Question About Feeding Stunned Mice

[frankykeno]

You're welcome Casey. I have that saved to my favorites since it covers guidelines for pretty much every type of euthansia. I think it's really important to note their constant reference to the training that has to be done to properly accomplish any type of humane euthing of lab animals. We as feeders of prey are, I believe, morally bound to strive to meet the standards set in this type of article both in humane treatment and in our own self-training to these things.

[kc261]

I think it's really important to note their constant reference to the training that has to be done to properly accomplish any type of humane euthing of lab animals.

That's why I usually let my snakes handle that end of it! I figure they are far more qualified than I am!

[frankykeno]

That's why I usually let my snakes handle that end of it! I figure they are far more qualified than I am!

LOL me too! I figure they've been dealing with killing rodents for food just a tad bit longer than I've been dealing with feeding them rodents for food so they are quite likely the far greater expert than myself.

[Montie Python]

How does YOUR head feel after being knocked unconscious? This will definitely cause lasting pain to the animal and I consider that to be cruel.

Well i never been knocked unconscious...BUT if I was too choose....lets say from someone hitting me across the head with a baseball bat...dropping me from an 15 story building--actually throwing me by some unknown force, from an 15 story building ..., placing me in a burlap bag and slamming me against the wall...or getting a pitched fork on my back and then suffocating from some unknown creature i've never seen...

I'm gonna have to go with E...Leave me in my garage, turn on my car and sit on the floor and think of how much my life really sucked...

[frankykeno]

Just a small point but one that is important when understanding snakes and their live prey.

National Geographic and Brad Moon's work has proven that snakes do not kill by suffocation as was long thought to be the case.

Here's a few excerpts from.....

http://ngccommunity.nationalgeograph...per-snake.html

It’s constriction, not suffocation… Constriction is a method snakes use to subdue their prey, by coiling their muscular bodies around their otherwise unwieldy victims and squeezing, the constriction prevents even their largest prey from biting or kicking their way free from the snake’s grasp. Constriction was a critical evolutionary innovation that enabled snakes to expand their diets, which now range from ants to antelopes. It also enabled snakes to diversify in body form—without constriction, snakes may not have evolved into the species we have today. Traditionally it was believed that constrictor snakes killed their prey by suffocation, by squeezing their victims so tightly they could no longer breathe. But suffocation can take up to several minutes, which can give a prey animal plenty of time to fight back, and we now know that prey animals are often killed much faster than that. A second explanation for how constriction kills so quickly is that it squeezes the blood vessels closed and causes the circulation to stop. If constriction is strong enough to squeeze the blood vessels closed in the body of a prey animal, then the animal’s circulation stops immediately, which causes the tissues to run out of oxygen and die in seconds rather than minutes.

Constriction pressure is a good measure of a snake’s strength and it is one of the key components that restricts prey movement and kills it. To measure the pressures, I used small balloons attached to a prey animal and connected by tubing to a pressure transducer that gave a digital readout of the constriction pressure exerted by the snake’s coil. I discovered that even small constrictors can squeeze with pressures up to 4 PSI (pounds per square inch). This is strong enough to squeeze blood vessels closed in mice and kill them by circulatory arrest. This result was very important because it showed that the traditional explanation of constriction causing suffocation was probably wrong. The difference is crucial, because circulatory arrest kills prey animals much faster than suffocation, making it a safer and more surefire method for the snakes.