# bicarb and vinager quantities for culling mice



## katelikesfun (Sep 19, 2007)

hi there, I am breeding my own mice at the moment, first litter yesterday. I will be freezing some at about a week old as pinks for my laying female leos and cwd but growing some on for my corn snake. I will not be breeding at an industrial level and was thinking of using the vinager/bicarb method of gasing rather than buying a cylinder.

Does anyone who uses this method know the quantities and for how many mice that would kill??????

Any help in this area would be great thanks.


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## fantapants (Jan 4, 2008)

i used this method for doing the rats and its not nice at all. takes ages to get the levels right, every brand of vinegar and bicarb is a little different, so requires different amounts. we ended up using a soda stream withplastic pipe fitted to the nozzle. much less smelly but still takes a while. the flick/house brick method really is much more humane and its instantaneous. you dont have to worry about going back to the death chamber a few minutes later to see tiny faces gasping back at you, not at all dead.


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## Dan (Jan 11, 2006)

Adding the cruelty aspect to this, there are very clear percentages that both render animals unconcious and dead using carbon dioxide. Get it wrong and you can not just end up with live ones but also dead ones who spent the last few seconds of their lives gasping for air while their throat and lungs burn.

You may be thinking "it's just a rodent, it's going to die anyway" i don't know, but i would ask that you do some research on other methods and go the step further by getting a proper carbon dioxide chamber set up.


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## katelikesfun (Sep 19, 2007)

ok what about other methods??? what do you do reticulatus (sp) I want it to be instant really (better for them and me)
the thought of watching them be gassed and as tinkerbruce says coming back to find they aren't dead yet/gasping I really wouldn't like and I'm sure they wouldn't either.
I do care about the creatures or I wouldn't havecome asking for advice, If I didn't care I would just shove them all in the freezer as it would be easy to shut the door and walk away if I didn't know of the pain they would be in (apart form when they are pinks).

any other instant methods are welcomed, 
I would have thought that someone would have come up with some kind of painless poison that you could just feed them and they go to sleep, that would be a very easy option.


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## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

what about a sharp blow to the back of the head, thats instant death as long as you do it right.


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## Declan123 (Dec 29, 2007)

SiUK said:


> what about a sharp blow to the back of the head, thats instant death as long as you do it right.


You aint wrong, quicker so therefore less suffering.... pencils are suppose to work quite good


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## Dan (Jan 11, 2006)

katelikesfun said:


> I do care about the creatures or I wouldn't havecome asking for advice, If I didn't care I would just shove them all in the freezer as it would be easy to shut the door and walk away if I didn't know of the pain they would be in (apart form when they are pinks).
> 
> any other instant methods are welcomed,
> I would have thought that someone would have come up with some kind of painless poison that you could just feed them and they go to sleep, that would be a very easy option.


 
Don't get me wrong, i am sure you do care about the rodents. I just thought it wise to put that last bit in for others who may be reading with a less than "warm and fuzzy" feeling.

The trick to this is to have the co2 chamber set up to allow 2 inputs of carbon dioxide.
The first needs to put the concentration at about 17% (iirc), this makes them drowsy and they just go to sleep- completely pain free.
The second ups the concentration to >80% This kills them while they sleep.

If you jump straight in with the 80% concentration then they will suffocate, get highly stressed and feel lots of pain.

I am positive there is a paper on this subject online somewhere that was written with government/councils in mind. I haven't accessed it for atleast a couple of years though so i'm not sure where it is.
You can also find "blueprints" for c02 machines online, my own system was based on one of these (although considerably larger).

Hope that helps?


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## zukomonitor (Nov 11, 2007)

Its not that much - £9 for a Co2 cylinder and £10 for the valve,then you dont have to worry about mixtures .......


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## wo0thigh (Nov 15, 2007)

Wheres that from? Cheapest I found was £40 for the cylinder... you can get regulators on ebay for about 30-40 delivered....




zukomonitor said:


> Its not that much - £9 for a Co2 cylinder and £10 for the valve,then you dont have to worry about mixtures .......


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

Go to halfords.

The cannister is £8.99. The valve is £10.
I use a plastic storage tub and use a piece of tube to attache the valves to it.

I couldn't get it right with bicarb and it is truly horrible to watch when you get it wrong.

Now with the cannister set up they just go to sleep and then I turn the valves up and they are dead in less than a minute.


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## zukomonitor (Nov 11, 2007)

I get mine from halfords too, heres a link

Welding Accessories from SIP at Halfords  

Co2 last for ages and the regulator is reusable 

Hope that helps


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