Use and Construction of the Euthanize Kit

Humanely Pre-Killing your feeder rodents is the best way to ensure the safety of your pet as well as providing a quick and painless death for the rodent. I advise taking your pre-killed rodent and freezing for at least 48 hours before feeding, then thawing. This will kill parasites that may have been living on the rodent to be fed.

Depending on the size tub that you choose to use for your DIY c02 euthanize kit, you can pre-kill large amounts of feeder mice or rats and store them conveniently in your freezer. If stored in vacuum sealed bags, they can last up to 1 year.

There are several options you can take when building this kit. I'm just going to tell how I did it and provide links to where you can pick up the materials to build your own. You may be able to find these parts locally, but I live in a moderate sized city and had trouble locating this stuff. Amazon was my best friend in this project.

Getting Started

Here is what I used to build my kit.

The tub that I used is a Sterilite 6 Qt tub with clamp locks on the edges.

The finished product will look like:

Putting It Together

This is a very simple process.

1. Drill a hole, or use a soldering Iron to melt a hole in one corner of the plastic tubs lid. This hole needs to be the appropriate size for the valve stem assembly to slide through. Careful not to make the hole to large.

2. Take the valve stem assembly and mount it through the hole you made in the lid of the tub.

3. Screw the co2 inflator head to the valve stem assembly.

4. Use teflon tape and wrap the threads of the c02 cartridge you are going to use. Just a few wraps, doesn't take much. This is not 100% necessary, but I have found that if you do not wrap the threads, a lot of c02 escapes and is wasted.

5. Screw the threaded co2 cartridge into inflator head when you are ready to use.

Using the kit

ALWAYS USE OUTSIDE, NEVER INDOORS.

1. Place a few folded paper towels on the bottom of the tub. This will help absorb urine.

2. Place as many mice or rats that will fit comfortably inside the tub.

3. Screw c02 cartridge firmly into inflator head.

4. Open red valve of inflator head very slowly until you can hear c02 gases being released. All it takes is a slow steady stream. If you release the gas too fast from the cartridge you may find that it will take more than one cartridge to euthanize the contents of the tub.

5. Allow all movement of feeder rodents to stop before opening container.