# Breeding rats?



## Divan (Jan 7, 2009)

What is the most humane way to kill rats when breeding them??
I am looking to sart breeding them this year.
Any tips will be helpful.

Thanx Divan


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## gozz (Jan 7, 2009)

bang on the head method for me


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## Sdaji (Jan 7, 2009)

Clonking!


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## dickyknee (Jan 7, 2009)

gas or clonking


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## Divan (Jan 7, 2009)

sorry I am new to this what is clonking??


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## dickyknee (Jan 7, 2009)

Divan said:


> sorry I am new to this what is clonking??



hold the rat / mouse by the tail and clonk its head on the edge of a table or a hard surface ....


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## Divan (Jan 7, 2009)

ah ok thanx mate


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## Jewly (Jan 8, 2009)

I get someone to gas them for me cause I'm a wuss and I don't want to blow myself up.

Could never clonk them. That seems so cruel.


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## swaddo (Jan 8, 2009)

Jewly said:


> I get someone to gas them for me cause I'm a wuss and I don't want to blow myself up.



CO2 is non-flamable so you don't need to worry about that. Sorry, I don't know a fix for the wuss bit :lol:


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## Jewly (Jan 8, 2009)

I thought you still had to be careful with any type of gas though. I hate gas, I think I'm going to blow myself up everytime I start the BBQ...lol

The fix for the wuss bit is, drop live rats off, go shopping, go back and pick up nicely packaged frozen rats and pay $5 for the service and then I pretend that I just bought them like that and that I didn't just kill my pet rat's babies.


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## TWENTY B (Jan 8, 2009)

smashing rats is 1 thing i will never do again. It seems to be 1000times more cruel than feeding live. 
Gas your rats.


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## Hetty (Jan 8, 2009)

If you "clonk" them properly, killing them in one hit, it's very humane.

If you're not strong enough to kill them in one hit gas is better.


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## Sdaji (Jan 8, 2009)

TWENTY B said:


> smashing rats is 1 thing i will never do again. It seems to be 1000times more cruel than feeding live.
> Gas your rats.



Clonking is a little more humane than gassing if you do both properly. If you mess either up it can be pretty nasty.


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## Hetty (Jan 8, 2009)

Yeah, I agree, it's just when you gas them inhumanely it's much harder to tell. Lots of people probably gas inhumanely and just don't notice the animals suffering.


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## Justdriftnby (Jan 8, 2009)

get a heap ready at different sizes for you colection and spend $5 on 1/2 a kg of dry ice from BOC Gasses, put some of it in a tub, put the tub in the rat cage and add water, Have a coffee and pack them into bags and in the freezer.
Easy as no guilt no mess


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## shlanger (Jan 8, 2009)

Put rodent on bench, hold it by that convenient 'handle' they have on back end called a tail, put shaft of screwdriver or bottom edge of hand across back of neck, and give short sharp pull on said handle. This will pop cervical (neck) vertabrae and rodent will die very quickly! 
Just like hanging a person, and thats humane? I don't hold with the smash its head in with a brick brigade, unless of course you enjoy doing it! But then I think if you do, you have other problems!


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## abbott75 (Jan 8, 2009)

shlanger said:


> Put rodent on bench, hold it by that convenient 'handle' they have on back end called a tail, put shaft of screwdriver or bottom edge of hand across back of neck, and give short sharp pull on said handle. This will pop cervical (neck) vertabrae and rodent will die very quickly!
> Just like hanging a person, and thats humane? I don't hold with the smash its head in with a brick brigade, unless of course you enjoy doing it! But then I think if you do, you have other problems!



Either of these 2 methods work well for me.


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## whirlwind_sooz (Jan 8, 2009)

My friends method is to hold by the tail, pull them backwards along the bench, so they extend their neck and try to get traction then a short sharp blow to the back of the neck / head. Never known her to have to whack one twice like that its always a first go kill. Just get urself a decent bit of whacking stick to do the job


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## shlanger (Jan 8, 2009)

The late, great, naturalist Dr David Fleay, many years ago showed me how to kill rodents by holding them by the tail/handle on a bench, and administering a short sharp blow across the upper back with a blunt instrument. This killed rodent fairly quickly and prevented it from bleeding all over the place, as the smash its head in with a brick brigade find out!
Bleeding is messy, not nice, and the feed animal misses out on some protien that is spilt.
Swinging rodent by the tail and clonking head on bench etc is good but you need practice to make sure, (a) it is hard enough to kill rodent, but (B) its not hard enough to cause nose bleeding. Practice makes perfect, but I still favour the hold by tail/handle, shaft of screwdriver etc across neck and pull tail method. Unless I'm killing lots of rodents, then I use CO2. Put rodents is large plastic bag. drop in CO2 hose, squeeze out all the air and replace with CO2. This kills quickly and efficiently, thus I call my rodent facillity "Mauschwitz"!


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## TWENTY B (Jan 9, 2009)

i've clonked rats on the bench, and i will never do it again, 
i'mthe last person to scream animal cruilty, but it was just barbaric.. 
I'd rather feed them live than ever bash them again...

i'll gas them with dry ice from now on


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## abbott75 (Jan 9, 2009)

TWENTY B said:


> i've clonked rats on the bench, and i will never do it again,
> i'mthe last person to scream animal cruilty, but it was just barbaric..
> I'd rather feed them live than ever bash them again...
> 
> i'll gas them with dry ice from now on



You can't have been doing it right. One hit and they should be gone.


