Culling mutated hatchlings:

[kjinxx2]

Hi, I was wondering what methods would be considered 'humane' for culling a hatchling that was born with a life-threatening illness or mutation. I understand that many people feel this is wrong, I'm not looking for a response as to why it may be wrong. For those of you that have had to cull a hatchling before, what was your approach?

[DB4503]

I have had to do that same thing for animals in the past and I was always told the freezer works best. That's what I have done and to me I feel it works best. Best of luck.

[WingedWolfPsion]

The freezer is very inhumane--the animals will suffer pain. How much pain do you feel just being outside long enough for your feet to go numb? Reptiles do not hibernate--they brumate, remaining conscious through the whole thing.

If avoiding suffering is your primary concern, and not secondary to your own feelings, then completely destroying the animal's brain with a sharp blow from a very heavy, large object will be a humane way to euthanize it. There is some question as to how humane some veterinary drugs are for reptiles, as they can take quite some time to kill the animal. Reptiles, with their very slow metabolism, cannot even be counted on to die quickly if you cut off their head!

In my opinion, total destruction of the brain is the most humane method. It's absolutely horrifying to have to do that, but you can be sure that it's instant and painless.

[Vader6]

I would say a cleaver to the back of the neck where the head and body meet. Less gory I would think and would do the same thing.
Knocking him out with CO2 or N20 first would be better though.
I mean you could just let them go in the wild....

[DB4503]

WingedWolfPsion please do not think I do it often, I was merely told that from a few people. I only suggested what was told to me based off of how the information was presented to me. I'm glad there was more input other then myself, the information you gave was not known to myself.

[joepythons]

I would say a cleaver to the back of the neck where the head and body meet. Less gory I would think and would do the same thing.
Knocking him out with CO2 or N20 first would be better though.
I mean you could just let them go in the wild....

Its NEVER a good idea to release any reptile in the wild! Its ideas like this that might cause us to lose our reptiles

[Wh00h0069]

I have culled deformed hatchlings by freezing them. My thoughts are since they are cold blooded and small that they freeze very quickly. I do not think that C02 would be a good bet since they do not breathe very often. It would probably take days to put them to sleep.

[kjinxx2]

Knocking him out with CO2 or N20 first would be better though.

I was under the impression that snakes are not effected/overcome by the CO2 fast enough, thus it doesn't work effectively.

I guess total brain destruction would be most humane for the snake, it makes sense that beheading a snake could be inhumane, as their head may still live even after separation: I heard that a human head is still alive for just a few seconds after being beheaded, but I don't think anybody's signed up to prove that theory

Do the snakes die in a freezer prior to their body actually freezing and forming crystals? Or is it the actual freezing part that kills them?

[Eventide]

If I ever need to do this myself with any of my reptiles, I will be taking it to the vet to be put down. My vet has decades of experience with reptiles, and I trust him completely.

Freezing, as WingedWolfPsion said, is inhumane, as are most other "home" methods, including CO2. Besides, it's not like euthanasia is horribly expensive. (It's only $11 here; I've had to put down a couple geckos.)

[WingedWolfPsion]

DB, I wasn't judging your action, merely giving you the info. Even vets used to recommend freezing for reptile euthanasia. Further study on it showed that reptiles do not simply go to sleep in the freezer, but very likely suffer. This fact isn't widely known in the herp community yet.

Due to their extremely low oxygen needs and overall hardiness, reptiles are just hard to humanely euthanize.