how can i humanely kill a mouse - Page 2

**Aaron_S** · 01-28-16, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macandchz

are you guys really serious about smashing mice into concrete or are you just putting me on? has anyone ever tried to feed a ball python something else besides rodents? i won't ever do it but i was just curious if anyone has ever heard of one eating lunch meat or something made from meat. i heard you can scent their food with tuna and can leave small pieces of the tuna on the mouse. could they eat something like a sardine,maybe? i think i'm just wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking. Stick to rodents.

Edit: I don't mean to offend you but I probably will with this but.... I think you should re-think your choice of pet if you're trying to find ways for it's feeding to accomdate your preferences and not its own.

I'm not saying you don't love the animal or care for it well but if feeding may become an issue and you're trying to find non-rodent alternatives it might be time to think about something else.

Humble308 · 01-28-16, 11:40 AM

With pinkies I just flick them hard in the back of the neck and that pretty much instantly kills them. I do the same with peach and small fuzzies. Eventually they get big enough where this method isn't as ethical. With the bigger mice I take them by the end of the tail and swing them into the edge of the counter. You're not swinging a baseball bat here so take it easy, an accurate moderate rap kills them instantly. Like ToddnBecka I've also thrown them on the floor, but it's not a method I'm extremely comfortable with. Depending on the angle the mouse hits the floor can cause some issues.

When I cull my breeder mice I do it all in one go and then freeze them. It's not a pleasurable thing to be smacking baby mice into things so this method might not be for you. I've also tried C02 gassing with mixed results. If I had hundred of mice to kill then I'd probably opt for this, but for a litter of 15 it's not really necessary or economical. In your case of once mouse at a time it'd be $30-40 investment for the most basic C02 set up, at that rate you could just buy a pack of 50 mice for the same price F/T and have food for almost a year.

Swinging by the tail has worked well for my uses, but I'm sure it differs for everyone. All the best.

RAD House · 01-28-16, 11:45 AM

In my opinion there in no better prey than whole rodents for most snakes, especially ball pythons. That being said there is a product called reptilinks that are like sausages for reptiles. Some people swear by them and there are some threads covering them. The creators are supposed to have done quite a bit of research on reptile nutrition. First warning is that they have many different kinds and you may want to talk to someone in the company to get the correct ones for a ball python. Second warning they are more expensive than frozen feeder mice/ rats. In my honest opinion I wouldn't use this product because of the price and nature already made a all natural freezable source of snake food in the form of mice. You can absolutely not feed a snake lunch meat mostly because of all the additives and also because it would not be balanced nutrition. A whole mouse prey offers more than just the nutrients found in the meat but also nutrients found in the bones and organs, like calcium and iron.

macandchz · 01-28-16, 12:48 PM

very interesting reply about the reptilinks. of course i will stick with rodents but that answers a question i've wondered about for a long time-if there really was something out there snakes could eat. as for me re-thinking my choice of pet...i inherited mac when the college my dtr attends said he had to go. at 69yrs old i think i have done very well with him and i love him immensely. he lives in a wonderful 40 gal. tank and is a very happy boy. i knew nothing about snakes when i got him but thanks to youtube and this great forum I am learning so much. thanks to everyone.

Jim Smith · 01-28-16, 01:08 PM

I've been trough this dilemma before and I don't believe that there is an easy fool-proof answer. I ended up where I would pick up the (food item) by the tail, and when it tilted its head backward to horizontal, I would smack it with a steel rod. It ain't pretty and sure ain't fun, but it was effective. Pretty much instant death even though they twitch a bit.

Arachnaeoccult · 01-28-16, 01:48 PM

NEVER EVER EVER FEED YOUR SNAKE MEAT! They absolutely need the nutrients from the bones and organs of their prey item to benefit and grow.

Sasha2 · 01-28-16, 05:02 PM

Make sure your warming up the frozen thawed enough. Some snakes hate cold food.

We use a paintball canister with CO2 to put down rats/mice, it works pretty fast.
I tried whacking a mouse against a wall once.Actually I asked my son to do it and he splattered the thing all over, it was disgusting.

