Sudden Rat Death Causes?

guyabano · 03-31-13, 07:14 AM

Hello all, I was greeted today by a terrible tragedy in my rat breeding colony. I keep 4 breeder females and 2 males and about 10+ of each gender that I bred myself in "growing bins".

The last litter I bred had 11 pups and they were just weaned two weeks ago. All of them were healthy and eating on their own, drinking from the bottle. I was planning on separating them into their specific gender grow bins this weekend. I come up this evening to give them some dinner and play with them a bit as I usually do, and 6 of the 11 are dead. I don't know what could have caused this to happen. ALL my rats are fed from one food source, it comes up in a big bowl and I dish it out accordingly. None of the other bins were affected, only the one with my latest litter. I have no idea as to what might have caused it and I need some help in making sure it doesn't happen again.

The surviving members of the litter have been moved to a different, sterilized quarantine tub and are under observation.
I am gutted by this occurrence. This was my favorite litter by far to be honest. They were the most playful and open to handling. I didn't think I'd be this upset, after all they were destined to be snake food anyway. Up till that point, I still see my rats as pets.

RyanReptile · 03-31-13, 07:17 AM

I am really stumped on this but I hope someone else can help you. I have heard of rodents killing each due to limited space or food but I really doubt it is this.

KORBIN5895 · 03-31-13, 07:35 AM

What was the temperature?

guyabano · 03-31-13, 07:46 AM

I doubt that they fought as well. They all just looked like they were sleeping. Literally, my first thoughts were "why are they still sleeping, they should be shuffling around by now".

I live in a tropical climate, temperatures fluctuate between 28C to about 32C.

Took a peek at the survivors a few minutes ago and they all seem normal. They were just laying back, grooming themselves after having some chow.

Revenant · 03-31-13, 05:28 PM

Rats can drop pretty suddenly due to respiratory distress. If the temps were at the upper end of what you listed, eleven rats in a tub might have been too much. How well ventilated are they? Do you have any measures to keep the tubs cool and the air circulating through them?

Some things like bacterial pneumonia can cause apparent sudden death in young rats, as well.

Any signs at all of respiratory distress or overheating in your older rats? Breathing a little hard? Spending a lot of time laying on their backs? Any nasal discharge?

mykee · 03-31-13, 05:58 PM

Rats die sometimes.

guyabano · 03-31-13, 06:08 PM

They're pretty well ventilated. I have them up on the roof of our building unused mini bar and bathroom area. For the most part, it's actually one of the most comfortable places to be when the heat hits and our A/Cs are off. Mid day feels nice because of the cool breeze

All the other rats seem well. They are just as inquisitive and active as always. If they're not playing amongst themselves, they're grooming or sleeping.