What goes down with killing and constricting?

[AmysAnimals]

You could buy live, and then kill the rodents yourself. It doesn't have to be gruesome or traumatizing for you. You just put your rodent in a sack and then WHACK it really hard on a counter top, or the ground. It dies instantly, and your snake has a fresh meal.
I have been buying frozen, but was considering doing this.

That's sick. Would you want to die that way. What if they didn't die? What if they were still alive and suffering?!

[FrankieCarbone]

You can easily and cheaply set up a CO2 chamber to euthanize the rodent before feeding. It is quick and humane.

now this im interested in. How do u make something like that?

[Evenstar]

now this im interested in. How do u make something like that?

The easiest way to set up a CO2 chamber is to get a cooler and a small container like a small critter keeper. Make sure the critter keeper fits inside the cooler with a bit of room to spare. You put the rodent in the critter keeper and place that in the cooler. You put several pieces of dry ice in the cooler and close the lid. The dry ice gives off Carbon dioxide. The rodents go to sleep and asphixiate. Quick and painless - dead rodent in less than 3min.

[FrankieCarbone]

where does one buy dry ice? i live in nyc.

[notmyfault]

There is a place on Astoria Blvd that sells dry ice, its near the triboro bridge if you're in Queens. I don't know of any other places but I'm sure there are throughout the city, just have to search for some.

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[Salamander Rising]

The only problem with this is that those little compartments can't actually freeze anything. Mine that I had took two days to freeze water into ice cubes and it certainly couldn't keep frozen things frozen. It's bad enough for ice cream, I can't imagine a dead rat in there.

I would make it a dedicated freezer and not just try and use part of the fridge as a freezer. You can buy small chest freezers for about the same cost as a mini fridge. (~$100- $150 new from Target) This will be my route as I am also not allowed to keep frozen rodents in the main freezer (which is silly because we have frozen steaks and such in there as well).

OMG!

Really?

The little 36" fridge I got at Walmart for polymer clay work is a menace for freezing things, even if you don't want it to.

I think it's only got 2 settings; "Slowly Rot" and "Freeze Rock Solid".

I gave hubby the cube/dorm fridge I had for his machine shop and I have no idea what brand it is but it keeps his green tea ice cold on the lowest setting.

I know he accidentally turned it up a bit last summer and his bottles of tea popped from freezing even though they were in the "fridge part".

I keep my large bulk rodent bags in the workshop upright freezer and a couple week's worth of rats/mice in the kitchen fridge freezer on the bottom shelf so hubby doesn't have to pick through frozen, staring dead things to get his ice cream out.

[Evenstar]

There is a place on Astoria Blvd that sells dry ice, its near the triboro bridge if you're in Queens. I don't know of any other places but I'm sure there are throughout the city, just have to search for some.

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I'm not anywhere near NY (I'm in MI), but my local meat market sells it. Cheap too....

[FrankieCarbone]

how long does that stuff last, am i gonna need to buy a chunk of it everytime? Reason im interested is im feeding live now, and will continue to do so, but when i try my much needed transistion to medium rats (which is what he should be feeding on going on 900G) i would be interested in trying this to knock out the rat first...

[Inarikins]

how long does that stuff last, am i gonna need to buy a chunk of it everytime? Reason im interested is im feeding live now, and will continue to do so, but when i try my much needed transistion to medium rats (which is what he should be feeding on going on 900G) i would be interested in trying this to knock out the rat first...

It should last pretty long. If you're only killing a rat or two you won't need much but you'll need enough that it'll actually kill it. And make sure it's properly gassed and dead and not just unconscious because if it's only unconscious and it wakes up, it could panic and harm your snake.

[wolfy-hound]

Your family shouldn't have an issue with rats in the freezer if they are contained in a opaque clearly marked container.. but... it's their house so you've got to go with their rules.

If you buy 5 rodents to keep, 5 weeks is long enough for a healthy rat to outgrow your size requirements. Rodents grow very fast. Plus, can you feed, clean water and watch a rodent for over a month and not get attached since you think all rats are sweet?

Rats are not all sweet, especially not to a snake, or when you're introducing them to a snake. If the snake refuses to eat the live rat, the rat can be paniced by the time you need to remove it, and bite you too. I know it's amazing, but rats can indeed just be mean. Not all rats are nice, nor will all rats allow handling, or even handling their cage items without biting.

Most rats are placid, even when you're dumping them in with a snake, since they of course don't know what's going on until it's too late(ideally). But live rats can bite, do bite. A frozen/thawed rodent has NEVER bitten the keeper or snake.

Any method of killing that is either painless or instant is humane. CO2 gas(from a canister or dry ice) is humane and painless. But you would have to buy dry ice each time, as you can't "keep" it for any amount of time. When it's gone, it's gone. You can't put it into a typical freezer as far as I'm aware(I don't know of any regular freezers that can keep dry ice frozen) and have it not dissolve. A CO2 canister(like used in paintball) would be your best bet, since you can use part of it, then close the canister to use the rest next week. But again, if you get attached to the rats, will you be able to gas a creature to death?

You'd probably only be able to keep rats for about 2-3 weeks, unless you're feeding prey too small to begin with, to too large in the end(of 5 weeks) since the rodents will continue to grow.

A small freezer that you could put into the garage would probably be better since you can save tons of money buying frozen in bulk, and it would be away from the family food freezer so they shouldn't object. $100-150 is a great investment since you'll be able to use it for years(and you can keep your own favorite 'treats' in YOUR freezer and no one in the family will take them, teehee!!!).

If you warm a F/T rodent up properly, the snake doesn't know it's dead. They hunt it, strike it and consume it exactly as if it were alive. You're not depriving the snake of anything by feeding F/T(and I feed live, so I'm not just against live feeding).