GAS CHAMBER

This is the gas chamber I made today.

Went to a military surplus store and bought a cannister intended for paintball co2. Had'em top it off,
bought a hose and fitting, drilled a hole in a cooler, screwed in fitting, dropped in live rat, closed the lid,
opened the valve and it was done. The rat was put down humanely. I only put in one for the test, but the cooler can hold several rats at a time. In fact, I'd bet that the more rats I put in, the less gas it would take to put them down.

All the equipment cost less than a hundred bucks. The canister, although small, holds quite a bit and the
guy who sold it to me said he estimated that expanded, the gas would equal about 600 cubic feet. That's
plenty of gas for my small time operation. And will only cost about 4 bucks to refill it.

I do have to hold the lid down tightly to keep the gas and pressure in. But that's not a big deal. Just takes a moment.

What do you think?

http://img54.photobucket.com/albums/...icture_316.jpg

Very kewl!

Very nice ... good idea as well. Do you freeze the rats or are you only gonna use it on feeding day?

I'm trying to use up the frozen rats & mice I've already got and at the same time, use this chamber also on feeding day. So, the're getting both right now. I'm sure that eventually, my rat colony is going to take off and I'm going to have to store them in a freezer.

My wife suggested that I gas them enough to knock them out, but not kill them. Then introduce them, hearts still beating, to the snake. They will take it and do their thing and feel the heart stop when they're constricting. Nature in action, only with safety precautions in place.

Wow....very excellent set-up, Marcus! People had suggested using those canisters as a way to gas, but no one seemed to know quite how to set it up.

I'm going to move this to the Feeder Forum and make a sticky out of it. :)

Thanks for the positive feedback. Seems to be working pretty well. I may have to put some epoxy around the base where it connects to the lid. I think there may an ever so slight leak there. Not enough to cause a problem. But enough to bother me.

Thanks again!

Thanks for documenting it Marcus! Looks like a good setup. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FourFeathers

I'm trying to use up the frozen rats & mice I've already got and at the same time, use this chamber also on feeding day. So, the're getting both right now. I'm sure that eventually, my rat colony is going to take off and I'm going to have to store them in a freezer.

My wife suggested that I gas them enough to knock them out, but not kill them. Then introduce them, hearts still beating, to the snake. They will take it and do their thing and feel the heart stop when they're constricting. Nature in action, only with safety precautions in place.

---

I have heard that if a rodent regains conscious after being knocked out by CO2, it will suffer some so it would be more humane to kill them.

Great setup though... seems to be more efficient than the dry ice method.

Where did you get the hosing by the way? Is that sold at paintball stores too?

Great thinking! Slap it in the DYI, but give it a snappy name......"The FourFeathers Box of Death" LOL!
Seriously man good job that's perty dern clever 8)

Quote:

---

My wife suggested that I gas them enough to knock them out, but not kill them. Then introduce them, hearts still beating, to the snake. They will take it and do their thing and feel the heart stop when they're constricting. Nature in action, only with safety precautions in place.

---

I have been thinking this is why Xaero refuses f/t. He'll take an edge-of-death, gasping, totally fubar stunned, but not dead. Iv'e wondered if the heart and exhale of the still twitchin rat is the key.....
My new red tail didn't mind a f/t in the slightest, but we all know how picky bp's can be....
I think your wife has a great idea. If you try this out, do us a favor and report what the average wake up time is on a gassed but not dead rat.

You said "intended for co2"...meaning you didn't put CO2 in it...so what did you put in it? or did you put CO2 in it?

The bottle is "intended for CO2" and that's what it was filled with and what I'm using. I learned in my research that you can't just take any tank and fill it with a certain gas. They have to be rated for it or something. It has something to do with what the tank/bottle/whatever is capable of holding in the way of pressure.

For example an oxygen tank may or may not be able to keep contained CO2 without rupturing. Some gases, when forced into a smaller container, are obviously under a tremendous amount of pressure when contained. In doing so they turn to liquid and when the pressure is released, the liquid turns back to gas. But the tank/bottle/whatever has to be able to keep it contained and not all are rated for it.

The tank/bottle/whatever has to be able to keep that pressure in check. Some are made for different amounts of pressure. Ya can't just grab any old tank and fill it.

That's all I meant. Sorry if I confused anyone.

Quote:

---

I have heard that if a rodent regains conscious after being knocked out by CO2, it will suffer some so it would be more humane to kill them.

Great setup though... seems to be more efficient than the dry ice method.

Where did you get the hosing by the way? Is that sold at paintball stores too?

---

The rats are knocked out and normally, as soon as they start any movement again, the snake puts them down immediately. Typically, they'll be sitting there staring at it waiting for any movement from this thing that looks like food and smells like food thing in front of them to do. It's like as soon as they wake up, the snake puts them right back to sleep.

And actually, I'm only stunning some of the prey with CO2. Just for my picky eaters. The other rats are euthanized completely for my less picky eaters. I've only got 3 out of 11 snakes that I'm using CO2 stunned rats for. I'm hoping to get them off of CO2 stunned and onto freshly CO2 euthanized prey. All the other snakes are given prey that has been completely and humanely euthanized

As far as the hosing goes, I bought it also at the military suprplus store. It's just a "fill station" and was designed with the bottle in mind.

I can't stress how much more humane this is to the prey and how much safer it is for the snake.

Works perfect.

Well here is my attempt to make a gas chamber, and I must say that it works really good. It consists of a tupperware container with a paintball gun CO2 tank attached to a paintball remote supply system which is siliconed into the top of the tupperware container.

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...%20Chamber.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...amber%2001.JPG

Let me know what ya think. And hope that this helps others safely do away with their feeders before the feeders do away with your snake.

Looks good, glad it works well for you.

Looks great. Does it hold in the gas well?

I found it's not necessary to open it up full throttle when I put the prey in the chamber. I just open it up a little bit. I listen for the "hissssss" of the gas, and just let it run for about 10-15 seconds, then I turn it off and just leave them in the chamber for about a minute or longer. They're usually done by that point.

I know some people will open the valve up full blast. And although this may kill them more instantly, I have to think that the pressure would be pretty intense/painfull.

But yours looks good! I hope it serves it's purpose well for you.


Marcus

The set-up looks great
i'd becareful introdcing stunned rats to a snake. I know quite a few people that have had bad exp with a rat that looks sluggish being not so sluggish and landing a bite on a snake when it strikes. :(

Marcus,
It holds the gas fairly well if I hold down on the long sides, or I can barely turn the gas on (once it starts hissing) and let it run like that for about a minute or two. It does work really well.

Jason,
The stunned rat that I have used was to the point that it never knew what hit it. But I do try to go ahead and completely killem before offering them to Zeus. Luckily he has one of the best feeding responses I have ever seen. He knows as soon as he goes into his feeding tank what time it is, and he imediately goes into strike mode. Once he goes into that tank the only way you are getting him out without being bit is by feeding him. So, I feel very confident about feeding him stunned rats. And ALL his fedding are supervised by me, even if I am feeding a completely dead prey item.

I must say that this is one of the best ideas that i have ever herd of. I have been looking for a way to give the snake the advantage without slamming them against the wall or something crappy like that. For the time being i just feed Nyxx live and heavily supervise the feeding process. Like the other person said, when i put her into her feeding box she knows exactly what the deal is hehe. She has never missed hehe. But i will definitly be making this device specially since i have about 6 of those tanks since i am a paintball fanatic!