Rat "Gas" Question

So, I was at the HERP show yesterday where I purchased a beautiful, 7 month old Blade Clown BP and my wife got a African Fat-Tail gecko. When we were about to leave I decided to get 50 rat pups (frozen). While paying the vendor, he asked if we were gonna be stopping anywhere on the way home and I said yes, for about 45 minutes. He advises to crack a window, or 2, due to the rats "gassing out", which could very possibly kill my BP and the gecko within an hr. He did put some dry ice in the bag as well.

My "dumb" question: If his advice is accurate, and PLEASE excuse my ignorance, but would it hurt to keep them in our freezer WE use? Are there any potential side-effects for us? Do we need to get a separate freezer just to be safe? Or am I just way off base here??

Thanks!

I believe the concern isn't a gas from the rats so much as the dry ice. As it "melts" it off-gases CO2 that can leak out of any non airtight bag or container. If you then enclose animals in the car while it does this, the CO2 buildup could be lethal to almost any living thing inside depending how much and how long. I'm not sure what the threshold for ot being dangerous is, so better safe than sorry like he said.

However, cracking a window isn't very helpful (though better than nothing at all) since CO2 is heavier than O2 and tends to sink, so it would build up at floor level first and raise up as more accumulated. Best method would be to ensure the reptiles are at the same level or higher than whatever opening would let the CO2 build up to and then it would "pour out" once it reaches that height.

The rats themselves are fine and you don't need to keep the dry ice once home, so no issues for your food. Just discard the dry ice safely after you get home. Letting it melt outside would be one option, you just don't want the CO2 to build up inside a small enclosed space like a closed car.

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I was just gonna tell you not to feed them rats any beans....:D ............pretends2bnormal nailed it though :gj:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I was just gonna tell you not to feed them rats any beans....:D ............pretends2bnormal nailed it though :gj:

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Lmao!

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Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal

I believe the concern isn't a gas from the rats so much as the dry ice. As it "melts" it off-gases CO2 that can leak out of any non airtight bag or container. If you then enclose animals in the car while it does this, the CO2 buildup could be lethal to almost any living thing inside depending how much and how long. I'm not sure what the threshold for ot being dangerous is, so better safe than sorry like he said.

However, cracking a window isn't very helpful (though better than nothing at all) since CO2 is heavier than O2 and tends to sink, so it would build up at floor level first and raise up as more accumulated. Best method would be to ensure the reptiles are at the same level or higher than whatever opening would let the CO2 build up to and then it would "pour out" once it reaches that height.

The rats themselves are fine and you don't need to keep the dry ice once home, so no issues for your food. Just discard the dry ice safely after you get home. Letting it melt outside would be one option, you just don't want the CO2 to build up inside a small enclosed space like a closed car.

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Great, detailed explanation! It's much appreciated!

So, the whole "gassing" thing wasn't anything to do with the rats, of course, unless I drop a can of beans in there and walk away.:weirdface

Dude scared us so much we actually placed the rats (with the ice) in the trunk of my daughter's car before we went to run our errand. We just opened the trunk and let it "air out" before heading home.

Seriously though, I didn't know that about the dry ice. We would've been devastated if we came back to the car only to find a "crime scene". :tears:

Thanks again for the insight!

You don't have to worry about frozen rats coming back to life...not even to eat beans, lol...:mouse2::rat:

But yes, one method for euthanizing rodents (in a container) involves using "dry ice" to produce the needed CO2.

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Originally Posted by Shayne

Great, detailed explanation! It's much appreciated!

So, the whole "gassing" thing wasn't anything to do with the rats, of course, unless I drop a can of beans in there and walk away.:weirdface

Dude scared us so much we actually placed the rats (with the ice) in the trunk of my daughter's car before we went to run our errand. We just opened the trunk and let it "air out" before heading home.

Seriously though, I didn't know that about the dry ice. We would've been devastated if we came back to the car only to find a "crime scene". :tears:

Thanks again for the insight!

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No problem! Glad it helped out with the peace of mind if nothing else.

I have no idea why he couldn't have taken 2 seconds to tell you "Hey, dry ice off puts CO2 as it melts. If that builds up in the car, it may kill your animals, so be careful how close they are in enclosed spaces if you plan on any long stops."

Though, I can't imagine a fist-sized chunk (about as much as I would expect to be provided, bigger would be unnecessary) being enough to build up to even make several inches of CO2 gas along the floorboards of a car, but I don't know what the volume it offputs really is.

If there really were something dangerous about the rats themselves, I would immediately think they were not going to be fit for animal consumption without risk of harm. Definitely nothing wrong with the rats in this case.

Your method works out well, as the gas would have settled in the trunk away from the animals and would have taken substantial amounts of melted dry ice to get much into the passenger area of the car.

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Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal

No problem! Glad it helped out with the peace of mind if nothing else.

I have no idea why he couldn't have taken 2 seconds to tell you "Hey, dry ice off puts CO2 as it melts. If that builds up in the car, it may kill your animals, so be careful how close they are in enclosed spaces if you plan on any long stops."

Though, I can't imagine a fist-sized chunk (about as much as I would expect to be provided, bigger would be unnecessary) being enough to build up to even make several inches of CO2 gas along the floorboards of a car, but I don't know what the volume it offputs really is.

If there really were something dangerous about the rats themselves, I would immediately think they were not going to be fit for animal consumption without risk of harm. Definitely nothing wrong with the rats in this case.

Your method works out well, as the gas would have settled in the trunk away from the animals and would have taken substantial amounts of melted dry ice to get much into the passenger area of the car.

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Yea, his description (warning) was vague, at best.

Thankfully, I have this wonderful forum with some fantastic folks who don't mind sharing valuable knowledge along the way, which is MUCH appreciated.

Thanks again!

Won't lie, I opened this thread fully expecting to read about rat farts. Instead I learned something both interesting and helpful!

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Originally Posted by WhompingWillow

Won't lie, I opened this thread fully expecting to read about rat farts. Instead I learned something both interesting and helpful!

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You weren't alone...:D I knew about dry ice but the seller's explanation left much to be desired, & you have to figure if one person asks, how many others do NOT know
about it, so it was a helpful topic for this forum.

The seller should have said the dry ice was gassing out though, not the rats...the seller made a simple thing confusing. :rolleyes: