I made my own co2 chamber!

[Rhetoric]

I used a 110 qt. steralite tub. Got a smaller thick plastic container, dropped some dry ice in, poured some water on it and lock the lid in place.
I was really nervous about it at first, I felt really bad, the rats were really cute but it wasn't as hard to get over it as I expected..

I think next time will be a lot faster, they seemed to have all "passed" within 7-8 minutes, I left them in there for another 5 just to be sure. The pictures are in a backwards order. It was really easy. The dry ice was like $3 and I still had some left over.
http://s1109.photobucket.com/albums/h436/rhetoricx/Co2%20Rats%205%2023%2011/

 

[herpgirl2510]

Are you breeding them?

 

[Rhetoric]

no someone from craigslist bred them for their 22 snakes but had a surplus so they sold them to me for $1 each.

---

they seem good for the smaller tegus i have but as they all reach adulthood i'm not sure if they'll be large enough.

 

[herpgirl2510]

Good deal.

 

[turtlepunk]

you have more strength than i do! i would have never been able to do it. I would have felt like a mass murderer! lol

 

[Maro1]

I still like smacking them on the cement. Instant death.

 

[slideaboot]

I still like smacking them on the cement. Instant death.

OK...

 

[Maro1]

I don't mean that sarcastically. Its just that it seems to be faster to tail whip them.. But I am sure the method you have devised is a good one.

 

[Rhetoric]

I think giving them a whack would be faster for sure, I've never done that and I didn't want to be smacking 43 of them. I also don't think I would have hit them hard enough the first few times and didn't want to have to smack them repeatedly.
This was really easy, I've seen videos of people using paintball gun co2 stuff but the dry ice was right up the street from my house.
I felt sort of bad, afterwards I told my boyfriend that I couldn't believe I had just killed that many in that short of a time frame but all in all it wasn't that bad. The deal I got on them made it more worth it to me since the dry ice was so cheap.

 

[slideaboot]

The CO2 route is just so much cleaner...

I'm OVER cleaning up rat blood (if it's not necessary!).

 

[Rhetoric]

Yeah it was really easy to clean up too lol, I wasn't planning on putting shavings in the tub but they lady I got them from poured some in there for me. I just dumped the shavings out and gave the tub a quick wash. No blood at all. Very clean, I don't have to watch it if I don't want to either. The only down side was that I had to leave the garage door and back door open for a while, I'm not sure it was even necessary but I didn't want to take any chances. My tegus were all fine this morning and enjoyed their meals! I would recommend it to anyone who has to freeze/kill groups of mice or rats. Suuuper easy.

 

[turtlepunk]

i think co2 is the most humane way to do it honestly

 

[slideaboot]

Agreed, Turtle.

 

[herpgirl2510]

CO2 seems by far the most humane. I know I could never wack a rat to kill it.

 

[slideaboot]

If you can come up on a CO2 tank, you can rig it so that there is nearly INSTANT death (jesus, that sounded just a BIT disturbing, no?). It's an investment, but it's literally a matter of turning the gas on for a few seconds and then turning it off and it's over. That quick and easy.

 

[Rhetoric]

Yeah since I'm probably going to be doing this off and on in the future I'm sure I'll get a co2 tank, instant is better. It will also allow me to better regulate the amount going into the tub.

DONT READ IF YOU MIGHT GET UPSET

I noticed with the dry ice that at first they sort of fell to their sides and kicked around as they lost control of their bowels but after I added more water to the ice the entire container filled with gas and their deaths were almost immediate. At first I was worried that I somehow messed it up and I almost wanted to cry but then they died and I felt better... <-- in a non-sick/twisted way.

---

I used to get really emotional about these things but after owning reptiles that eat whole prey you get more and more used to it, I think the same thing will happen as I continue to use this method before freezing them. I'm sure it would be the same after whacking them a few times but I'm not sure I'm mentally ready for it yet... Even though I know all animals have to eat..

 

[Hokurai]

You wouldn't want to turn it up all the way for a humane death... The trick is to put enough in so they starve for oxygen just enough that they pass out, then you turn it up so that it then suffocates them. CO2 content is what's registered in the lungs, not the lack of oxygen. They used to (still might) use a mixture of CO2 and oxygen called carbogen or Meduna's Mixture which is 30% CO2 and 70% oxygen in therapy for PSTD. It would cause severe panic and make you feel like you're suffocating without actually suffocating because your body knows there is 30% CO2 but doesn't count the oxygen in the mixture. In smaller quantities, CO2 just makes you fall asleep. So just turning it all the way up would be inhumane. You really would want to turn it on just a little bit until they all fall asleep and then turn it up higher and then leave them like that for a while.

 

[frost]

congrats you made a gas chamber....