My first confirmed kill.............

[nomadbean]

Ok, so I am not sure if I should feel proud or ashamed.. I killed my first mouse on Saturday. I usually buy frozen or Jason kills them...well, he was at work and no frozen to be had. I had two choices, feed my babies live mice or whack them myself. I was a good parent, but now I feel like I need to go to confession and do some Hail Marys or something. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img] I am too much of an animal lover to ever do that again it took a good 5 mins of prep time for me to swing the pillow case at the wall, and I had to do it twice, because I was too much of a baby to do it hard enought the first time to get all 3 to die........... I wonder if this is the first step of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome...waking up with flashbacks of my murder.....just wanted to share my trauma with some folks who would understand it, more than say my mother lol.
Trina
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[ChrisRezendes]

LOL... Reading that post reminds me of how I felt the first time I killed a mouse... You get used to it, I guess, because you know really you are doing the right thing. Sure doesn't feel like it at first...

You've been keeping snakes for a while, haven't you? Probably longer than I have. How did you get around this for so long, have you always used your system (" I usually buy frozen or Jason kills them&quot? Just curious... BTW, I wish I would have started out doing frozen to begin with...
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[nomadbean]

Yup, my system has always been good for me....I clean the cages...he feeds them and helps with meds, when necessary. This was just because they really needed to eat after their trip and all, couldn't wait any longer.
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[eddie]

First time huh?
It gets easier everytime ya do it, unless you're like me and just enjoy the crunch noise! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Actually, if I have a few to do, I use the cervical dislocation method.
If I have a lot, I like to use CO2 for it.
If it's at the pet store, I use the cervical cause it's funny watching the employess freek out when they see and hear it.
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[telefrag]

I guess im still a "wuss",
I felt bad having to put live pinks in the freezer a few nights ago.

it still haunts me.

I cant sleep at night.

someone hold me. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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[faze]

eh i think of it as "they where bred to die which is true considering that they come from my breeder so i think of it as me doin them the favor of not being squished to death'


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[telefrag]

Bred to die?
Thats true, but do we really have the right to facilitate a life so we can just take it away?
kinda cathartic eh?

im not judgeing anyone, #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&, many thousands of rodents are no longer around cause of my participation in the hobby.

But when we think of it, does that make it right?

just some food for thought.

(or maybe just trying to stir the pot!) [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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[Boaguy]

I have tried befor but i just cant do it

I will just stick with rodent pro.. its cheaper anyway.. lol
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[CelticWench]

holds Telefrag... shh, it will be ok, they just went to sleep....next to the frozen peasnull

nomad, I totally understand, I have had to kill two rats myself in the past month & I cried while doing it.. I kept telling myself "it's part of life, nature's way, I love my snake", anything to make it easier.. it never got easier & from now on I will make sure to get to the petstore early before they run out of frozen ..

oh, & to show you what a huge wuss I am, I couldn't bring myself to hit their little heads against the wall... I had to drown them.. I know, it probably wasn't much easier for them but I kept telling myself it was more humane...still better than being squished til your eyes pop out by a snake
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[jpaulson]

Although killing a live animal is never pleasant(if it is, then you are really screwed up [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_lol.gif[/img] ), it is something that has to be done. I prefer the pillowcase method, so you don't actually see or feel the rodent. Before I got my first snake, I understood all that I would have to do. I should hope everyone else here did the same. I just keep telling myself that it is the natural food chain at work. Still, it's not fun, but necessary. Congrats, nomadbean...the rest aren't as hard as the first.
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[herm]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE>
&gt;&gt;Thats true, but do we really have the right to facilitate a life so we can just take it away?
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Yes we do. If we have the right to keep animals as pets, not only do we have the right, we have the obligation to provide them with the sustance they need. Just like it isn't wrong for ranchers to raise cattle for consumption by humans, it isn't wrong for someone to raise rats for consumption by snakes.

[img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]
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[telefrag]

How wierd, they were right next to some frozen peas.

freaky.

Well, we have to do what we have to do to have our pets.
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[scarlettrose2006]

talk about this live-food mess.......siiiiiiiigh.
All my babies eat frozen-thawed.....BUT one of the rescues.....now this snake (and i ) went through #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& to get him well...long story short&gt;i needed gerbils, to once again slowly build him up some and change over to rats ( he already changed once....then had another healthproblem, after which he refused to eat again).
So he would eat gerbils......and i had this glorious idea to breed gerbils. So off we went and got one pair. Just boring black and brown one, in a big tank in the garage. Then we saw beautiful, cute colored ones.....and decided to get 3 girls. Well, i then figured out.....gerbils that didn't grow up together DO NOT GET ALONG!!!! you can introduce single ones slowly, but once you have a pair or group....forget adding others.
So we had those cute gerbils. And no cage.....so my daughter picked out this cute gerbil cage....for the colored ones, while the black and brown ones were in the garage.
So i thought,,,,,these new ones are sooooo little...surely they won't notice me sneaking in 2 little males...UHU. So i get two lil males, and i rub scented stuff all over them (trick i read about) to make them all smell the same.....next thing i know they are ALL fighting even the 3 girls that formerly got along well...
What a night! I finally decided to BATHE all of them, to make them smell the same and miserable enough to stop fighting.
Well, it did work.....for a week or so, until one pair decided they wanted to stay together forever and
[edited by admin : Please do NOT attempt to go around our language filter on the site by posting like this. This type of language is NOT allowed on RTB, straight and/or masked. Please read our --&gt;TOS TYIA]
the others....again, they were fighting like crazy.
So i finally had it....killed the brown and black one in the garage (to the rescue balls delight) and split the colored ones up...now that one pair was happy, all alone, and the otheres seemed fine....but then started to look none to healthy from all that fighting.....by that time, i was thouroughly disgusted with gerbils, and just killed all but that one bonded pair.
Again, the rescue ball and my blood python (hoover) were happy...
And i moved that one pair into the big tank into the garage....
Guess what...they finally had babys....2 measly little gerbil pinkys. All that trouble....and two lil pinks.
Well, by now they