Killing wee littles

[OneAcreFarm]

You can put the kit in a paper bag and then whack the bag against something hard, or like Ladysown said, hold in your hand and whack the head against something hard. My hubs has dropped a cinder block on them before...sounds horrible, but really fast.

 

[Maxine]

Thanks for the info. I know at some point I will have to do it, hope it's not anytime soon.

 

[GBov]

I had a doe have her first litter on the wire one warm morning. As each kit came out and crawled about a raccoon got each leg as it came through the bottom wire and pulled it off.

Even legless my first reaction was how to make them better instead of kill them quick.

The nurturing instinct is VERY STRONG!!! So killing a helpless baby is hard to do, even when there is no other thing to be done.

Hand help pruners work great if they are a little blunt, one snip behind the head and the spine is severed but the skin is still intact so no blood.

Having had many snakes over the years most will take dead prey but some will starve to death without the stimulation of live prey. The only thing wrong with feeding live prey to a snake is making a joke or game of it, the snake is just doing what comes natural to it really. We had a grey rat snake get into a purple martin house once, it ate the entire bottom level clean, every baby bird it could stuff into itself. I had to get between the snake and the other employees at the garden center, they wanted to slice and dice it because it "Ate helpless baby birds!" :roll:

 

[Dood]

What an interesting perspective considering nearly every meat we eat is a sexually immature teen or juvenile.

I don't have a problem dispatching young ones, if anything it is my older breeders I feel guilty about culling since they have given me so much and I feel they deserve better. My buns are still young so I haven't had to think about it yet but I have a doe who just doesn't produce many kits and I am running out of spare cages and will likely need hers for a better breeder within the next few months.

 

[3mina]

A snake that doesn't like dead prey is why many keepers have very long sets of forceps and make the food move and use fresh killed instead of thawed frozen

 

[GypsyTinker]

For the little bitty ones, I set them on the ground and step on their heads.

It's so sad, but it is quick and the lil bunny is a lil happy, till the end.

 

[stone soup farm]

Each person has to decide what is right to them. I see the pros of saving on feed to grow them out and the others in the litter would prosper with less competition. I agree with the culling of breeding stock that you have dealt with for much longer is harder for me, not to say culling younger is easier. We just culled 5 kits that were failing to thrive/runts, sad, but suffering is worse.

Putting in the freezer alive sounds cruel. Fast would be best I think.

Freezing to death is like going to sleep. It is actually easy and painless, not cruel. Whacking them is just as good for quickness but if you don't succeed right off then that would be cruel.

For my limits, I won't sell rabbits to laboratories. That is the worse suffering to me. Pet to the right person are ok, but I would rather sell for meat breeding stock.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

I didn't think snakes would eat dead food.

Most snake keepers these days have expensive "morphs" which have abnormal patterns and/or colors. They don't want to risk injury to the snakes from the prey biting them, so they feed dead prey.

Exactly. I had a Mohave Ball Python who would ONLY eat a pre-killed/thawed prey item...he never even bothered to strike or constrict his "prey" either. I'd set the rat down in front of him, he'd flick his tongue a few times, then prod it with his face til he found the head and down the hatch it would go. I think he'd have no idea what to DO with a live prey item! And rats can be NASTY suckers, no way did I want him mauled by a rat!!!

When I sold him I made sure he went to someone who also believes in frozen/thawed pre-killed prey. It is safer for the snake and more humane for the prey item.