Killing Rats- Spoon Method

Hey guys, just wanted to share an experience I had last night. I was over a t friend's place and he was going to feed his bp. He eats medium rats, and he always uses the blunt force method to kill the rats.

Unfortunately, those people who have a snake that generally take an extended period of time to eat, I'm sure you have observed the "rat come back to life" and found that your blunt force method has only knocked the rat out. I feel that this is very inhumane, and the rat suffers considerably in its last few moments of life.

Thinking fast for the rats sake, I decided to employ a method that I had read about somewhere online. It entails placing the handle of a wooden spoon or similar long, rod type object at the base of the rats skull on its neck. You almost "pin" down the rat this way. Hold the spoon on a flat surface (think: see-saw, with the rats neck being the pivot point.) Hold on side down, and and strike the opposite side of it very hard and very fast.

I did this last night and the rat twitched for just a few seconds and then stopped breathing and was dead pretty instantly. Seems like possibly the #2 humane method to put them down, with the CO2 method being at the top of the list.

Let me know what y'all think.

I could see it having the same issue as the general hitting-against-the-wall issue; people get squeamish and don't do it hard enough, and the rat's just disabled and in pain, not dead. I suppose any method involving blunt force has the same issue though...it just makes me uncomfortable, so I either gas mine or have them pre-killed when I buy them.

is CO2 or Dry Ice a quicker death? CO2 is by far cheaper... Spent 99 cents on one pound of dry ice...not too bad, but you have to buy 10 pounds of it...and i ended up putting only one mouse down with it.

Dry ice is frozen CO2 liquid that releases CO2 gas when it "melts" (actually sublimes, since it goes straight from solid --> gas). They're the same thing.

9 out of 10 rats that I have "bashed" don't die on the first hit. We sell many many snakes where I work and people come in asking for p/k rats; its really not fun to have to hit them a ton of times. That spoon method has seemed to do the job the first time, in a short period of time.

lol...learn somethin new everyday

i'm always scared to literally break the mouse if i bash it...i don't want blood and guts flying all over the place.

The one time that I p/k a mouse by "bashing", its skull cracked and it bled all over, I felt absolutely awful. The worst part was that Roo wouldn't take it!

my snake took a p/k mouse yesterday. so if he keeps taking p/k, i'm going to buy a bunch of f/t ..

The pet shop in town where I got my f/t mousies just puts them in a bag and freezes them in the freezer. I think it'd be a horrible way to die, and I feel so sorry for the poor little buggars. :cry:

I don't think I'll ever want to have to kill my own mouse or rat for feeding, so I want to stick to just f/t. I don't want to give the guy up town any more business after discovering he freezes them live, so I'll have to just take a decently long drive to a good reptile store and get my f/t feeders.

so go up there and tell the guy the more humane way to do it...CO2....and if he refuses, tell him you'll be back with animal control..cuz that is inhumane even tho it's just snake food. (sorry about goin off topic elevate)

Good point, Nate: it doesn't hurt to try telling the guy that there's a more humane, inexpensive way to kill the rodents. He might be willing to learn, especially if it's offered as information rather than criticism.

Yikes, they freeze them to death? I would not shop there anymore; not to be too dramatic, but imagine freezing to death... I can't believe that someone would admit to killing rodents that way!
I have a tip for any of you who kill your own rats. I have found that they die much faster if you whack them against a very hard object (I use a large flat rock) than if you just whack em on a table ledge. I whack the rat into the rock, it twitches for a second and is dead. Flat. No suffering involved. Much less traumatic than getting constricted even.

im kinda.....not really scared, but kinda anxious about killing big ole rats when the time comes. i think if i go over to the breeders house to watch some feedings i think maybe i will ask her if i can whack a rat, just to get a feel for it.Does that sound like a good idea ?

yeah and you can watch her do it a few times too just to see how she does it. plus if you don't quite get it the first time she can probably give you some pointers or tips on how to do it better.

It really is not that hard for me. once I did it a few times, it got to be part of the feeding routine and nothing major.
I am toying with the idea of using a gas chamber though, just for the simple fact that it'd be easier when putting a large number of rats down at once. That kinda gets to me after awhile.

I just dump my rats into two grocery bags (one somtimes breaks), go out to my front porch (make sure no neighbors are watching or they might get a little spooked) and swing em hard to the ground. Longer bags create more force. They almost always die instantly. Dont be afraid of hitting them two hard, you wont "burst" them. The harder you hit, the less they suffer.

I have never tried the gas method. I work for a bank so I got a Fed. coin bag its like canvas I shake the mice up in the box to kind of confuse them. then dump two or what ever I am feeding down in this bag they run for the corner. I just walk out side and back hand the bag against the wall. It is quicker and free at that. Now if I ever have to do more than 2 or three then yea I think a gas chamber is the way to go. But this works for now.

hey right now i just have to kill medium sized mice for my ball python and i do this by putting a pen on their neck to pin them down, then i pull their tail really hard and that kills them instantly, they hardly even twitch, but i want to know if i can do this for bigger rats too , like will it work the same way just on a bigger scale, or will i not be able to pull hard enough to break their neck? (the rats are for my aligator) yep if anyone knows let me know thanks
christine

i could be wrong, but isn't freezing to death (mice or rats) just like going to sleep?(but a little colder)