Handyhens · 01-28-16, 05:34 PM

Rodents are the best way to go. Chances are a BP wouldn't recognize fish as food. Sometimes ball pythons will just stop eating for a few months. It's normal.

prairiepanda · 01-28-16, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sasha2

Make sure your warming up the frozen thawed enough. Some snakes hate cold food.

^ This. ^
Especially with snakes that have heat pits, like ball pythons do. Make sure your f/t mice are warm to touch when you serve them. Just use warm water to heat them up; you don't want to cook them.

If you're already doing that, then for now just be patient and keep offering once a week or so. It hasn't been an excessive amount of time yet.

sirtalis · 01-28-16, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macandchz

are you guys really serious about smashing mice into concrete or are you just putting me on? has anyone ever tried to feed a ball python something else besides rodents? i won't ever do it but i was just curious if anyone has ever heard of one eating lunch meat or something made from meat. i heard you can scent their food with tuna and can leave small pieces of the tuna on the mouse. could they eat something like a sardine,maybe? i think i'm just wishful thinking.

I'm 100% serious abut smashing a rat into the floor, my friend who owned a Nile monitor, Columbian boa, and Burmese python would do it on a weekly bases, I would also think that a sardine's or tuna's sodium content would be wayyy to high for most reptiles, I know it does sound rather brutal but everything has to eat. BTW most lunch meat is processed in way worse conditions than the rat that would smashed to the floor

The REAL Price of Meat | One Cow's Heartbreaking Trip to Slaughter | Videos | PETA

macandchz · 01-29-16, 10:39 PM

up date on macandchz ; he ate afresh killed large mouse today. i bought a live one, put it in a sock, and hit it against the brick wall of our balcony. he was very dead and i lived through it,too. when i went to the pet shop to buy the mouse the clerk told me i wasn't allowed to ask for a feeder mouse. i had to call it a common mouse as the gov't doesn't want you to buy them for food. has anyone else heard of this? also, he said you can't buy a pet mouse for your snake because they have been fed additives that will kill your snake. when i put the mouse in mac's feeding container he acted totally weird. he smelled it for a while, ignored it for awhile, then came back and actually laid on it! he never tried to constrict it but after 5 minutes began to gobble it down. now he's happy and i'm happy!

toddnbecka · 01-30-16, 01:21 AM

Can't call it a "feeder mouse" because of government regulations? Fed additives that will kill your snake? Sounds like someone needs thier medication adjusted, or else they're just full of BS.
Maybe you should wrap aluminum foil around your enclosure to keep the aliens from sending your snake messages...

macandchz · 01-30-16, 06:21 AM

hey i know you think i'm nuts but i swear that's what the guy told me. he said he himself owned a golden boa and i figured since i'm the novice and he worked in the shop and owned a snake he knew what he was talking about. so clarify this for me. can i buy a mouse called a pet mouse and feed it to my snake? or are they fed something that could harm him? as far as i know mac hasn't received any messages from mars!

Tiny Boidae · 01-30-16, 06:42 AM

There's no such thing as a "golden boa". You'd been had. The employee probably thought that deception was the best way to carry out store policy, and this is the result. There's no such law, there's no such additives, and there's no such boa. It's perfectly safe, and I doubt anyone thought you were the insane one, but rather the stupid advice you've been given is obscene. I don't trust Petco, but they let their mice be sold as feeders. If you have no one else in the area that'll sell you feeders, they're your go to source.

Optimally, you want to get into contact with someone who actually breeds mice. A quick run around Google and Craigslist and other sites will get you this. Here's one of the ones I found:
Fancy Mice
Good luck

macandchz · 01-30-16, 08:25 AM

dear tiny boidae. thax so much for the helpful post. i live close to pgh and have a close petco. the place that told me that other junk was pet supplies plus. i like petco better and that is actually where i bought macand chz. he had mites while in the store and they sent him to a vet and took care of them before they'd let me take him home. i haven't had a mite problem since.