Gas chamber for rodents

[SKO]

So, a while back I decided to look into making a gas chamber for the rodents I would be feeding to my snakes. I have no room to keep frozen rats and feeding live, although my snakes ate no problem, could get annoying sometimes when they don't go after the rats for an extended time.

I was doing cervical dislocations and that was working alright, until the rats I started feeding were getting bigger, and harder to pin down to do the dislocation correctly. I even got bit by a rat once so that's when I decided to figure something else out. I learned about making a gas chamber. Most of the links I found were helpful but I was still lost after looking at a few of them.

So I have decided to post how I do this. I know a lot of people feed live but might not like to but don't know what else to do. The gas chamber is in my opinion the most humane way to kill the rodents, they essentially fall "asleep" within seconds.

The first thing you need is two tubs. One to put the rats in and another smaller tub to put over the rats. The smaller tub should have a hole, about the size of a quarter on top.


The next item you need is the gas, or CO2. You can get one of these at a Sporting goods store or a paintball store.



The next item you need is a universal fill adapter. This is basically the hose you will thread on to the CO2 cannister to administer the gas. You can find this at the paintball store or online if there is no store like that around you. The guy at the place I go to knew exactly what I needed and told me I wasn't the first person in there looking for this in order to make a gas chamber.


The hose attaches right to the top of the cannister and has a valve to turn the gas on or off.




So the first step is to put the rats into the larger tub and place the smaller tub right over top of them so that they can't get out.



Take the end of the hosr and place it in the hole on the top of the smaller tub and turn the valve on. You can adjust the flow and increase or decrease as needed.


The rats will start to lay down. Keep the gas on until they are still and then turn the gas off. You should see them stop breathing before you take the tub off of them.

I did try to take a video for this but it was harder than I thought it would be to hold a phone and the hose at the same time, but if anyone is still interested and really wants to see, I can video next feed day and upload it.

Now you have fresh, humanely killed rodents. Some snakes might not take fresh killed right away, like my older male, so it might take a few times of offering for them to take it. My younger female never had an issue switching.

DISCLAIMER: I will still perform a cervical dislocation to the rats even after I gas them. This basically ensures I won't have a zombie rat wake back up without me knowing. You can look up cervical dislocations, there are good videos on YouTube, and they are WAY easier on a rodent that is already dead.



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