When to give up

No matter what animals you are breeding you should have a plan and technique for culling animals. I used to raise Canaries and there are government regulations and guidelines on culling animals. Just about the most universal way is to gas them with CO2. I've tried it on snakes before, it generally just knocks them out but after a while they can be revived. It's probably best to gas with CO2 followed by decapitation.

It's the same with euthanizing rodents before feeding, if you freeze them to death or smash them on a hard surface to kill them it's considered inhumane and the long arm of the law can step in and confiscate all of your animals. Breeders should be prepared to euthanize and know which way is morally and legally acceptable. If you breed anything in large numbers you will always get deformities, I bred Angel fish too and had a lot of weird freaky fish hatch out over the years. The amount of deformity before culling is totally up to the breeder.

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

I'm very sorry to hear about the problems you're having with these poor little guys. That's a really hard choice you have to make... :( But, it is illegal to feed live rats to snakes in your area, though??? There are actually areas where that is a law?

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I believe it is illegal in the U.K., not sure about other places though.

I just read an article about a new law that was passed where it was illegal to boil a live lobster! Not sure where it was though, and I'm not sure how you get fresh lobster if you can't boil them alive???

I'm not aware of any regulations regarding feeding live rodents to snakes here in the US.

I wouldn't think it ethical to give or sell a deformed animal to anyone but if you can give them a basic quality of life and they don't suffer I see no reason to cull them.

As far as this illegal to feed live rodents I think that is due to confusion. In several European countries and the UK it is illegal to cause unnecessary and unreasonable suffering to animals of a certain type such as those with vertebrates. This is more a law against cruelty and enforcing ethical and humane slaughtering of livestock. It has nothing to do with feeding a live feeder animal to a reptile that demands it. I do know that there are even provisions for animals that subsist solely on live food and can not or will not accept pre killed. So no, it is not going to cost you to feed live if you live in the UK.

I've had to assist-feed a few babies. Sometimes when it swallows you can "train" a second feeder behind the first; basically as the back end of the first feeder is disappearing you sneak the head of feeder #2 into the snake's mouth. This is absolutely not power feeding, as the combined weight of the two feeders would be an appropriately-sized meal. With the OP's snakes weighing in at 80 and 100 grams, each of the two feeders would be 6-8 grams.

So, for these snakes that are only eating live, I would start with a live feeder and train the f/t behind it. Eventually the snake will figure out that f/t feeders are food and you won't need to use live any more.

An alternative to using a live feeder to start the assist-feeding process is to use the hind leg cut from a f/t feeder. You put the leg in hock-first so it's folded in half, with the cut end and the toes pointed out of the snake's mouth. You need to have it sized so that it's easy for the snake to swallow but hard for it to spit out; the leg will want to unfold and it gets stuck in the snake's teeth fairly easily. Then you train a whole-prey f/t feeder behind that.

If/when to cull is an ethical decision that only you can make.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

No matter what animals you are breeding you should have a plan and technique for culling animals. I used to raise Canaries and there are government regulations and guidelines on culling animals. Just about the most universal way is to gas them with CO2. I've tried it on snakes before, it generally just knocks them out but after a while they can be revived. It's probably best to gas with CO2 followed by decapitation.

It's the same with euthanizing rodents before feeding, if you freeze them to death or smash them on a hard surface to kill them it's considered inhumane and the long arm of the law can step in and confiscate all of your animals. Breeders should be prepared to euthanize and know which way is morally and legally acceptable. If you breed anything in large numbers you will always get deformities, I bred Angel fish too and had a lot of weird freaky fish hatch out over the years. The amount of deformity before culling is totally up to the breeder.

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I had impression that co2 does not knok out reptiles like it does rodents, that destroying the brain and cutting the head is right method for culling snakes.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I've had to assist-feed a few babies. Sometimes when it swallows you can "train" a second feeder behind the first; basically as the back end of the first feeder is disappearing you sneak the head of feeder #2 into the snake's mouth. This is absolutely not power feeding, as the combined weight of the two feeders would be an appropriately-sized meal. With the OP's snakes weighing in at 80 and 100 grams, each of the two feeders would be 6-8 grams.

So, for these snakes that are only eating live, I would start with a live feeder and train the f/t behind it. Eventually the snake will figure out that f/t feeders are food and you won't need to use live any more.

An alternative to using a live feeder to start the assist-feeding process is to use the hind leg cut from a f/t feeder. You put the leg in hock-first so it's folded in half, with the cut end and the toes pointed out of the snake's mouth. You need to have it sized so that it's easy for the snake to swallow but hard for it to spit out; the leg will want to unfold and it gets stuck in the snake's teeth fairly easily. Then you train a whole-prey f/t feeder behind that.

If/when to cull is an ethical decision that only you can make.

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Thank for the great info, I'll try chain feeding next time. I desided to give them one or two months time and then thats that. I live in Finland, here live feeding is illegal, only when animals life is in danger you can feed live pray.