Terrible mother.

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Originally Posted by AliCat37

To kill a mouse- just take it by the base of the tail and swing into a hard surface. It should kill it INSTANTLY. You'll know by it urinating.

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Or you could just hold its head against a table with a pen (I use a paint can opener) and yank its tail. It will break its neck and you will not have to bash its brains out. Kinda brutal I think to mash it to pieces when there are much cleaner methods.

I had an old pre-kill board. I'm doing f/t now, but if I bred rats for feeders I'd make myself another because it killed so quickly and cleanly.

It had pairs of 20 penny nails driven into it with gaps between the individual nails in the pair at increasing intervals--from about 1/4" up to the width of a large rat's neck, each pair spaced about a foot from it's neighbor. I placed the rodent's neck between the tightest pair of nails where it would go with a close fit. (hint--cut the heads off the nails and file them smooth after you've pounded them in--makes for easier and quicker setting) When the rat's head was immobilized in the improvised stock, I took the tail and pulled it so that the body was at a right angle to the direction the head was pointing and gave it enough of a tug that I would feel a "give." (another hint--you don't have to give it your all, just a smooth firm pull because only monitors and tegus like decapitated rats) That broke the rat's neck quickly and conveniently then all that was left to do was to lift the rat off of the board and present it to the intended diner.

Takes only a few seconds to kill a rat once you've done it a few times. I used a piece of scrap 2x6 for the board. Hold the rat's tail in your dominant hand and pin the board to a secure surface with the other hand. Once you get the hang of it you can dispatch rats quickly and efficiently and to my mind it's a lot more humane that the multiple "thunks" it sometimes takes with the swing-the-rat-by-the-tail technique.

Or you could just build a co2 chamber from any of the stickies.

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

I had an old pre-kill board. I'm doing f/t now, but if I bred rats for feeders I'd make myself another because it killed so quickly and cleanly.

It had pairs of 20 penny nails driven into it with gaps between the individual nails in the pair at increasing intervals--from about 1/4" up to the width of a large rat's neck, each pair spaced about a foot from it's neighbor. I placed the rodent's neck between the tightest pair of nails where it would go with a close fit. (hint--cut the heads off the nails and file them smooth after you've pounded them in--makes for easier and quicker setting) When the rat's head was immobilized in the improvised stock, I took the tail and pulled it so that the body was at a right angle to the direction the head was pointing and gave it enough of a tug that I would feel a "give." (another hint--you don't have to give it your all, just a smooth firm pull because only monitors and tegus like decapitated rats) That broke the rat's neck quickly and conveniently then all that was left to do was to lift the rat off of the board and present it to the intended diner.

Takes only a few seconds to kill a rat once you've done it a few times. I used a piece of scrap 2x6 for the board. Hold the rat's tail in your dominant hand and pin the board to a secure surface with the other hand. Once you get the hang of it you can dispatch rats quickly and efficiently and to my mind it's a lot more humane that the multiple "thunks" it sometimes takes with the swing-the-rat-by-the-tail technique.

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Very good:gj:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Or you could just build a co2 chamber from any of the stickies.

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I think that's the best way. It's easy to make, easy to use, and you can kill a bunch at a time and freeze them for later.

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Originally Posted by ShamelessAardvark

How well does the flicking work? I've had tons of petstore workers tell me just to flick them but.. Rodents terrify me. Evil little buggers, they'll kill you when you're not looking.
But back to the flicking, does it kill them, or just immobilize them?

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For young animals it's pretty instant. Older mice if you do it hard enough and in The correct spot they kick for a min and then it's game over.

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We currently are feeding live to Hera and Eden and the main thing that I do is I gauge the rat's behavior. I pick them up by the tail with my feeding tongs (so I don't get bit, rodent bites hurt!) and if they are very eager to attack the tongs then I do a quick prekill.

The way I do it is a fast hard smack against a wall, that kills them instantly but they still kick a bit so if I get them in front of the snake fast they take it anyways. If the rat is more or less calm then I place them in the tank with the snake but I ALWAYS have the rodent in the tongs. That way I can control the rat a bit and if they get too close to bite the snake I already have the tongs in my hand.