Somewhat advanced ?s for med-large scale breeders

[chromeitout]

Well, I don't guess they are exactly advanced questions, but not the same one that have been beat to death forever... I would love to see a discussion about some of the things that we improve over time to increase efficiency and lower cost for our businesses.

It is easy to simply produce rodents and there are lots of different ways to do it, but there are specific chores and equipment that we change and upgrade after doing it for a while that refines our particular setups to better fit our needs. These things are the ones that are seldom talked about I guess due to the fact that there are not a whole lot of people that stick with it long enough to evaluate and make changes. Anyhow, here's a few things that I'd like to know the "how do you do it?". (Most of these topics may be more related to med-large scale breeding programs producing 1000+ per month.)

1. (regarding freezing for sales or use) How do you decide when to pull what size for euthanasia? Do you have certain days for certain sizes? Do you have certain racks dedicated for sizes? other thoughts?
ex: I have recently divided my mice racks into sections. Each section is for a particular size rodent. I've stocked the "pinky" secton with 2.10, "fuzzy" is 1.6, "hopper" is 1.4, and the rest is 1.3.... This works well so that I can accurately predict how many of what size I will freeze each month. However, it causes me to have to freeze every day (atleast the pinks and fuzzies).

2. (equipment for euthanasia) We all know that a 5 gallon bucket or similar injected with CO2 (gas or dry ice) will serve as a killing chamber. The topics are... For those of us who euthanize hundreds at a time, what type of enclosures or custom made equipment do you use? What do you use to supply the CO2? What methods do you use in order to keep the rodents as clean and free from urine and feces produced when euthanizing batches?
ex: This is an area that I need major improvement on. I am still using a modified 5 gallon bucket and a paintball cylinder. This method is expensive and time consuming. I don't freeze alot of rats right now (mostly just mice) or I would have given that up long ago. I am imagining a lidded polypro tank or HDPE tote about 2ft x 2ft with a removable wire mesh floor and a shallow catch pan underneath fed by a welding type cylinder.

We'll stop there for now. I have more, but that's enough for one thread, may have a "part 2" later. Lets see what you guys are doing related to these topics. Thanks for your input.

[chromeitout]

Kinda funny I guess... you ask a common question, you should have searched. You talk about something you havent seen discussed before and no one replies

[BEasy119]

I thought about the 2nd question myself. I picked my friends brain a little and he told me parts of your question

[Egapal]

Well I can speak to the 2nd question. Disclaimer (I am not a mid to large scale breeder, I average 8 rodents a month). In order for my girlfriend to agree to allow me to breed at all I had to have a good plan for euthanasia. I am not worried about costs one bit so I found what I considered to be the right way to do this and I started working toward that goal. What I did was went to my local welding supply store and bought a 5lb CO2 canister. This is expensive up front but refills are cheap. What I still need to do is plunk down some more money for a fitting that will connect to the canister and some aquarium tubing. I am using some clear plastic tubing used to connect an air stone to a small air pump. I have a fitting that give me a decent connection but there is a small leak. Next you need the chamber. I just use a sterilite tub. Since CO2 is heavier than air there is no need for a tight fitting top. I use a rather high tub to allow for a good cloud of pure CO2 to form in the tub. I then used an old soldering iron to melt a small hole in the side of the tub near the very bottom. I make the hole small at first and expand till I can cram the plastic tubing in. I have thought about using hot glue to seal the edges. That really about it. In order to absorb the urine I put some wood shavings in the tub before I use it. Now if you are euthenizing a large number I think a wire mesh would be perfect. I would just put a few spacers down in the tub then set the mesh on top of that. The only really expensive part about this is the CO2 canister. I think I spent around 65 for mine. If you want to do it right a regulator would be nice too.

[suzuki4life]

I don't normally sell frozen publicly
5 gallon bucket works fine. I use one also when I freeze in bulk. Load them up quickly and pump in the gas.

I don't clean once dead.