My first litter just arrived!

I'm currently using baking soda/vinegar to euthanize my rats because I haven't built a real chamber yet.

I have a container where the rats go and connected to it by a hose is another container I put baking soda and I pour vinegar on it in intervals so it slowly replaces the oxygen and doesn't cause a strong vinegar smell while they are alive.
I then have a tube going from the container the rats are in into a bowl of water so oxygen can escape to reduce air pressure, but oxygen can't get back in.


My rats just fall asleep calmly and die. No labored breathing, no pooping, no trying to get out.


I'm not going to stick with this set up for long though, I'm going to build myself a real chamber once I figure out where to go to get co2 refills.
I'm probably going to end up spending about $40-50 on the co2 chamber, the parts are pretty inexpensive on amazon.



10-15% is the general rule for babies. So 30 grams is a good weight :)

So I just tried to euthanize 7 of my litter (a friend wanted to take 4 as pets) and it didn't go so well. They ranged from 25 to 28 grams. I was going to wait until they were a little heavier, but they started looking a bit bigger than the mice I have been feeding my BP. Anyhow, I tried the baking soda and vinegar method using two Glad plastic containers. They were both small containers less than a gallon. I ran plastic tubing from the baking soda/vinegar container to the other plastic tub where the rats were, and then ran plastic tubing from that container to a water bottle. I used 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1/4 cup of baking soda, and repeated that dose 3-4 more times. However, the rat pups were still breathing after 20-25 minutes. I finally took them out and did CD on them. What could have been wrong with my setup? It was pretty much airtight, including the holes where the tubes ran in and out. How long should it take for their respiration to cease? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Sounds like you didn't create enough CO2.

Where they knocked out at least? After my rats fall asleep I maximize the amount of co2 I can get into that container and that kills them pretty much instantly.

How old were they? CO2 doesn't work on rats 2 weeks and younger. They are resistant to hypoxia. Meaning they don't need much oxygen to survive since they're mostly under mom still. So they can survive a CO2 chamber. The only humane way to euthanize them is CD or freezing. Anything older than 2 weeks has to be CD or CO2.

Also, you can get cheap CO2 from a sporting good store. $15-20 for a paintball canister and $2-3 to fill it up.
Takes 2-3 mins to euthanize rats via CO2.


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The rats were 17 days old. They were all apparently knocked out and some of them weren't breathing, but some were. I repeated the mixing of baking soda and vinegar multiple times, and heard the water bubbling where I had the tube for the exhaust from the chamber, so it should have filled with CO2. Perhaps they were still resistant to hypoxia?

Hey Sinclaire!

Once you start seeing the mother get up to eat and drink on her own away from her rat kittens they're ready to be touched. Do however exercise caution with your fingers around a new mother. They're very hormonal and can be much more vicious even if it is an extremely docile rat :)

-ratpimp

edit; generally rats require no assistance during or immediately following birth (unless the mother is literally too tired to move afterwords - In this case I add another doe to help take care of the kittens who were born) however this is a perfect time to clean the babies if you so choose.

I also wanted to mention that I had a layer of aspen on the bottom of the euthanasia chamber. Could this have interfered with the process in some way?