humane feeder killing

[mistersprinkles]

Originally Posted by TCS-bot

I've used the co2 keyboard cleaners in the past for small animals.
Works well, and without having to source a larger co2 cylinder that may be to big for just a few animals.

Those are no longer CO2. It's trifluoroethane. It has been for at least four or five years. That's not something you want in the animal's system when you feed it to your snake. It's essentially fluorene (fluoride) gas. At high enough concentrations you're going to cause skeletal fluorosis in your snake. Look it up (75-37-6 CAS). The reason the animal dies is that the gas displaces oxygen and the actual fluoride component at that high a concentration basically causes brain damage.

It won't go away as it is not metabolized and remains persistently in the environment. If the animal breathes it, that fluorene becomes part of the animal and then the snake.

[stephanbakir]

Originally Posted by mistersprinkles

Those are no longer CO2. It's trifluoroethane. It has been for at least four or five years. That's not something you want in the animal's system when you feed it to your snake. It's essentially fluorene (fluoride) gas. At high enough concentrations you're going to cause skeletal fluorosis in your snake. Look it up (75-37-6 CAS). The reason the animal dies is that the gas displaces oxygen and the actual fluoride component at that high a concentration basically causes brain damage.

It won't go away as it is not metabolized and remains persistently in the environment. If the animal breathes it, that fluorene becomes part of the animal and then the snake.

Scary way to go wont be trying this anytime soon.

[TeaNinja]

it was pretty sad to watch the snake kill the rats i bred, but it was WAY more sad having to pin 3 of them down with a screwdriver and break their neck/spines. i could tell it was instant and probably painless, but it still makes me sad nonetheless. =/

for my next point. next week when i go to thaw one of the frozen pups, how do i heat it up? put it under hot water?

[Lankyrob]

I defrost mine overnight (about 4 or 5 hours) in a glass bowl at room temp and then place the bowl on a hot radiator to warm all the prey items up - when it comes to feed time i press the skull of the prey against the radiator for a few seconds to really intensify the heat in the head and then feed.

[TeaNinja]

with water in the bowl?

[Lankyrob]

No - no water just radiant heat - i think people use hot/warm water when they want to go from frozen to feeding quickly but i treat the snakes food as i would treat my own, i would never quickly defrost a steak in warm water in order for me to eat it, i would defrost it overnight to eat the following day - my snakes have the same process for their food.

[Jay]

and do not use hot water or microwave both very messy lol mine are tossed in a bucket of could water then warmed with luke warm water and then i put them on a rad

[mistersprinkles]

Originally Posted by TeaNinja

it was pretty sad to watch the snake kill the rats i bred, but it was WAY more sad having to pin 3 of them down with a screwdriver and break their neck/spines. i could tell it was instant and probably painless, but it still makes me sad nonetheless. =/

for my next point. next week when i go to thaw one of the frozen pups, how do i heat it up? put it under hot water?

Don't freeze rats unless you have to. When you freeze and dethaw them a lot of cells rupture and it makes for inferior nutrition. Kill, feed immediately when possible.

[sassy_snake_lady]

I breed mice for my snakes.

I killed my first a few days ago and used the whacking method and fed straight to a corn snake.

[Lankyrob]

Originally Posted by mistersprinkles

Don't freeze rats unless you have to. When you freeze and dethaw them a lot of cells rupture and it makes for inferior nutrition. Kill, feed immediately when possible.

This point comes up again and again with no proof that a frozen prey item is significantly different in terms of nutrition than a live or pre killed item, have you got anything to prove this one way or another?

[Jay]

Originally Posted by mistersprinkles

Don't freeze rats unless you have to. When you freeze and dethaw them a lot of cells rupture and it makes for inferior nutrition. Kill, feed immediately when possible.

I have not heard about that care to explain ?

[infernalis]

this may be true of frozen vegetables, however...

I am well aware of the physics behind water expansion and crystal formation during the freezing process, however, even though a fair amount of the cells will have "damage" from freezing, any loss of proteins and calcium is negligible, certainly not enough to call frozen feeders "inferior nutrition"

If that was the case, then companies like Rodent Pro have shipped out millions of inferior feeder animals?? several thousand of them have shipped to me.. my snakes are all doing fine??

[TeaNinja]

Originally Posted by mistersprinkles

Don't freeze rats unless you have to. When you freeze and dethaw them a lot of cells rupture and it makes for inferior nutrition. Kill, feed immediately when possible.

i'm aware. the only reason i'm freezing them instead of feeding pups to the snake live is because they will outgrow the snake VERY quickly. i've never fed f/t in my life until now. i've heard the blood freezes and loses all its good nutrients. other then that, i've never heard ANY solid evidence of that being true.

and i don't have a radiator! lol

[TCS-bot]

Originally Posted by mistersprinkles

Those are no longer CO2. It's trifluoroethane. It has been for at least four or five years.....

Yup, I'm aware of that which is why I said in the past.
Not sure that any duster blowers or whatever you wish to call them will be co2 anymore.

[sickvenom]

Originally Posted by TeaNinja

for my next point. next week when i go to thaw one of the frozen pups, how do i heat it up? put it under hot water?

put in a zip lock bag and soak in warm water. i'm pretty lucky as all of my snakes will eat cold f/t food.