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Tired of thawing bloody rats

Y

yogie2

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Hey y'all,

I have read on most rat distributors websites that they use CO2 to euthanize their animals, however, an awful lot of blood still pours out of their face when thawed. My RodentPro rats anyways. Is this unavoidable? Have ya'll had this same experience, or have a testimonial for another source of rats?
 
Yeah, I gas my own rats and they still bleed. Not all of them, but maybe a third. I haven't really thought about it, but it may also depend on size of the rat. Or maybe the larger rats just have more blood and it's more noticeable.
 
the f/t I use don't bleed once thawed (and no dried blood on their faces). I currently buy from a local supplier (rodents4u) and in the past bought from big cheese, never had bleeding issues with either place.

Perhaps it has to do with the type of CO2 used (canister vs dry ice) and or the concentration. Besides respriatory failure it can cause changes in blood pressure which may be causing the hemorrhage? I don't know enough about it to really know.
http://la.rsmjournals.com/content/39/2/137.full.pdf
 
I usually stock up & pick up a few bags of rats from local reptile show. Saves me from dealing with live rats at home & saves me money, plus I get to check out everyone's critters with my son every other month. Recently I found one bag of rats where it looks like they actually cut the throat of the rats, besides making a mess I don't get the reasoning behind it. I wouldn't mind paying a more to save myself the mess & be a little more humane to the rats, if its a way the distributors are trying to bring down cost? If there is another reason behind it I'd love to hear about it or if anyone else experience this?
 
Sorry to bump this week-old thread, but this is the first time I've ever heard of cutting the throats on rodents before. Did they really do that? It doesn't even seem practical....

Anyways I've noticed more bleeding when I thaw them rapidly in hot water compared to when I just let them thaw gradually by room temp. I always prefer a slow thaw if I have the time, it seems to me as if the quality's better. *shrug*
 
~Just Curious~ said:
Sorry to bump this week-old thread, but this is the first time I've ever heard of cutting the throats on rodents before. Did they really do that? It doesn't even seem practical....

Anyways I've noticed more bleeding when I thaw them rapidly in hot water compared to when I just let them thaw gradually by room temp. I always prefer a slow thaw if I have the time, it seems to me as if the quality's better. *shrug*
Click to expand...

Yea, that's what I didn't understand. It just didn't make much sense to me either. I tried to snap some quick photos before I walk out the door for work so you get a better idea of exactly what I mean. I definitely share the same experience thawing feeders out gradually, especially with these rats.

48465192.jpg

45897019.jpg
 
That's different, I've never seen that before. Don't think I'd like it much myself to be honest...
I'd like to hear the reasoning behind it as well, perhaps you can ask the distributer if you see them at another show?
Thank you for taking the time to share those pictures!
 
no problem, I'm going to the Oaks show Nov. 10th & definitely plan on asking. I'll update once I hear the reasoning. I might be finding a different rodent provider too, based on the answer.
 
~Just Curious~ said:
That's different, I've never seen that before. Don't think I'd like it much myself to be honest...
I'd like to hear the reasoning behind it as well, perhaps you can ask the distributer if you see them at another show?
Thank you for taking the time to share those pictures!
Click to expand...

A lot of times the rats with cut throats are from labs. They cut the throats to bleed them out to test the blood.
 
I actually could not ask the man selling rodents at the show about the cut throats because he was busy with other customer & had really large orders he was getting together but the gentleman in the booth next time him lent a hand & got my order for me. I was able to get a business card & did email him. This was the reply I received in regards to the rats coming from a lab & having there cut throats.

"Its a guy with a lab but he'll buy my retired stuff n other people's cuts them for the blood sells the blood to a different lab for testing. So the rats don't actually come from a lab for animal testing or anything like that. The plasma is what goes for the testing"
 
Thank you so much for the answers! That's interesting.
Good to know that the animals themselves aren't having anything tested on them, I wouldn't trust those as food if they had medications or such in their system beforehand, but I still don't think I'd be wild about thawing drained rodents with holes. Not a big deal honestly, I know I'm nitpicking, but I personally have enough options that I'm going to avoid that. Just my opinion.

Thanks for letting us know!
 
The lab guy buys retired breeder rats to drain their blood and then gives them back to the frozen feeder guy for free so he can sell them cheap at a show?

Why would a lab want to test blood from retired breeder rats? Maybe they're putting something in the rats before they collect the blood.
 
Honestly, I'm not 100% sure why a lab would want to test blood from retired rats either. I'm personally looking into other options myself for future reference. If the life of an animal is taken I hope it is at least used for proper purposes but don't know how I feel about it being used over & over before getting into my freezer or not being advised of the blood testing prior to purchase. I think I could sleep a little better at night knowing more about & not just taking someones word in regards to the rats I feed to my snakes. I never imagined I would have to even question such things until now but I guess everyone wants to make as much money as possible? Either way, I'm sure it will be less messy when thawing out without the cuts.
 
Older thread, I'm aware, but only just saw this.

I euthanize my own feeders with CO2, and discovered that if you refrigerate them for a couple hours before putting them in the freezer, they don't get nosebleeds. It's only when I put them straight from the box to the freezer that they bleed.
 
That's good to know since I euthanize my own rodents as well. I always have nosebleeds with mine as well, but I also use blunt force trauma rather than co2 so that is a factor as well. It hasn't really bothered me as long as they don't drip or run all over. I bag them up still warm and freeze them with just a useable number of rodents to each bag so I just thaw a whole bag out at a time in warm water and just use tongs. Blood doesn't bother me so it has just never been a concern.

I have tried C02 before but it seemed to take some time to put them out which is why I use blunt force trauma.
 
I think one reason some of them bleed is damage AFTER death as well. Going from room temp to freezer post-mortem or from freezer to hot water is an extreme temp change. All those tiny vessels will burst or were already burst by ice crystals that formed in rat's body. Though I'm sure the methods and others are related as well. The longer dead or frostbitten ones bleed more because they are more broken down than fresher mice. Ice crystals really rip up tissues when they form and I think you can manage the damage by slowing the cooling and thawing down.
 
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