Question about dry ice

[Brandon.O]

HEy everyone, This girl in my class at school knows i keep snakes, shes a member of FFA and did an agriscience project on mice breeding and supllements, She has feed them small doses (im guessing) of some type of growth hormone that they feed to steers (cattle) and won 1st place at a national competition, She doesnt know what to do with them so i offered to keep them, so i guess my first question is will it be ok to feed them to my snakes being that they have consumed supplements.

Second: There are 16 mice, how much dry ice will i need to put them down safely, is there anything else i need to do to the cooler, or do i simply put the right amount of dry ice in and shut the lid, how long should i wait ?

[Shaun J]

Did you check the sticky in the feeder section?

[tigerlily]

growth hormone

That sounds like steroids to me. I would be very hesitant to use them, but any control group would be ok.

[JLC]

I really don't know about the hormone/steriod thing. Personally, I wouldn't chance it, even for "free" food.


As for the dry ice...all I know is that you don't want to seal the container you use it in. It'll blow the lid off. You need some sort of ventilation to allow the build-up of gasses to escape.

[sweety314]

As a dairy/beef/ Ag/ former FFA'er...I'm familiar w/what she was competing in....


I personally wouldn't be too concerned. What they inject are time released (very low, slow administration) doses of growth hormone (they're different than a steroid.) Since they're designed for mammals, I don't think they'd harm the snake. BUT, I'm not a vet. If you're not sure, find out WHICH drug and dosage she used in the mice, and then call and talk to your herp vet first.


I'd use 'em but but talk to YOUR VET.

RuLyn

[Brandon.O]

Yes sweety your right about the stuff they put under the skin, its sorta like an implant......but she did not do that to the mice.....she fed them a type of supplement to see if they would grow larger than the mice fed on a regular diet, maybe i should get the name of the supplement from her....But yeah, it was not injected, it was fed to them.

She said they are good breeders, maybe i could give them to one of my friends breeding stock and trade her for some rats.

Should i maybe drill a small hole or two in the lid ?

[sweety314]

Check out Brad's sticky about setting up a gas chamber. CO2 is heavier than air, so the holes in the lid will help the O2 escape while the CO2 displaces it from the bottom up.



Yeah, the rBGH (or some form) is almost always implanted in the ear to avoid bruising any of the "meat cuts". At one time there were crumbles you could add to the feed but then you're not sure if the gluttons are getting more than their
fair share and it can't be monitored. Cheaper to just to the implant, and more effective.

[sweety314]

If her study was primarily dietary (I did one in Biology II in HS) then there shouldn't be any problems w/your using the mice as prey......lol (okay, not YOU personally....sheesh ) but call your vet.



RuLyn