GRRRRR :rage:

:rage: So i had a genius plan ( as most of us have) to breed rats as snake food for convenience and money. It worked!! a couple weeks ago my rats had 5 babies. But now all the sudden my normal Bp decides to go on a hunger strike:mad:
My lemon is feeding like a mad man but the rats size are passing up what he can handle. so now i have a lot of rats unless my normal starts eating again. She is now up to 20 days. She weighs 570g and she hasnt lost a g since her strike. i know she is healthy and fine without eating. So my question is why is my snake (normally a great eater) giving my issues now? I have read a couple others are doing this too. is it because winter is upon us? Also what in the world do i do with all these rats? i think i have 7 right now.
thanks for listening/reading my frustrations and for any reply's

Kill and freeze the rats the size you need. or sell them and breed more. balls sometimes just stop eating once in while without a rhyme or a reason.

X2 euthanize them and freeze this is what I do now I am selling my extras to pay for my rodent supplies. At the end of the month all my snakes are well fed and I have an extra $20 in my pocket. Got to love free rats :) I would build a simple CO2 chamber I hated the dry ice method finally built a nice CO2 chamber and I will never go back :D

How do you build a co2 chamber?

Christian

A CO2 chamber is really easy to build. Check youtube for rat euthanasia chamber. I'll try to post pics later to show you the one I built. Also separate your male from your female rats and when your BP starts eating again you can put him back.

The kill and freeze method is what I plan to do when I get back into snakes. I too am interested in the co2 chamber build.

CO2 isnt the most effective method to euthanize baby rats imo. Cervical dislocation is quicker and just as humane.

I built mine very easily I just used a bucket with a lid. Drilled a couple holes in it ran the CO2 in hose to the bottom and sealed the hose to the lid. Ran a smaller vent hose at the top and sealed. This allows the CO2 to fill the bucket (CO2 is heavier than air) found a used CO2 bottle on craigslist and purchased a regulator. I set the regulator to run at about 5psi turn the gas on for about 5 min and return to some nice feeder who just went to sleep :). Works like a champ the feeders all just look like the went to sleep they lay out very well for freezing and I know when they were frozen and how much they weigh. Makes it great for keeping track of who eats from what bag and nothing I have is every over 3-4 month in the freezer.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

CO2 isnt the most effective method to euthanize baby rats imo. Cervical dislocation is quicker and just as humane.

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This is very true for babies.. They often don't die because they require so little air/oxygen and simply fall asleep. Then they wake up and freeze to death. Creepy..

Cervical dislocation is really required for the little ones. Or, as bad as it sounds, a very hard and fast wack to the back of the head. Either way. It's much faster (a second or two) than the snake doing it.

I agree with freezing your extras. If you don't want to do that then you can try to find other people in your area that would want some rats.