freezing my own rats ((help!!!))

[maudie]

I have 3 decent sized ball pythons all feeding on frozen/thawed small rats once a week. unfortunately money doesn't grow on trees and live rats are way cheaper than frozen for me. but I don't want my girls feeding on live. so I was thinking... what if I freeze my own live rats? does anyone have any tips as to how I would go about this? just knock them out and put em in a bag and then in the freezer? tips? advice?
really not something I want to do, but my girls need to eat

[readymade]

I've never frozen any of my snakes food before but I'd build a co2 chamber euthanize the rats that way then I'd buy some dry ice put some in a cooler put a rack in the cooler put the rats on the rack i would think they'd be frozen real quick that way then put them in the freezer

[maudie]

except the whole point of this is to save money. I couldn't just freeze them with a normal freezer after knocking them out?????

[Reinz]

Here we go........


There have been past threads on euthanizing rats correctly. They got a little heated/emotional.

The two most preferable ways are cervical dislocation and the gas chamber with CO2.

Cervical dislocation is pretty "hands on". You hold the rat's head firmly in one hand and with the other hand grab the base of the tail and a quick yank. This should snap the neck immediately. If not, then you are being pretty cruel to the rat learning your trade.

You can easily build a gas chamber with an ice chest, plastic bowl with lid with holes, dry ice, and a glass of water.
However, there is no control of the gas. If released too quickly can cause panic and stress to the rats as they die.

The best? A gas chamber made with a CO2 tank bought at Walmart in sporting goods. Get tubing and a control valve where you control the rate of gas being released into the chamber. This allows the rats to fall asleep so to speak before they ingest more gas and die.

Older threads show you how to make the chamber. And I'm sure YouTube is your friend.

Best

[Reinz]

except the whole point of this is to save money. I couldn't just freeze them with a normal freezer after knocking them out?????

The cost of building your own gas chamber will pay itself off quickly.

If what you are doing now does not bother you and you feel that it is humane, then proceed.

I'm a grown man and I used to hunt a great deal. It upset me greatly when I did one fresh kill before knowing about other methods mentioned here. But hey, I guess that's just me.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You need to euthanize the rats not knock them down before placing them in the freezer. Depending on the size of the rat and how many rats you need to euthanize at once it can be either cervical dislocation or the use of a CO2 chamber.

If you do not want to do it and your girl needs to eat just feed live she'll know what to do, or just by frozen in bulk.

[jerseypythons]

rodentpro.com buy them in bulk comes out cheap

[anicatgirl]

except the whole point of this is to save money. I couldn't just freeze them with a normal freezer after knocking them out?????

I will say what the others haven't. This is inhumane. A CO2 chanber won't cost you much and it will prevent excessive suffering in the rats. Or if you're comfy with knocking them out, just cervically dislocate to euthanize instead.

[Daigga]

Getting beaned on the head before freezing to death sounds like a terrible way to go. The method that I had been using for euthanasia was a quick co2 chamber using dry ice within a small critter keeper in a good sized bin lined with paper towels. I think the instructions are here on the forums somewhere. Dry ice can be gotten at Kroger for a little under 2 dollars a pound, so it was the easiest method for me. I've also done cervical dislocation, but its really hands on and can be absolutely traumatizing if you get it wrong, so I don't really recommend it if you aren't 100% confident.