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## Chuckface01 (Jan 9, 2009)

Si there a method to clonking properly? does it need to be a hard flat surface? how far do you swing? 180, 90 45 degrees?

do you hold the tail with both hands? 

IF someone could explain how they clonking their rats against somethign step by step that would be great. Thanks, Im still deciding if this would be my prefered method.


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## Crazy_Snake08 (Jan 9, 2009)

Here's what they have on youtube...seems quick and easy: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=n85RK12Meu8


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## Chuckface01 (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanks!


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## Divan (Jan 9, 2009)

Thanx for all the replies.
My friend told me that u can put heaps of the rats into a bag or container and put in freezer then u dont have to look at them die.
I wouldnt clonk the rat cause i would never get it over my heart to kill an animal but freezing them is different cause i dont have to do anything and i dont have to watch.


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## Radar (Jan 9, 2009)

Never freeze a live endotherm (warm blooded animal), even if it is easier for you. If you cant bring yourself to wack them, pay the price and by from a professional.


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## abbott75 (Jan 9, 2009)

Divan said:


> Thanx for all the replies.
> My friend told me that u can put heaps of the rats into a bag or container and put in freezer then u dont have to look at them die.
> I wouldnt clonk the rat cause i would never get it over my heart to kill an animal but freezing them is different cause i dont have to do anything and i dont have to watch.



I used to be the same, but as you grow and learn you will come to realise that death is a part of life. Animals have to die for other animals to live. 

I assume you are on this forum because you love animals. But you'll soon realise that loving one animal often means killing another.


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## Jewly (Jan 9, 2009)

Divan said:


> Thanx for all the replies.
> My friend told me that u can put heaps of the rats into a bag or container and put in freezer then u dont have to look at them die.


 
That is such a cruel way to kill them. 

Another option is to find someone close to you who is willing to gas them for you. I pay a guy who is near me to gas my rats and I just pay $5 each time which I don't mind in the least. I mainly started to breed my own rats so that I could have a continual supply of the right size prey on hand cause I was fed up with trying to find rats and if i did find any, they were never the right size.


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## TWENTY B (Jan 10, 2009)

abbott75 said:


> You can't have been doing it right. One hit and they should be gone.


 
I'm doing it right, they are gone very quick, .....
it's the whole smashing them on a brick part i don't like, 
i won't jump up and down screaming like some people here would, 
i don't give a rats *** how other people off thier rats, but i won't be smashing any more, 


unless one bites me, then i'll smash him good,..


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## steph (Jan 10, 2009)

i killed my first litter of babies by co2 about a month ago, and although everyone says its painless and they just go to sleep i found that that is so untrue, and in the end they sufficated and it wasnt very easy to watch. it took like 5mins or so cause i was told to fill up the container with co2 slowly so that they would fall asleep but they didnt. the walked around gasping breathing faster and faster and then they started to lose control of there limbs as they shook until they gave up and layed down to die..... Very sad to watch but i couldnt bring myself to clonk them, I've tried to dislocate there neck but they dont sit still and i couldnt do it.


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## dodgie (Jan 10, 2009)

What ever you do make it quick,rodents have thoughts and feelings too.
Practice on dead rodents first.


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## Jewly (Jan 10, 2009)

steph said:


> i killed my first litter of babies by co2 about a month ago, and although everyone says its painless and they just go to sleep i found that that is so untrue, and in the end they sufficated and it wasnt very easy to watch. it took like 5mins or so cause i was told to fill up the container with co2 slowly so that they would fall asleep but they didnt. the walked around gasping breathing faster and faster and then they started to lose control of there limbs as they shook until they gave up and layed down to die..... Very sad to watch but i couldnt bring myself to clonk them, I've tried to dislocate there neck but they dont sit still and i couldnt do it.


 

Oh the poor things. That must have been horrible for both them and you. Something obviously wasn't right cause that shouldn't happen from what I've heard. Are you absolutely sure they were in an airtight container?


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## steph (Jan 13, 2009)

yep, air tight....


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## DENNYCRANE (Jan 13, 2009)

I clonk them or feed them live, some of my snakes like live food only. Gas is good but it costs money.


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## Snake_Whisperer (Jan 13, 2009)

Have a look at this thread by FNQ Snake, I use this system, rats are unconscious in about 8 seconds and dead shortly after. Got sick of clonking as it got blood everywhere. Works well for me. Good luck.

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/herp-help/co2-gas-chamber-instructions-94534


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## swaddo (Jan 13, 2009)

steph said:


> yep, air tight....



Did you have a vent hole in the lid so the good air can escape when the CO2 is introduced?


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## Zoltag (Jan 13, 2009)

Divan said:


> Thanx for all the replies.
> My friend told me that u can put heaps of the rats into a bag or container and put in freezer then u dont have to look at them die.
> I wouldnt clonk the rat cause i would never get it over my heart to kill an animal but freezing them is different cause i dont have to do anything and i dont have to watch.



Yeah, I know someone who was doing that - She found that if you take them out of the freezer after 20 mins, they usually start waking up again.

I managed to convince her that gassing would be a much more humane method, not to mention potentially safer for the reptile (imagine what could happen if a rodent woke up halfway through being swallowed, especially if being swallowed backend first).


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