# euthenasing rats



## retri (Mar 5, 2008)

Just wondering how people kill their rats?

I will get a gas bottle soon, but I have some that are alredy at the size I want them.

Someone has suggested banging thier heads on a hard surface, but I dont wanna do it that way, not only would I feel guilty I am worried that I would just severly injure them rather than kill them.


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## RoyalPython89 (Jul 15, 2008)

just make a gas chamber thats the best way dont put them in the freezer cause they will just get out of there.


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## kirsten (Jan 13, 2008)

dont quote me, i've never had too (well apart from an already injured mouse) but i've heard either placing them in a sock and giving them a good swing and a thwack. or pining them down with something placed at the back of the neck, and giving the tail a hard tug. another suggestion would be a VERY sharp knife to the base of the skull, where the spinal collumn joins


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

Either Use a CO2 chamber or use and electronic Rat Zapper.

Rats are much harder to kill than mice and many people can not pin "them down with something placed at the back of the neck, and giving the tail a hard tug" without some real experience.


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## lukendaniel (Jan 10, 2007)

SnakeBreeder said:


> Either Use a CO2 chamber or use and electronic Rat Zapper.
> 
> Rats are much harder to kill than mice and many people can not pin "them down with something placed at the back of the neck, and giving the tail a hard tug" without some real experience.


 

slightly off topic but have you ever used one of these rat zappers?? ie do the batteries last lomg lol

daniel


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## sandfish2 (Nov 3, 2008)

*rats*

I might just be dumb but i thought this had to be done by a special freezing tecnique and only by the most humane method!!!! this scares me a bit with people trying to despatch rats by any old means!!!!!! i keep royal pythons and corn and garter snakes and belong to a reptile club!!!!!! i used to keep and show "fancy rats" i know you have to feed your reps!!!! but when i buy my frozen ones i am assured they did not suffer and their despatch was quick, even though i no longer keep tame rats they are still a very sensitive creature and do not deserve being tortured by people who do not know what they are doing, ect banging on the head surely this is hit and miss affair and certainly not humane!!! putting in a freezer surely this is torture:war: sandfish2


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## RoyalPython89 (Jul 15, 2008)

porpaine gass chamber is the best humainly way and when you do it let the propaine out slowly so they dont notice the change then the fall asleep and never wake up but do this in a aired room cause if it leaks you will be following the rats lol


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## Natonstan (Aug 9, 2008)

I remember seeing a video of somebody killing one and he grabbed the rats bottom, and its head, then pulled and it died instantly, seems a little cruel though


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## kirsten (Jan 13, 2008)

the OP is getting gas soon, but wanted another method for the mean time, as they have rats of the size they want now.


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

lukendaniel said:


> slightly off topic but have you ever used one of these rat zappers?? ie do the batteries last lomg lol
> 
> daniel


Yep I have one :2thumb:
They are no good with batteries, I wired mine to the mains ( Via transformer )
Got a shock off it one day and it hurt like hell :whistling2:


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## philipniceguy (Mar 31, 2008)

SnakeBreeder said:


> Yep I have one :2thumb:
> They are no good with batteries, I wired mine to the mains ( Via transformer )
> Got a shock off it one day and it hurt like hell :whistling2:


 i want to use one of these also but how would i wire it up to the mains? does it kill instandly and no mess


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## mEOw (Dec 28, 2006)

sandfish2 said:


> I might just be dumb but i thought this had to be done by a special freezing tecnique and only by the most humane method!!!! this scares me a bit with people trying to despatch rats by any old means!!!!!! i keep royal pythons and corn and garter snakes and belong to a reptile club!!!!!! i used to keep and show "fancy rats" i know you have to feed your reps!!!! but when i buy my frozen ones i am assured they did not suffer and their despatch was quick, even though i no longer keep tame rats they are still a very sensitive creature and do not deserve being tortured by people who do not know what they are doing, ect banging on the head surely this is hit and miss affair and certainly not humane!!! putting in a freezer surely this is torture:war: sandfish2


 
if done right banging them on the back of head just behind the ears has 100% kill rate and is alongside gassing them with CO2 at the top of the list of ways rats are culled.. 
And according to a mate of mine that used to work breeding rats as feeders where he used to work they were killed useing electric shock (or aparently the smack em over the head method if the shocky thing was broken)


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## grannykins (Oct 9, 2006)

RoyalPython89 said:


> porpaine gass chamber is the best humainly way and when you do it let the propaine out slowly so they dont notice the change then the fall asleep and never wake up but do this in a aired room cause if it leaks you will be following the rats lol


Isnt CO2 supposed to be used, not propane?


