Quote Originally Posted by satomi325 View Post
While CO2 and cervical dislocation works great for rodents, it doesn't for reptiles.

Co2 is not a good way to euthanize reptiles. Since they have a slow respiratory rate and metabolism, it would take a very long long time for them to die. Quite agonizing really. Some may not even die because the person doesn't leave them in the Co2 chamber long enough. It takes a mouse roughly 2 minutes to die in a Co2 chamber. I can guarantee it won't take 2 minutes for a snake to die. Overall, not a very effective or efficient method.

Cutting off the head is inhumane because the head is still alive and can feel pain.

Freezing is one of the most inhumane methods to euthanize a snake or any thing for the matter. Freezing is highly painful. It can take hours for a snake to freeze to death. Because they are cold blooded, reptiles do not loose consciousness like mammals do when freezing. Its said they can feel their cells freeze and burst. Putting a hand in ice water for 30 seconds hurts us already. I can't imagine doing that for hours.....

Pithing takes a little more skill, so it can be done incorrectly like you said. But I don't suppose most people are using that specific technique anyway.
The only humane method for snakes you can do at home is instantaneous brain destruction(Crushing or destroying brain tissue ).
And while it is not pretty, smashing, crushing, or chopping the head itself is the most effective way to euthanize a snake yourself.

If you take a snake to the vet, they will euthanize it with either an overdose of anesthesia or a cardiac puncture to the heart if a vein cannot be located in smaller animals. Don't worry about pain. The snakes are put under anesthesia during the heart puncture procedure. It's illegal to not do so.


And in regards to not having enough guts. I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you how I feel about it.
If there was ever a situation where an animal had to be down on the spot, I wouldn't even hesitate. As a keeper, it is my responsibility to take care of my animals to the best of my ability and make sure they're not suffering. It would be unfair to them if they couldn't live a quality life just because I wanted them to live longer. Sometimes there are situations where you have to euthanize on the spot. Sometimes a suffering animal cannot wait 20+ minutes to drive to the vet to be put down. While it's not a great feeling or experience to euthanize animals, I would suck it up to help my animals.
I'm glad I read through this thread before I ever attempted to breed ball pythons. I was aware that euthanasia was a problem, because I knew of problems like kinking and lethal gene combos, but I thought putting a snake in the freezer was a human way to euthanasia them. I'll have to look at getting a pithing kit when I'm ready to breed. Would any method of destroying the brain work? Such as, if you don't have a pithing kit available, would a nail gun to the brain work? I would think not, since driving a nail through the brain would only destroy a small portion and death would not be guaranteed. Satomi, how do you euthanize your snakes? I agree that waiting to go down to the vet is not always the most humane thing to do, especially with baby snakes that are so deformed they are probably in pain the longer they are alive.

Quote Originally Posted by Raven01 View Post
I think NERD has a couple videos on lethal gene combo's. I'll have to re-watch those and see if any of the implicated genes show up more than others with defects.
Some of the lethal gene combos I know off the top of my head are; champagne crossed with any morph that causes neurological issues such as spider (and I've heard woma can cause wobbling as well) and woma x woma breeding, which is to say that any BP with two woma genes will not live for very long if at all.