Do You Ever Have Issues Euthanizing Rodents for Food?

I went to check on the rats and their babies...and my god..they were so damn adorable!!!! So small, furry, and nice. With their little eyes looking at you! I felt sorry for it..and I had to put it back in the tub before I kept it as a pet.

I know my snakes need to eat..so I'll suck it up.

Do youhave any issues with this?

Oh yeah all the time that's why I now have 2 as pets

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Originally Posted by ed4281

Oh yeah all the time that's why I now have 2 as pets

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They are just so cute. This is one of the downsides of breeding your own rodents.

A friend breeds rats originally for his snakes but now he just breeds fancy rats for pets and uses the return to buy frozen feeders elsewhere. I don't myself but I know I would always want to keep them. I found it quite funny that my friend did what he did, on the other had he makes better money breeding rats than the snakes. Go figure.

I don't euthanize my own rats, but I know for a fact that I would for sure have a lot of trouble not just keeping them all as pets. I know it's the whole circle of life thing, and I don't have a problem feeding my snakes rats, I just don't know if I have it in me to kill things myself if I don't have to (I feel bad when I step on ants for goodness sakes :P) but if it's something I have to do one day then I'll just have to suck it up and do it...

It's the worst part of keeping snakes for me. When I was younger I kept them as pets, and actually gave up my two boas 30 years ago because I had to prekill the rats.

Now we have 19 snakes and started breeding rats a few months ago to have the correct size available as well as cut costs. Plus a couple of the balls only eat live so it's much easier than going to the store once a week. Breeding our own costs about 50 - 60% of what frozen cost, but they are also extra work. So it's probably about the same in the end.

I finally was to the point of having to euthanize some of the surplus a couple of weeks ago. I used a tub with a lid and dry ice in water. They all just went to sleep - no drama. It wasn't easy but it was nowhere near as bad as I had thought it would be. Even so, my wife is a vet tech and she said she would do it next time so I think I'm going to take her up on that.

I have a HORRIBLE time feeding my snakes my rats that I raise. I have 6 females and everytime they have a litter I find one or two that are "lucky" ones and keep them behind as breeders, but if i keep doing that im going to be over run with rats. Plus Im allergic to rats lol its ridiculous really.
And its even harder too cuz i kill them off myself before feeding them to my snakes, so I feel worse but i refuse to feed live. Being bitten by BP fangs then constricted to death for about a minute sounds horrible to me, Id rather have a quick death if you ask me.
Trick is to not sit and look at the little guy before you euthanize them, that was my problem. Looking at that cute face always makes it worse.

But as a wise person on BP.net once told me...
"Think of them as cattle for your snakes." That little quote has helped me get over the killing part.

I've had pet rats for a while, they're pretty good. kind of like little dogs in behaviour.

I started breeding them for feeders a while back... Kinda feels bad when you turn on the gas, but I know they're having a nice uh.. "free range" (err, big fun cage as opposed to tiny rack bin) life, and being put down humanely, so it doesn't bother me too too much.

Besides - If i didn't do it, I'd never get to see the pups at all. They're pretty bloody cute though. :snake:

Can't do it. We have pet Mice and Rats and I refuse to feed anything live to our snakes. Luckily we have been able to get all of our snakes on F/T... I even feel guilty feeding mealies to my geckos!

Thanks for all the responses! I'm glad I'm not the only one.