Humanely stun rats for feeding

[Mossey]

Hi everyone,

I've been a lurker here for a while but I have recently come across a way to deal with live rats while feeding and I'd like to get some others to weigh on whether it's humane or not.

A bit about me, I own and breed over 100 snakes and probably 400-600 rats at any one time. We feed a lot and typically use a CO2 chamber without an issue. To be clear, there's still no issues, it just takes a long time and I'd like to find a way a bit faster but still humane (my wife won't let me do it any other way than painless"

A person who I talk to online recently showed me that they use a shock method to stun the rat before feeding it to their snake. It's a very crude design but it definitely works for what they're doing. Basically they took an extension cord, cut the end, stripped the wire and soldered the ends to two nails and encased the whole thing in wood. When the time comes, they plug it in and just touch it to the rat who just seems to freeze for a second and then they release the touch and it's stunned.

They said that if the snake doesn't eat, the rat will come back within a minute or two.

For my purposes, it seems like this would be far more convenient than feeding live and watching for each strike so they don't bite the snake or gassing 50 rats only to have 40 snakes eat and the rest have to be frozen.


So, what are the thoughts here? Is it humane?

[jmcrook]

Is electrocuting an animal humane?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: No. Electrocution of an animal is not humane.


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[Bogertophis]

I wouldn't do that either.

[Armiyana]

Have you ever gotten a static shock or an actual electrical zap?

I tried to help nurse back a rabbit after it had gotten a good electric zap from an extension cord. It eventually died from heart failure a week later.

[Mossey]

Understandable, thanks all.

Is CO2 the only humane way then? I saw another post where people were suggesting some barbaric things but I want make sure it's humane.p, of course.

[Bogertophis]

Understandable, thanks all.

Is CO2 the only humane way then? I saw another post where people were suggesting some barbaric things but I want make sure it's humane.p, of course.

CO2 is the best way I know of. I've seen "cervical dislocation" advocated by some, but if it's done wrong- like when someone's squeamish & not adept with that method- it's anything BUT humane, & personally I'd never try that either. No need to elaborate on the barbaric methods some people come up with. Before I got into snakes, I used to keep pet rats. Thanks for asking- it matters to most of us. Rats are intelligent & social creatures- they don't deserve cruel treatment, even if they're prey.