how can i humanely kill a mouse - Page 3

hphgamer09 · 01-30-16, 08:48 AM

You should have no problem finding a local rodent breeder being that you live around the pittsburgh area. If you have facebook, find one of the local reptiles groups.

sirtalis · 01-30-16, 10:25 AM

A golden boa...

Tiny Boidae · 01-30-16, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirtalis

A golden boa...

He probably has a goose that lays golden eggs too

**Andy_G** · 01-30-16, 11:38 AM

macandchz I would strongly advise you to disregard much of what they tell you at the store you went to. We can help you here, instead!

Also, the only real problem with getting a pet mouse and using it as a feeder is the ridiculous price you would have to pay. It is far from cost effective.

toddnbecka · 01-31-16, 03:29 AM

I didn't mean you were the crazy one, I was referring to the idiot pet store employee that told you such a bunch of bull. There's a local pet shop that won't sell baby mice for feeders, even though they also sell baby corn snakes and ball pythons, but they will sell adult mice for feeders w/out giving you any crap along with them. I bought a few adults from them to get a breeding colony started, then ended up losing the male mouse to some strange disease, and one of the females ate her babies. Picked up a few more mice at the Hamburg show, and now I have loads of them coming along every week. Check out a local reptile show, you'll get healthier stock for a much better price than from a pet shop IME.

macandchz · 01-31-16, 09:10 AM

dear toddnbecka thanks for the reply. my problem is that i live in an apartment so ican't raise anything on my own and have to buy only 1 or 2 at a time that mac has to eat as soon as possible. my snooooty neighbors would probably have heart attacks if they saw mac much less knew i had a mouse somewhere! that would never fit my sweet little old lady next store image! which is part of the fun of having him! we do have a good petsmart near-by and when i called them yesterday they said they had no trouble with selling me them. hopefully, when mac gets a little larger i can switch to f/t rats.

sirtalis · 01-31-16, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiny Boidae

He probably has a goose that lays golden eggs too

probably ;p

toddnbecka · 01-31-16, 11:39 PM

If you can get the snake to take frozen/thawed mice you can pick up a quantity and freeze them for later use. I currently have more mice, rats, and quail chicks than people food in my freezer. A few of my snakes will take rat pinks but not mice, one pair of the smaller Domincans were fed f/t quail by the breeder and the male seldom eats anything else. Along with the frozen rats and quail I get shipped in I also have to thin out the mouse farm weekly, and I'm freezing more than I'm using for feeders now. Considering just freezing almost all of them and separating the rest, they're simply breeding too many to quickly, even with feeding off the males as they grow out.

macandchz · 02-01-16, 07:45 AM

dear toddnbecka it sounds like you are very busy! my goal is to get mac back on to f/t as that's what he was on before winter. now he's on this kick where he will only eat mice that are immediately killed. someone suggested he'd convert back quicker if i tried a f/t rat but mac is kind of on the small side and i want to wait until he gets a little bigger.

toddnbecka · 02-02-16, 02:10 AM

Have you tried thawing them in hot water to warm them up? I put my frozen feeders in a plastic ziploc, then into a plastic pitcher partly filled with hot tap water, and weigh it down so the "meat" is submerged (but not in direct contact with the water.) Aside from temperature there shouldn't be any real difference between f/t and fresh killed.

macandchz · 02-02-16, 10:24 AM

dear toddnbecka, i do use hot h2o to warm them up but my method is putting the mouse in a plastic cup, heat the water in my tea pot and pour it over the mouse. i do not put it in a plastic bag. then i dry off most of the excess h2o and give it to mac in a seperate plastic feeding bin. does it matter if the mouse is wet? i give him about 15 min. to decide if he wants it or not. i can tell right away if he's not interested because he'll move to the other side of the bin and ignore it. when he's hungry, he goes right for it. i take the lid off the bin at the end so he can stretch his neck to swallow. do you have any suggestions to improve my method?

RAD House · 02-02-16, 11:10 AM

you may want to try teasing him with the food by wiggling it in front of him. I have noticed that some of my snakes, including my ball python react well to this. Of course you want to use some tongs while doing this to save yourself from being bit. I place the feeder in a cup with tap water as hot as it gets, which in my house is quite hot, and let it thaw. I then replace the water with new hot water to give the feeder a final warm up. I do not worry about drying the mouse off as a little extra water is never a bad thing for them. I try to feed them in a place where there is less chance to get bedding on the food, be that on a cage feature or paper plate. My ball python usually hides her head in fear when I open her enclosure so I wiggle the mouse in front of her nose until she decides to show herself. I then wiggle the it several inches from her face, and bam she hits it and curls around it.

macandchz · 02-02-16, 02:47 PM

dear mesocorney thanks for the reply. good to hear the wetness of the mouse is ok .i never really see my snake drinking from his bowl but i do see him lapping at the droplets of h2o when i spritz his tank to keep the humidity up. i'm actually surprized that mac doesn't seem that crazy about water. i bought a big bowl thinking he'd sub-merge himself but he skims over the top of it and never goes in it. is that typical of a ball?

serpentgirl123 · 02-02-16, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macandchz

dear mesocorney thanks for the reply. good to hear the wetness of the mouse is ok .i never really see my snake drinking from his bowl but i do see him lapping at the droplets of h2o when i spritz his tank to keep the humidity up. i'm actually surprized that mac doesn't seem that crazy about water. i bought a big bowl thinking he'd sub-merge himself but he skims over the top of it and never goes in it. is that typical of a ball?

I don't know if it is "typical" for a Ball Python, since I don't own one. But my more tropical oriented snakes (Boas and Carpets) absolutely despise water lol. Only time I have ever seen them drink or on the rare occasion get into the water is when they are about to shed or it gets too hot in the house. If I spritz them with water, they act like it is acid and retreat as fast as they can--makes for a good deflective mechanism if they get a little too food aggressive when I open the enclosure. Spritz of water and they back off--no need for gloves or hooks lol.

Zelg · 02-03-16, 05:12 PM

Been trying to get my BP to switch from live to f/t for a bit now and I'm just finally having success. I do really hate this process because I dont enjoy killing them. Fortunately, just as I was getting ready to finally do CO2 I decided to try prekilled. I tried a few things. Most were inhumane. The first time, I tried drowning it....god what a horrible experience. I just used tongs and held it under water. One time was enough. Of course it also got it wet. It took longer than I thought it would which made the experience that much worse.

Lately i've just clamped down needle nose pliers around their neck and crush it. Goes fairly quick.

My Ball wouldnt even sniff F/T mice. However, using prekilled for a few feedings seemed to help. The first few times he'd strike and coil. The past few feedings, I've held the dead mouse in my tongs, he would come inspect but wouldnt strike and would even move away when I moved the dead mouse towards him. I decided on just leaving it there and he took it when I left the room. Then I came back and did another.

After I think 2 successful pre-killed feedings, I went back to F/T and set them on my heat mat at 93 degrees. Another time I set it at 85 and i think that was too cold. Once warmed up and thawed, I did the same, teased him to get him out of his hide and hten just set it down and he was good to go.

I've only gotten about 3 good feedings with F/T so far but its 3 more than the previous 2 1/2 years.