(s). If you go to fast, they will fight very hard to find good air. Just a very slow flow of CO2 yeilds excellent results as they lay down and go to sleep. Whole process takes about 45-75 seconds. Once everyone stops breathing your done. You can put down many animals at once in with this size of bucket. I can list a complete materials list if you would like.
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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
"New strategy R-2, Let the Wookie Win!!!"

Yea, if you don't mind go ahead and post it, I sure it could help some others too.

Thanks.

Sure, first 5 gal. bucket (Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes, etc.), next was the CO2 bottle. I got mine from a paintball sporting shop. I bought the $45.00 model which was the largest one they had at the time. It costs $3.00 per refill and I only have to refill about once every 8-12 weeks (and I use it everyweekend). I drilled a 3/8" to 1/2" hole into the bucket at the bottom of it (as CO2 is a heavy gas and will "push" up the other good air gases in the chamber). I bought a "bulkhead" fitting (with a plastic ball valve) that would fit drilled hole into the bucket from my local Rainbird sprinkler system folks (but you can get one from alot of hardware stores or plumbing supplies stores). My bucket will also hold water (as I use it for several other things than just the chamber). I used a "hose barb" fitting to fit into the ball valve (for a 3/8" I.D. tube) to plug the tubing into from the CO2 chamber. Use the appropriate sized tubing (Home Depot, Lowes, etc. again). On your CO2 chamber; talk to the dealer at the paintball store and ask him for a valve that you can use to control the flow of the C02 (I told my dealer what I was using it for and he helped me a great deal with the appropriate valve). My valve will screw onto the top of my bottle with no tools whatsoever. On the side of my valve is a small 1/8" FNPT (Female National Pipe Thread) port that I screwed a quick connect push fitting (John Guest is a popular brand) which had a matching 1/8" MNPT (Male) end (this is what it looks like http://cgi.ebay.com/John-Guest-Quick-Connect-Fitting-3-8-Tube-x-3-8-MNPT_W0QQitemZ4394281449QQcategoryZ20684QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). My valve is also "screw cap style" turning to control the flow of CO2. Take a look at the pics of the valve. Other than that, that is pretty much it, easy, safe (for everyone including the prey items), and effective.

-----
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
"New strategy R-2, Let the Wookie Win!!!"

Thank you.