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

philipniceguy said:


> i want to use one of these also but how would i wire it up to the mains? does it kill instandly and no mess


Most of the men in my family are sparkies or brought up wiring things from an early age.
It is simple really, all you do is get a transformer of the right voltage output and wire it to the battery conectors.
NO it is not instant, takes a few seconds to go through the "ZAPPING" cycle and there is a smell of burning.
Not for the faint hearted. 
While I have use one I used to work in a lab so use the methods I was taught there to kill rodents.
I think most people would use CO2 given the option.
Stephen.


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## clockworkorange (May 30, 2007)

Interesting topic!

Just throwing my cents here:

My input comes from 2 experiences: 1) I managed a reptile park for quite a while and we had to kill 80 to 100 rats/mice every week. 2) One of my close friend did a PhD on animal euthanasia for the meat industry.

I've always used the method consisting in covering the head with a towel, holding it and pulling the tail. Death is immediate if done properly. It does require some experience if you don't want to mess it up and end up with a broken tail in one hand and a rat in spasm in the other.
From what my friend told me, CO2 induces a feeling of suffocation, therefore stress, on the animal (stress = bad quality meat! so yeah, research are made on that!). Some other inert gas would be more adequate, such as argon (if i remember well), as they don't induce that suffocation feeling. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be cost efficient.
It is always difficult to unite the ethical and the practical point of views in such circumstances. i wouldn't feel too comfy with the CO2 method though and i'd prefer a faster way. 

Mika


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## Natrix (Dec 9, 2006)

The trick with CO2 is to add it in small doses. In low concentrations it acts as an anaesthetic. Once the rodents are anaesthetized you flood the chamber with gas and kill them.
It's only if you flood the chmber in one go that you will see them panic and start gasping for air. If done right the most you should notice is a slightly raised breething rate as they nod off.
I've heard good things about Argon but haven't tried it yet. It is about a pound cheaper than CO2 so I might give it a go when the current bottle of CO2 runs out.

Natrix


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## retri (Mar 5, 2008)

thanks for all the replies guys, I have a gas chamber now, but the rats are the size that only a few of my snakes will eat them lol, I just couldnt bring myself to try the tail pulling I just had images of the tail coming off or me just injuring the rat.

Gas chamber is working great: victory:

And my other two females have had pups now so should have some more the right size soon :2thumb:


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## naython J (Dec 28, 2008)

hey im really new in the ,mice/rat breeding and have been trying to find the best techniques 

can someone point me in the right direction on where to buy or makje a gas chamber from please


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## whitewolf (Jul 18, 2008)

please just make the gas chamber and either rehome the ones that are getting to big because if you bothch killing them you will cause a painful and unnessasary possible death 
and this is not fair to the creatures i no you maybe thinking that there just rats but i keep rats as pets in there own right and they have lil charactures of there own and feelings so is it really fare for there last feeling to be terrified and in pain 
not in my opinion


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## naython J (Dec 28, 2008)

i agree i dont liek the idea od smashing there heads or pulling there tail etc thats why i want to know how to make a chamber..

i have now been given all the good info that i need regarding the chamber and am getting ready to make a trip to the diy shop to collect the required parts.


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## retri (Mar 5, 2008)

whitewolf said:


> please just make the gas chamber and either rehome the ones that are getting to big because if you bothch killing them you will cause a painful and unnessasary possible death
> and this is not fair to the creatures i no you maybe thinking that there just rats but i keep rats as pets in there own right and they have lil charactures of there own and feelings so is it really fare for there last feeling to be terrified and in pain
> not in my opinion


 
My adults are my pets.... just the babies that are food, and they cant get too big, no matter what size they reach i will still have use for them.

as I have said I have already made my gas chamber now


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

sandfish2 said:


> banging on the head surely this is hit and miss affair and certainly not humane!!!


trust me on this, once you have this technique sorted, its certainly not hit and miss and ensures the rat goes from alive to dead in about a second. there is no question about whether its dead or not, and whether it suffered.. all my feeder stock are hand tame, none of them are stressed on the walk to the, block, so to speak.. there is no fussing about being stuck in a pillowcase, or pinned down and twisted about. one moment sat in hand, next moment dead. done like this i personally think its less stressful than a gas chamber, where rats from all different groups are bundled into one small area together. my way takes more time for me, but less time for each individual rat.

