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

[JohnNJ]

From AVMA:

http://www.avma.org/issues/animal_we...euthanasia.pdf

"Species - Rodents and other small mammals

Acceptable - Barbiturates, inhalant anesthetics, CO2, CO, potassium chloride in conjunction with general anesthesia, microwave irradiation"

Microwave is more humane than dry ice?

[Annie]

Get a small standing freezer on craigslist. After time passes, my wife has become more accepting of it. She doesn't even mind the defrosting mice/rats in the fridge. It's not like it stinks up all the other food.

Haha! What I like is the word OTHER, in: "other food".

[mschmied]

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but the use of CO2 as a type of euthanasia isn't really the most humane way to go about it anyway. I'm not trying to judge anyone because I do and have used CO2 in the form of dry ice to euthanize. With that being said, when using CO2 the animals do not "go to sleep" they actually suffocate while still conscious. CO2 has a greater affinity for hemoglobin than O2 and the animals die of acidosis and hypoxia. The idea of them "going to sleep" only applies to CO exposure. I only say this because I initially mixed this up. When this was brought up to me however I had to think about it again and that individual was correct....lol a health sciences major mixing the 2 up.

[jtman]

I just want to say thanks for this easy tutorial. It worked very quickly and was much more humane than any other options I had at this time. My breeding project got the best of me and I was seriously overrun with ASF rats. The dry ice /CO2 worked very quickly and was much much better than my previous attempt at putting them in the freezer alive ( I DO NOT recommend this in any way at all, very very terrible experience).

[aboutsnakes]

we use a co2 canister and a ikea box with hoses and valves

[jason_ladouceur]

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but the use of CO2 as a type of euthanasia isn't really the most humane way to go about it anyway. I'm not trying to judge anyone because I do and have used CO2 in the form of dry ice to euthanize. With that being said, when using CO2 the animals do not "go to sleep" they actually suffocate while still conscious. CO2 has a greater affinity for hemoglobin than O2 and the animals die of acidosis and hypoxia. The idea of them "going to sleep" only applies to CO exposure. I only say this because I initially mixed this up. When this was brought up to me however I had to think about it again and that individual was correct....lol a health sciences major mixing the 2 up.

I have never used co2. I do see a benefit if you have to cull many many feeders, but for me even when I had to kill even a 100 feeders the fastest and most human, not to mention the cheapest way was to simply break their necks. with rats that meant grasping their tails and a quick smack against something hard, or with rabbits holding their shoulders and "wringing their necks"

[lkelly]

seems really effective and not so stressful on the rats, great post mate. .

[enchinoman]

Actually this is very inhumane!!!! You are torturing your rats and giving them a very painful death. By not regulating the CO2 mixture you are releasing a lot of CO2 at a very fast rate. This burns their esophagus and the rest of the respiratory track. CO2 should only be used with a regulator so that the CO2 is released at a very slow rate and this way the rats fall asleep without getting their insides burnt. I got my CO2 regulator from Hydrofarm.

[enchinoman]

You are absolutely right!!! This post is supporting the inhumane treatment of animals and should be removed! I will work on a set of pictures showing the right method with a regulator.

[RoseyReps]

You are absolutely right!!! This post is supporting the inhumane treatment of animals and should be removed! I will work on a set of pictures showing the right method with a regulator.

Did you just agree with yourself? O_o