• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Euthanizing feeders via shock, first time I've heard of this....

D

DragonCharm

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A guy I know mentioned that he uses a cage with a wire bottom attached to jumper cables to euthanize feeders. Is this a humane method? How does it compare to Co2? I'm looking for the best method possible and it needs to be the following: cheap, easy, humane, quick, and leave the prey item in a state that it's still desirable to the animal. Definitely don't want to end up with a pile of chicken nugget looking mice when I turn on the juice. Someone told me Co2 takes a few minutes to kill them, the electrical current sounds quicker but having not been deprived of oxygen or shocked to death I don't know which one is best for the feeder animals.

At this point I am purchasing frozen and breeding a few myself. Mostly only using live fuzzies and pinks for safety, holding off on using my own adults until I can safely and humanely prekill them.
 
The most humane way is probably CO2. The animals develop CO2 narcosis and simply go to sleep without pain. You have to be careful though not to narcotize yourself in the process so do it in a well ventilated area. Pinkies have a low metabolic rate and I believe most people freeze them.

As for using electrical shock, that has to hurt, at least for a moment. Think of the electric chair and how it is no longer considered a "humane" way to perform executions, even in Texas. ;)

Most people who feed fresh killed thump the animal. That's what I have done on those occasions while transitioning an animal from live to thawed. I'm not sure that is any better than electricity but it is quick and doesn't "cook" the rodent.
 
When I was breeding rats I used CO2. They fall unconscious in a matter of seconds. As Jim said, just make sure the area is well ventilated and pinkies to take much longer than adults to succumb.

I personally would not use electricity for quite a few reasons. The risk of electrical shock to you or any one else is greater than the risks associated with CO2. Electricity generates heat so there is an increased risk of fire. And with electricity, it can be doing alot of damage inside the rats body that you don't see. It will literally cook them from the inside out. You could seriously injure or kill a snake feed with a rat just killed by electrocution if the internal body temperature got too high. On the other hand, I have had no ill effects feeding rats just killed using CO2.
 
Thanks for the responses. I guess CO2 is faster than I thought, not so bad after all as a method. Though I could probably safely use electricity (without harming myself) the other problems such as heating them up internally, etc far outweigh the benefits.
 
I have some friends who have a turkey farm and they shock them prior to slitting their throats. The shock isn't enough to kill them though. It's just enough to knock them out. Without knowing how much juice would be needed to kill a rodent, you'd chance cooking it. Burnt rodent hair doesn't sound too appealing to me. :bolt01:
 
Hey Richard,

I use a CO2 set-up and it works great. Mine cost about $50 to initially set up. After that it costs me about $3 every 500-1000 rats to refill my 20oz CO2 tank.

I turn on the gas for about 10-15 seconds and they just go to sleep. I come back 5 minutes later to weigh them and start individually packaging them.

I really do not think there is an easier more humane way of doing it.

20oz CO2 tank: $15
Hose with on/off valve and a quick disconnect: $25
Sterilite/Rubbermaid tub: $6

Took less than 5 minutes to slap it all together.
 
Co2 is better than shock(according to me) the rodents just fall asleep due to the lack of oxygen, it is not painfull to the rodents.

Electric shock, the one thing I would not want to deal with is the smell of burned hair, think of that smell and you would not want to deal with that every time you take out a mouse. That is a smell that you can never get used to.
 
Hey Schrap...

Can you go into more detail on how you set that up? I have a shaker box that I use but I truly prefer something a bit more nice if you will. I have several large CO2 tanks as well as hoses. I am assuming it's just a simple matter of connecting the hose to the tank and then the hose to say a seal enclosure, turn it on and viola? Or am I missing something? Thanks!

Griz
 
Aside from the smell and potential damage to the "food"....have YOU ever gotten a zap from your car battery? Or an electric fence? NOT a pleasant feeling, and for it to be a zap sustained long enough to kill, it has to be a very painful death. I can't see how humane it could be.

CO2 is definitely the way to go.....they are sleeping within seconds.
 
Well the intent would for it not to be a long shock, if I were attempting it (which I'm not going to) I'd go for enough to stop the heart in one jolt.
 
I understand what you're saying.....but I can't help but think it's still gotta hurt.

I think it would be tough figuring out exactly how much juice you would need to do it as well.

On rare occasions, I've "thumped" mice to try to get picky eaters converted to f/t, and I always feel terribly guilty, lol.
 
I hear you Cat! I have used a shaker box in the past when I have had to use a live rat and it tears away at me the rest of the day. I am a big game hunter and travel all over the U.S. hunting but for some reason using a shaker box still affects me!

Griz
 
Explain shaker boxes and thumping to me.......clueless. I assume you put a feeder into a box and shake the S out of it? How does thumping work, do you let Thumper the rabbit kill it? :hehe:
 
DragonCharm said:
Explain shaker boxes and thumping to me.......clueless. I assume you put a feeder into a box and shake the S out of it? How does thumping work, do you let Thumper the rabbit kill it? :hehe:
Click to expand...
Thumping is a quick, hard blow to the back of the head to separate the spinal cord from the brainstem, at least that is how I do it.
 
I use the side of a cabinet in my garage usually. I hold the rodent by its tail with a forceps and swing it quickly. The animal immediately is rendered unconscious from the blow (I presume) and stops breathing from the spinal injury. If anyone else has a better method, I am open to a suggestion.
 
My version of a shaker box is quite simple. I took a small hard plastic cricket box with hinged lid and place the rat inside. Keep in mind I only do this with small rats as the remainder of my rats I get from Rodentpro. I close the lid and proceed to give it a good shaking for a few seconds. Due to the limited amount of space the animal snaps his neck almost immediately. I find it much less messy then whacking them on the head with a blunt object as I always get a lot of blood loss that way.

Now that I know how easy it is to build the CO2 box, I will never shack a rat again. I am no tree hugger but even that bothered me.

Griz
 
ive kept rats as pets and am amazed as to their pet - ability. but i also own snakes. so i feel crappy for all the rats i kill. as i have not built a co2 box i just quickly snap the neck by placing a tool of some kind (strong, about a foot long) right down on the neck and firmly tug on the tail.

god it seems awful as i think about it compared to the co2 box but they die instantly (it seems) most of the time. this method is what i use because thumping does not always kill them right away and i feel worse.
 
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