How much CO2 to euthanize?

I am in the process of building a CO2 chamber using a paintball CO2 tank and remote line. I need to know how to determine how much CO2 to administer and for how long. I will likely be using a 28QT Sterilite for the container or should I find something that is more airtight.

Try this

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http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...euthanize+rats

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and again i want to thank elevatethis for posting that sticky very useful

28 qt kill tank is VERY big I would suggest a smaller kill tank it will be easier and require less CO2.

I use this 5.5 quart kill tank http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-...-of-6/11014788

I can euthanize 20 small rats (40-60 grams) rat at the time or 2 large breeders rats at the time.

If it is too big it will take longer and you might run out of CO2 as it will need to fill up the entire kill tank to work.

Of course if you have VERY larges quantities to do you might want to use a larger kill tank but you will also need to plan on a large CO2 tank 5 to 10 lbs ones not the one used for paintball.

Ok , much smaller tank will be needed but I am still a little uncertain on how to apply the CO2 using a CO2 tank. It looked like most of that linked pertained to dry ice. I see that it is preferred to release slowly initially to reduce stress and harm but I guess I am looking to know how long you should leave the tank open for. Do you simply leave it open until 'the end" Will this be a few seconds of gas or are we talking about minutes ? I'm sure that I am over-thinking this but I would prefer to cause as little stress as possible.

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Step 6 - After about 5 mins, you've got a bunch of clean, humanely euthanized rats, ready for the freezer.

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:gj: look in between the pics I'm going to do that method in the long run since it would be cheaper and "more humane"