Ah. I said it backwards. CO2 is denser than air, helium is lighter. Thus why helium balloons float and all that good. I'm a bit dislexic at times
CO would kill quicker but wasn't an option. CO kills so quickly because of the poisonous bond it makes with iron sites in the hemoglobin in blood - forms the compound COHb which disrupts the way the blood cells deliver oxygen and it makes it so they can't release the oxygen to the tissue.
I personally wouldn't feed my snake a rodent euthanized with CO, but maybe that's just me being over cautious. Lol. I can't say that I think many people would use rodents euthanized via CO, though. I've never heard of someone euthanizing their rodents with CO.
Regardless of that, CO2 and CO are pretty different compounds even though they're of the same elements. It doesn't really null my 2 parts oxygen thought. But, to get back to the OP's original question:
I don't think he should worry about it either but as far as helium being "safer" (which to me meant being potentially quicker), I think helium would be slightly "safer" due to the fact that it effects your blood's oxygenation level more quickly than CO2 thus causing a quicker shut down of your body as opposed to the CO2 effect. But, that's just my thinking. Can't say I've ever read a study on CO2 vs helium euthanization but that's just what my thinking leads me to believe.
Thank you for catching my mistake. I sounded backwards
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