Is there a humane way of killing mice for snake food?

Question

I'm thinking about getting a corn snake. I know you should feed mice prekilled, but it doesn't seem right just freezing the mice. What's a more humane method I can use that's non-toxic?

Answer 1

Feeding live prey should be a last resort and is normally only necessary if you have gotten a wc (wild caught) animal that will not take prekilled. I do not feed any of my reptiles live prey other than crickets or meal worms to my geckos and crickets to my scorpion. I feed all my snakes frozen and well thawed and heated up or fresh killed prey. I also feed my geckos pinky mice frozen and thawed.

+++If you get the snake used to chasing prey items to eat then you are training them to track things to eat. I put my snakes in a large tote with the prekilled prey and they simply swallow it.

That being said, I have tried many a way to kill prey items from using hammers, freezing, dry ice suffocation, drowning, etc...

With the hammer, you thump them on the head, this makes for a lot of blood and cleanup afterwards.

With freezing you have to thaw them out and warm them up, I hate taking that much time but I do keep a few extra prey items in the freezer in case I get too busy to get to the store to buy live prey.

Dry ice is a pain to keep around but it does work well. You simply take a Rubbermaid tote, place a small bucket upside down in the tote and put the dry ice on top of the bucket, put the prey in the Rubbermaid tote, dump a little warm water on the dry ice and the gasses overflow and fall to the bottom of the tote killing the prey.

The best way I found was with CO2. You can buy a tank reasonably at a paintball gun shop and they can normally refill the tank when you run out. I get the same size tank as you get for a grill that runs on propane.

I take a hose attached to the CO2 tank, run it into a Rubbermaid tote with a hole drilled in the side of it so the hose is a tight fit. I drill a couple of small holes in the top of the tote and toss in the prey, put the lid on the tote and turn on the gas, slowly. If you fill it up or fill it too quickly before putting the prey in they scream, their eyes burn and they fight to get out. I just turn the tank on and let it slowly leak into the tote and after about 5 min they just go to sleep and when they stop breathing, I turn off the tank and leave them in the tote another 5-10 min. Then I take them out and let them air out for 10 min or so before feeding so the snakes do not smell the CO2.

I have yet to have a snake refuse to eat prekilled prey. I have boas, milk snakes, ball pythons and they are all good eaters.

Answer 2

There are a whole bunch of complete idiots who have NO idea what they are talking about answering your question. The person above me is pretty much right on in their idea. Corn snakes are usually pigs and have no issues taking frozen thawed. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an amateur. I shadowed with the head vet of the Omaha Zoo and they feed ALL their non-venomous snakes frozen thawed. Yeah, I'm sure these people know more than the vets and the zoo keepers. Right. Anyways, most pet stores will have frozen mice to buy and they are usually cheaper per mouse than live ones anyways so that way you don't have to kill them if you don't want.

However, if you do have to pre-kill a mouse, probably the most humane way to do it is with either CO2 or with quick cervical dislocation. To do the cervical dislocation, put the mouse on some surface it can grip, hold the mouse's tail in your non-dominant hand, take the handle part of a butter knife in your dominant hand and break the neck by exerting quick pressure on the neck and by pulling up by the tail at nearly a 90 degree angle (the mouse's body should be at right angles to the surface).

Answer 3

First off I commend you for caring enough to protect the snake. Don't listen to the people that say a snake needs to kill it's own food. That's just not true. The way to kill them that is most commonly used and considered the most humane is co2 gas. The gas not only kills them but it puts them to sleep first and works as a anesthetic so the feel no pain You need a co2 tank and some hoses used in paintball guns. That will be the most expensive part. I built mine for about 60 dollars. Then the only reoccurring cost is to get the tank filled when it needs it. About 3 dollars to fill a 20L tank If you're only feeding one snake the gas will last you a long time. If used correctly they wont feel any pain and they just fall asleep and die. This is the plans I used to build mine. There are also ways to do it with dry ice but those are hard to regulate the co2 flow so it's more stress full to the mice.

http://www.thereddragonsden.com/co2.htm

Answer 4

Do you raise the mice yourself? I think that the mice are first killed and then frozen. Also, I have heard that snakes can get cuts from live rats and small snakes from mice. I handld a 7 foot python with some scars/marks on his body and the scales were in a funny shape, and leaned this was that the previous owner fed it live rats and the rats bit the snake.

Answer 5

Prekilled is much safer for the mouse, a young cornsnake might even be frightened of a live pinkie-some of them are very shy.

I feed frozen/thawed, but before I found a good supplier I did my own killing. Place the mouse in a paper bag and slam the bag up against the wall as hard as you can. It's over quickly.

Answer 6

first of all you shouldn't really feed mice prekilled
some loser made that up because he felt like it
since the snakes are out of their natural habitat where they would have to catch their own food anyway, you might as well make it a little more realistic
get live mice and put them at one end of your snake's cage and let the snake "catch" the mouse
better yet if you have a safely secured arena, put the snake in there and then realease the mice

Answer 7

The petstore has pinkies that have already been killed for you, later when the snake gets bigger you feed them live, because that's how it's done in the wild

Answer 8

get themlive and let the snake eat em but this is dangerous to the snake get them pre killed or pre frozen

Answer 9

may b u shouldnt get a snake? how about something that just eats crickets like a gekko (crested gejjos r pretty cool) or may b a turtle?

Answer 10

Some places gas them. Others freez them. Just buy pinkies at the pet store instead. Saves you from having to do the killing.