What grade CO2 do you use for culling rats?

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Chris82

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Hi guys for anyone who breeds rats, what grade co2 do you use when culling your rats?

and are there laws about breeding your own rats for reptile food?
 
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I use a soda stream so I guess it may be considered "food" grade.

When you say laws, do you mean about how to keep them or how to cull them or what?

I?ve heard rumours that you can get in trouble for having a setup in a shed in the suburbs due to it being considered an agricultural activity or some crap but I?m dubious about those claims.
 
There is a form of CO2 that's not to food grade standards but it's used in Refrigeration and it's harder to obtain. I use food grade CO2 as I work on beer systems and just use the left over cyclinders.
 
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I think all CO2 is food grade. There would be no point in producing a non food grade gas. Council can stop you breeding rats in a residential area but if you want to waste some money on legals I doubt that the line is defined between a pet rat and a commercial operation.Rat breeding is normally an allowable use for rurally zoned land but you can check with your Council.There is probably a similar undefined line between commercial reptile keeping and pet reptiles.
 
Unless you are going to breed hundreds of rats, it shouldn't be a problem. I would only worry about the council when they come knocking.
And a sodastream works a treat. :)
 
From what I am told...Co2 is Co2.....What makes it food grade is the lining in the cylinder in which it is delivered. Food grade has a coating that prevents any contamination from corrosion (ie - internal rust) from the cylinder wall itself and is a requirement by food safety regs. This was told to me from a person in the gas trade.....but I haven't confirmed that it is correct.
 
On Friday I asked the fire extinguisher guy who services my factory to fill my 10kg bottle (thinks for beer) and he said no as his co2 is not safe for ingestion
 
On Friday I asked the fire extinguisher guy who services my factory to fill my 10kg bottle (thinks for beer) and he said no as his co2 is not safe for ingestion

Correct...because it is not being delivered from a food grade cylinder. A fire extinguisher service man wouldn't be paying the premium for food grade cylinders if he is only going to fill extinguishers with it. Also I believe that more stringent testing is done in food grade Co2 to ensure no harmful impurities have found their way into it that may harm the person consuming it.

Totally irrelevant if using to kill rats though......for that purpose Co2 is Co2.
 
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I'd like to know the laws on the methods you can use to cull rats. I was under the impression that freezing them alive was illegal but yesterday I phoned a pet shop and they told me they don't use gas, they just stick them in the freezer. I don't know if this was due to the assistant's ignorance - maybe he didn't know CO2 is standard and was under the impression I wouldn't want to hear that my snake food had chemicals in it? I don't know but either way I was shocked. Rats are mammals... freezing is not going to "put them to sleep" and it's cruel.

I couldn't find any information on the laws in Qld online so I called the RSPCA who didn't know; I've made an enquiry to the wildlife department and got a response saying a Wildlife Ranger would get back to me but in the meantime if someone here could shed some light that would be great.

Also - just speculating... do you think there are a lot of rodent breeders who claim they gas to cull, but just freeze instead to cut down on costs? Is there a way to tell if a rat has been gassed first or not? I noticed that with one supplier the rats' eyes would be half to fully open sometimes, with feces stuck sometimes to the rats.

Thanks for your input...
 
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