What is the most humane way to "brain" a rat?

[nucklehead97]

My female ball python will not even touch f/t but will pound f/k and I know that I am not doing it in the most humane way so what is the best way to do it? I usually put the rat in a bag and slam it on the counter or wall or something and it usually takes a few hits to finally finish. And yes I know that this is barbaric so please refrain from bashing me for how I feed my snakes because I am trying to do it better. So how do you guys that feed f/k do it?

[albinos_rule]

I think you are confusing braining with dispatching the rat before you feed it. Braining is where you crack open the skull to expose the brain, sometimes a useful technique in snakes that are not feeding, but whatever it takes to dispatch the rat so it doesn't harm your snake will work..carry on

[DVirginiana]

You could try breaking the neck? I feel like that's one of those things that could be inhumane if you don't know what you're doing, but as it is I feel like it'd probably be more humane than the current method you're using. This is just speculation as I've never pre-killed or disabled my live feeders. I usually just wait with a pair of tongs to put into the prey's mouth so it can't bite the snake as it's being constricted.
I'm sure someone else with more experience can answer this better.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It is barbaric and inhuman and you have NO BUSINESS feeding pre-killed or f/t if you cannot euthanize the prey HUMANELY which means CO2 or cervical dislocation.

Owning snakes means having respect for the prey item also, wonder why people look at us snake owners the way they do, look no further, throwing rats on walls, bashing their hear several times on a table, using hammers, pulling teeth etc.....such a positive image

Learn to dispatch the prey and maybe people will refrain from bashing, educate yourself https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Doc...euthanasia.pdf

As for braining it is done post mortem so I fail to see why at this point you want to do this humanly when you fail do do the rest humanly???

[mohawk]

I just watched a bunch of cervical dislocation video's, and CO2 chamber video's.

The cervical dislocation, when it's done by somebody that is good at it, kills them instantly. (pretty good and humane way to kill )
I also came across a couple video's where it didn't go all that well.........

Now the CO2 chamber videos were a different story ...... seems like there is always one
or two rodents that just hang on and keep gasping. Some suffering for more than a full minute. (not all that humane in my opinion)

I feed my snakes live prey. There have been times where the snake has grabbed the rodent wrong,
and did not get a good wrap, and the rodent squeeks, and kicks for a good 30 seconds before it dies. (guess feeding live is not all that humane either)

I have also committed the barbaric act of whacking a rodent against a wall . (killed them instantly)

So I guess if you are trying to kill a rodent in the quickest way with the least suffering, I would say that cervical dislocation,
and wall whacking are the 2 most humane methods. Watching the poor things gasp and suffer in those CO2 chambers is
definitely not all that humane.

[Eric Alan]

So I guess if you are trying to kill a rodent in the quickest way with the least suffering, I would say that cervical dislocation,
and wall whacking are the 2 most humane methods. Watching the poor things gasp and suffer in those CO2 chambers is
definitely not all that humane.

I'm certainly glad you're not a veterinarian.

[DVirginiana]

I'm a biologist, and many people I know have worked in labs that euthanized mice/rats using CO2 chambers. Everyone I've ever talked to says the same thing you did about CO2 chambers not being very humane.
Except when my BP doesn't get a good hold on the feeder, I believe that letting her constrict them live is probably the quickest death even if it's a violent one. My biggest problem with whacking the rat against something is that I imagine the chance of messing up and just causing a lot of pain is much greater than with cervical dislocation (the phrase I meant to use in my first post instead of neck-snapping) or CO2 chambers.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I'm a biologist, and many people I know have worked in labs that euthanized mice/rats using CO2 chambers. Everyone I've ever talked to says the same thing you did about CO2 chambers not being very humane.

Have you done it yourself?

I can tell you that everyone you talked to does not do it right and too much CO2 is filling the kill tank at once hence the gasping and panic.

When done right they will slowly fall asleep, this can be achieve with a CO2 regulator, than again people need to educate themselves.

[DVirginiana]

Have you done it yourself?

I can tell you that everyone you talked to does not do it right and too much CO2 is filling the kill tank at once hence the gasping and panic.

When done right they will slowly fall asleep, this can be achieve with a CO2 regulator, than again people need to educate themselves.

I've not done it myself; using animals in labs is actually the reason I decided to specialize in plants, but I do know a number of people who went into medical research or a similar field, so that's where I was getting that info from. I can see how CO2 chambers might get out of whack in a large lab with different people working on the same equipment.

That makes me feel better about buying f/t at any rate (I'm assuming they use CO2 chambers for that?). Now if only I could convince my BP that she can eat something she didn't kill...

[Eric Alan]

...people need to educate themselves...

You mean by actually reading the AVMA document you posted already? Blasphemy!