Nothing against anyone here or their ideas/techniques, but I'm not too fond of the pillowcase technique. The only reason is it's hard to see what part of the rat your slammin' on the floor (or whatever).

Don't get me wrong, I'm no PETA fan or anything like that, I just seem to be getting a bit softer in my old age, even though I still have a "farm" mentality.

If you're going to be putting down around 10 or so rodents at a time for freezing I strongly suggest going ahead and spending $50 - $75 to build a gas chamber (CO2). That's what I did when I first began raising my own rats. Here's a link to some info on it that you may find helpful: Annihilation Chamber

If you're only gonna be doing a few at a time I like the head/tail pull that Doug mentioned, where it severs the spinal cord, OR, grabbing the rodent by its tail & slammin' it on the floor, head first, with a twisting of the wrist that turns the rodent upside down to where the back of it's head hits the floor first.

Neither one of them are as complicated as they may sound but it may take you a few times to perfect it.

Like already mentioned, slammin' can cause blood to flow from the rodent's nose. When severing the spinal cord by jerking the rodent's head & tail in opposite directions, wearing gloves makes it easier for me. I just grab the rodent's head in one gloved-hand and either it's tail or around it's back waist, and jerk. No blood, no pulsing/twitching.

Not only are these techniques humane for the rodents, they're also humane for the snake in the sense that it eliminates the chance of injury from the rodent.

Take care!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American


www.natures-signature.com

[ Hide Replies ]

• Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - snake_gal, Thu Jun 12 11:41:30 2008
• RE: Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - DMong, Thu Jun 12 12:47:54 2008
• RE: Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - anuraanman, Thu Jun 12 14:17:39 2008
• Yes, very true........ - DMong, Thu Jun 12 15:15:49 2008
• RE: Yes, very true........ - megalon, Thu Jun 12 16:49:57 2008
• RE: Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - snake_gal, Thu Jun 12 16:51:24 2008
• Warning about raising mice - dekaybrown, Thu Jun 12 22:58:17 2008
• Its really over when... - dekaybrown, Thu Jun 12 23:02:57 2008
• RE: Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - HappyHillbilly, Fri Jun 13 00:15:33 2008
• RE: Plz help. *may be considered cruel* - Nicodemus, Fri Jun 13 12:12:03 2008
• thought this might come up - mldolan, Sat Jun 14 13:28:56 2008
• HAHAHA!! - DMong, Sat Jun 14 16:30:29 2008
• RE: HAHAHA!! - mldolan, Sat Jun 14 18:49:39 2008
• RE: HAHAHA!! - DMong, Sun Jun 15 18:19:01 2008
• RE: HAHAHA!! - mldolan, Sun Jun 15 19:49:13 2008
• RE: HAHAHA!! - dekaybrown, Sun Jun 15 10:31:52 2008
• I gotta admit! - DMong, Sun Jun 15 18:14:37 2008