Feeder Euthanasia the Easy Way, and Humane too...

Yes you would either melt or drill holes. I prefer to use water with dry ice as it speeds up the process considerably. I think I have a post somewhere here about building your own Co2 chamber ... Pretty much identical to what Elevate put in this thread.

http://www.rodentracks.com/DIY_Co2_Chamber_rubb.jpg

Heres the tupperware type that I use. More details can be seen at http://www.rodentracks.com/DIY_Co2_Chamber.html

I do it in the house at times and in the shop. The only real danger is putting your head into the bucket/cooler while the dry ice is actively sublimating (other than burns)

As far as amount of ice if I have everything ready to go I can do 50 rat pups, 50 adult mice, 10 medium rats, 4 large rats, and 2 jumbo rats on a 1/2 lb of dry ice (in water).

Without the water you will need to keep them in an extra amount of time ... One of my friends called me up cause his rabbits were screaming after he Co2'd em. He hadnt put in enough water, causing the dry ice not to sublimate fast enough, and had pulled them out after 4 minutes.

Bryan

Excellent info guys! I think it's important to have this thread and the pics so we can all learn how to safely and humanely euthanize if we need to (whether it's for feeder rodents or just to put a breeder out of it's misery if it's really sick). Thanks again!

More questions as I'm completely clueless about dry ice. When you purchase it and use some of it, can the rest be stored for later use? How do you safely store it and is there any length of time it can be stored before I must be used again? Thanks for putting up with all my questions on this subject. :)

Also a good idea to lay down a few layers of paper towls. Makes clean up easier to do!! lol Great post.

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I only really have 2 things to add. By priming the container with Co2 (adding the dry ice before the prey), you will decrease the amount of time from 2 minutes to 10-20 seconds for them to fall asleep.

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My only reservation with doing that is because with this method, I have no clue how high of a concentration of CO2 will actually be in the chamber when the rats are introduced. Exposing them to even a moderate level of CO2 can cause respitory distress and undermine the whole "humane" thing we're going for here. Speeding up the process with CO2 in bubbling water may further increase the likelihood of "overpriming" the chamber.

To me it just makes more sense to start at zero and gradually increase from there, reducing any margin of error. It surely doesn't hurt them at all to be exposed to a gradual increase in CO2, even if it means being in the chamber for an extra minute or two.

I think you'd run into a problem with scale when you start talking about euthanizing larger animals, though. The page I referenced said that this method wouldn't be appropriate for animals over 8-10lbs.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

More questions as I'm completely clueless about dry ice. When you purchase it and use some of it, can the rest be stored for later use? How do you safely store it and is there any length of time it can be stored before I must be used again? Thanks for putting up with all my questions on this subject. :)

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Anyone have answers to these questions yet?

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Originally Posted by _BoidFinatic_

Anyone have answers to these questions yet?

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http://www.dryiceinfo.com/safe.htm

http://www.frozenontime.com/dryice_safehandling.htm

Hey guys,


This seems like the perfect way to do this with dry ice. I found a web site to buy dry ice and they said you'd lose about 10 lbs a day because it can't be at the right temperature. elevatethis, or to anyone who knows, how do you keep dried ice stored? I was going to buy about 25 lbs to keep for the mice after a few litters are born. But not if I'm going to lose all the dry ice in 3 days lol.

I don't have a clue at all....the grocery store keeps it in a chest freezer....I'm not sure how long that extends the shelf life but I know that dry ice is a whole lot colder than what most freezers could get down to.

Do any grocery stores around you carry it? Walmart might as well.....there's gotta be one of those near you!

I've done this before. And while it is easy to do, it ended up being a very uncessary expense for me. I have not done the research on where to buy Dry Ice down here in Orlando, but in Arkansas, where I used to live there was only one place to buy Dry Ice, Kroger. And they sold me a 10 pound block...

Ok you think that's great...you can just chip off alittle peice and use it today, and save the rest for later. Doesn't work that way...you need a freezer that is cold enough to keep the dry ice from turning into a gas. Our regular freezers will keep an 8 pound block for a few days, at most...

So what was my way of euthanising rats turned into making a crap load of fog and dry ice bombs.

RodentPro, feeding p/k...or live....is just easier..... :twocents:

Hay Nathan Publix supermarkets carry small packs of dry ice