N


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## edcase (Mar 1, 2008)

could be a good or bad idea but couldnt someone who knows what there doing make some sort of video showing how to do it correct, either the pulling tail thing or the hitting on the back of the head. It may sound a bit twisted, but if people are going to do it surely its better to do it right first time rather then just doing what you think might work. I think the best way has got to be the way that kills them instantly and im sure alot of people agree so surely its better to see this done first hand and then be able to do it your self???

Just my opinion


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## Lady_J (Feb 18, 2007)

I have used a zapper and CO2 in the past and can safely say the old swing and bang method is by far the easiest and quickest in my opinion. Like nerys said they really dont have time to know what is going on one second alive next second....as dead as dead can be


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## naython J (Dec 28, 2008)

please nobody post a video or link to a video of this simply because it would land you in hot water with the authorities for animal cruelty in a public arena 

it sounds stupid but if you was to be reported then its not a good road to be and you may end up losing ur pets


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

as above, whilst i do it, and openly admit that i do, and i know the antis read this, as do the various welfare people..

there is no way i would post a video of me doing it on the internet!!!

whilst i am happy to show people in person, and have done before. as i was once shown myself how to do it.

and whilst i am happy to talk people through it over the phone.. (the best thing to do, incidentally, is practice with one you have already dead..)

i would not be happy to post such, as there are people who would no doubt class it as "entertainment" or posted for the purposes of entertainment.. or some such other twaddle.. and you would stand a good chance of being taken very much the wrong way by an awful lot of people, even people who were not bunny huggers by nature!

however, should anyone want me to show them, either here, or at theirs if i am in the area or whatever, then i don't mind showing how i do it. it is, as i said, the way i learnt, by watching someone who had done it a million times before. its not hard to whack a rat, or mouse, or whatever.. gerbils tend to be the worse for me, rats and mice have more stable tails.. you just have to learn not to fuss, and be fast and decisive

N


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## Young_Gun (Jan 6, 2007)

Get a Priest


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## x Sarah x (Nov 16, 2007)

I have a question, i can't seem to find any info on it on the net.

We're in the process of building a co2 chamber for culling rats and mice, however upon collecting a canister of co2 today, on the container it says co2 and Argon :/

Now i know it works fine for killing an animal, but what about the snakes health when feeding a rodent that has inhaled Argon?

I thought i saw a quote on google stating someones 2 snakes died mysteriously after feeding rats, when they checked the canister it contained Argon amongst other things, but not sure if it was the Argon that caused the probs.

So i just need to know as i really wouldn't want to put our snakes lives in danger, when we can just look further afeild for pure co2.

Thanks


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## x Sarah x (Nov 16, 2007)

Anyone?

The cull needs doing and i dont fancy snapping over 100 necks again...


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## Schip (Mar 31, 2007)

Have to admit I'm a firm believer in the good old fashioned Priest - got my dad to make me one almost 30 years ago for the chickens, geese, quail etc and its still going strong today.


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## 7109 (Jan 6, 2008)

Young_Gun said:


> Get a Priest



well said my dad makes them and sells them on ebay for nearly nothing! 

problems is if people arent confident in killing food for food there will be problems as nerys said people who have done it millions of time will not fuss and get stuck in. personaly my self i wouldnt anymore, ive bred rats a had hit them on hard surfaces and didnt go well in the past. yeah im honest do me. if you can try and do it correctly and quickly (gas). after all they are still animals/pets who feel pain aswell as any animal shouldnt suffer pain caused by the keeper as its cruelty. 

There are people willing to show how gasing is done so i think people should visit them for future purposes.


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## ratmadscot (Jan 14, 2009)

Sorry to be the newb  Whats a priest?


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## dragonboy08 (Aug 14, 2008)

theres already a video on youtube


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## ratmadscot (Jan 14, 2009)

of the priest?


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

ratmadscot said:


> Sorry to be the newb  Whats a priest?


A priest is a tool, usually in the form of a blunt weapon used for quickly killing rodents and fish. Priests usually come in the form of a heavy metal head on a metal or wooden stick. The name "priest" is from the act of administering the last rights to the animal. : victory:


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

ratmadscot said:


> Sorry to be the newb  Whats a priest?


 : victory: Like this:










The hardest is hitting the rat without hitting your hand AND keeping the rat still at the same time.


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## ratmadscot (Jan 14, 2009)

Ahh.. Ok.

Thanks


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