Zombie baby rat

[Gerald Gorton]

So My wife and I starting breeding rat 2 months ago, and today was killed are first time killing the the baby's. We got two letter's both with 13 baby's each, and the second letter will be ready for my snakes in a few days. We used the dry ice method, we left them in the ice chest 30 minutes with 1 pound of dry ice. Then we put them in little baggie's, and put them in the fridge. (was told to put them in the fridge for a few hours to help with nose bleeds) three hours later we took 2 warmed them up and put the rest in the freezer. So the one rat i gave to my female ball who takes food instantly. So my albino ball named Q-tip who take a long time to strike at food. So i'm sitting here doing the zombie dance with a baby "dead" rat, and i see it looks like it was starting to breath but i didn't think anything about it. i could not get Q-tip to take it, so i put him in back in the baggie then put it in some warm water. After about 10 minute i went back in the kitchen to check on Q tip and to check the temp of the rat and it's struggling in the bag under the water. So i pulled it out and put him in Q-tips tub and it starts walking around the tub acting like a baby rat should. Luckily Q tip took it after a few minutes.

Kinda a bad experience, felt really bad for the rat.

[Joshua Jasper]

Not going to lie, sounds a little traumatizing

Joshua Jasper
WTF Morphs of Manchester
www.wtfmorphsofmanchester.com
Sent from my Galaxy SIII

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

Oh no! Poor baby why didn't it die when it was gassed?


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[kevinb]

My girlfriend better not see this. She's already not happy with the idea of me breeding live rats for food in the future.

[azmodane]

Pinkies, and chubs don't require all that much oxygen to survive so gassing them takes a lot longer and isn't as easy to do as adults smalls and weaners. It's better to just freeze them or give them a little flick on the top of the head to kill them.

[MrLang]

Death by freezing is one of the most horrifyingly painful ways a warm blooded vertebrate can die. Please don't take that advice.

The bit about gassing them for longer is helpful though. Maybe try a smaller ice chest next time with the same amount of dry ice.

[snakesRkewl]

I would grab a used co2 tank off of craigslist and use a 6qt tub, dry ice works but is a pain in the ...

[Anatopism]

If it's a pink up to fuzzy, hold their heads steady between your fingers in one hand, with the back of the head facing up towards you. Take your other hand and very directly/firmly flick them in the back of the head 3 times in a row. Once should be enough, but I do so very quickly, several times, to make sure it does the job and is over with. They will spasm for a few seconds, and then stop moving. It's over very quickly, and no chance of one waking up later. Once they start getting to the point where they would be considered hoppers, gassing shouldn't be difficult.

[satomi325]

Death by freezing is one of the most horrifyingly painful ways a warm blooded vertebrate can die. Please don't take that advice.

The bit about gassing them for longer is helpful though. Maybe try a smaller ice chest next time with the same amount of dry ice.

Actually, freezing is one of the listed humane methods to euthanize a pinky according to IACUC (The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee - they regulate the care and use of laboratory animals in the US).
While it is listed as cruel and painful for all animals, the typical CO2 and cervical dislocation may not be effective on pinks. Rats under 2 weeks of age have a high resistance to hypoxia so they are highly resistant to CO2. And their tail/bones aren't developed enough to pop their necks.

Feeder breeders do however, 'flick' their heads to kill pinks as humane form of euthanasia.

I do agree with you 100% that freezing is painful. But in a case of pinks, it is more humane to freeze them straight out then put them through a gas chamber and have them survive. All rats older than 2 weeks old can be humanely euthanized in the typical fashion of CO2 or cervical dislocation.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is currently considered to be a safe and humane method of euthanasia that has long been the preferred technique for use with rodents. CO2 should not be used as the sole method of euthanasia in neonatal rodents, because the time required for death to occur may be substantially prolonged due to their inherent resistance to hypoxia and hypothermia. The use of a two-step method (CO2 exposure for sedation followed by decapitation) is the recommended technique.
NOTE: Due to the anatomy of rat and mouse neonates, cervical dislocation is difficult to perform adequately, especially when euthanizing mice and rats in the “pinky” stage before hair grows in at 7-10 days. For routine purposes (such as assuring death after CO2 exposure) decapitation must be used rather than cervical dislocation.

http://www.utexas.edu/research/rsc/i...uideline03.pdf

Feeders cannot be decapitated of course, but the general method is there....

[JKPCONSTRICTORS]

I wouldn't freeze them to death or flick them to death. I use the dry ice method, too. The problem may have been the ice chest was a little too big to use for the babies. I bet if you tried a smaller container it would work out just fine.