How do you euthanize your rodents?

[ev477]

I was doing some shopping for feeders at my local pet store and something came up that I had not thought about before. I had called prior to going to the pet store asking if they had frozen fuzzy mice, and I told them I would only need 3 or 4 and they said they had enough. I got to the store and asked for the girl there for fuzzies and they said they only had one, but she offered to sell me live fuzzies at the same price. I don't feed live, so I opted out of it, and I said I felt guilty seeing it die, then she said I could kill it myself, and I asked how, and she said by putting it in the freezer...

I've done as much research as I can on the subject and found out very little on how often this kind of thing occurs and whether it is cruel or not. So...

For you breeders out there, how do you euthanize your rodents, the pinkies and fuzzies at least? Do you freeze them or use CO2 or do you feed them or get sell them off while they're still alive?
For those of you who buy them, how does your source of rodents euthanize the pinkies and fuzzies? Freezing, CO2, or are you unsure, or do you feed them live?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

CO2 for anything over 2 weeks old
Freezer for anything under 2 weeks old due to their resistance to hypoxia.

[juddb]

Constriction by chondro!

[Sebrina]

I would have got the live feeders stuck them in my tub and left the room or simply closed my eyes. Honestly how do you know they were humanely euthanized? Alot of feeders come from mass production companies that feel it's a waste of money to C02 a feeder and simply stick a bunch of them in a large freezer which is just as painful if not more than a snake bite/coil.

I feel live and breed my own feeders to each his own and I understand where your coming from but alot of people think just because they're buying a frozen rodent it means it didn't suffer, that's just incorrect.

[Clear]

Right now I am only feeding pinkies and fuzzies so they go into the freezer once they get to about 3 weeks I will start using co2

[mainbutter]

when I was quite young I would just freeze, I asked someone who apparently thought that was how to humanely euthanize, and being an 8 year old I simply trusted what anyone over 20 told me pretty much. After I heard about CO2 I did that whenever I had to P/K. A ton of people still just freeze though.

I don't P/K anymore, I just buy frozen already from a local feeder source, if only live was available I'd probably feed live, I'm not going to invest in CO2 when I'm just dealing with one feeder a week.

Once I start breeding my own feeders to support the snakes I'm sure I will pick up in the next few years though I'll use CO2 on anything over 3 weeks.

[rabernet]

I feed live, but I do know that it's recommended to freeze anything under 2 weeks old. Joanna had posted a link about this last year from her research. I'll see if I can't find it.

[ev477]

I feed live, but I do know that it's recommended to freeze anything under 2 weeks old. Joanna had posted a link about this last year from her research. I'll see if I can't find it.

I was hoping someone could give me something to read about this topic... I just have read more supporting that euthanasia by CO2 is the most humane for the rodents. It's hard to find anything about the newly born rodents though. The only thing I have seen looking at this site were very strong claims and very little information.

Thanks for the inputs everyone.

[greghall]

sorry live! thats all mine eat too many feeding issues to try to switch now!

[punyhuman07]

can you use dry ice some where i here i saw a guy who built a gas chamber using dry ice