Ive been working in a research lab for roughly 6 months and a constant thing i see is "sacking" of mice ( euthanizeing) the most efficient metod ive seen the tech's useis to gas them for a short period of time, then with the mouse/rat face down take a peice of metal thats thick and crush thier necks with a forward motion severing the spinal cord. The gas is humane, but they are suffocating, the lab tells me ( because im not the oneactually doing the killing) that the most humane way for them to do it is a small amount of gas to incapasitate(sp?) them and then then the breaking of the neck is best.
For me after spending a day in the lab and seeing many 1-4 week old mice die, and some 2 month old rats every now and then, its just sort of.. frustrating to know that a MAMAL is being bred solely for food, but then again cows and pigs have the same thing, and i do eat meat so i cant say that im that against it. I just see it as different than feeding insects because... lets face it, insects intelligence can be summed up as minldess at best.
If you get your snake used to eating live, then it will probably only eat live. For something the size of a corn snake, that is able to eat baby rats, this isn't necessarily that bad, but if you have a snake like a boa, that will eventually take jumbo adult rats, then there is no way you want a live adult rat in with your snake. Feeding live is just not recommended. It's a personal choice, but along with that choice, you have to know all the risks. Even adult mice can do damage, lots more than crickets and roaches.
i agree wid Janice on that note... I have a question though... I thought that using co2 to euthanize was all you had to do. I dont think you have to snap thier necks or w.e. after that. After going through the process of gassing, isn't it dead already? Or is it just knocked out?
its kinda like u guys are settin up lil nazi death camps for these rodents dude...........even tho its tottally different from the holocaust its kinda the same lol i dont really kno much about feeding snakes but why do u have to kill the rodents? do they bite the snake or what?
Well it is certainly safer feeding dead rodents. There have been many cases of live rats doing some serious damage to snakes. Even killing them. But gassing them is a very humane way to euthanize rodents. Many vets use the same method when they need to put an animal down. It aint painful, they just go to sleep and never wake up. Using a gas chamber is much more humane than what most people do, which is just bash their heads upside a wall or table a couple times. I just dont have the heart to do that to them.
my bad i always forget to type the most important thing ....i was gonna say that i still thought gassing them was the best way its probablt even better than like a lethal injection which who would wanna do that to a rodent ne way gassing the rodents seems fast and easy lol too bad i dont have a snake
well with leather injuection if you think about it the chemicals you use to kill the rodent will end up in your snake and probably kill it to, so most chemical based ways to kill them are use less for feeder rodents.
If you search google you can find more information about the process. Since they fall asleep first and die while sleeping it is truly painless IF done properly by gradually increasing the concentration. I have been able to find research studies that stated that they did blood test on the animals killed using CO2 and they did not detect any signs of stress in the animals blood (non-medical explanation). Here is more then you EVER wanted to know about proper killing of a small animal. http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/
