6 dead rats

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Ok, Ive lost an average of 2 medium-large rats a week for the last 3 week. I think the guy I bought them from just had some bad genetics or something. They are all taken care of great, and they look healthy up until the day they drop dead, with blood out their nose.

Is this just a seizure or something caused by inbreeding maybe? I hope its nothing contagious as I have over 150 breeders now and each that have died have been in completely different tubs

[frankykeno]

Since the ones that have keeled over all came from the same supplier I'd avoid that one in future. Much better to breed your own future breeding stock anyways as far as I figure. Maybe also cut out the pine/aspen mix and go with pure aspen with the ones from that group as they seem to not be in the best health. I have had a couple of losses myself of pet store rats when I first started breeding....just fell over dead like that, no sneezing, no ill health, just dead (one died literally in front of me while feeding the rat colony). I suspect some of these pet store rats are so darned inbred they are just not strong or so crowded at the store they are stressed and just fail to thrive. As far as any possibility of disease, I'm not the one to comment on that.