anyone buy feeder rats from a pet store and have one die mysteriously?

i bought 3 small rats last thursday and up until sunday night they were all doing well, eating, drinking, playing, etc.
sunday night rolls around and i notice the smallest of the 3 acting odd, breathing heavily, not eating, drinking a tiny bit and trying to cuddle with the other but they were shrugging it off or moving away.
i decided i'd just keep an eye on it for a day or so and see if it improved on its own or not.
monday night we went and picked up my snake.
yesterday i isolated the "sick" rat in a plastic critter carrier and kept an eye on it.
last night i noticed it still breathing heavy but by then it was making a low squeaky kind of grunting noise every time it exhaled. i called the pet store and they said they had no warranty or something like that for feeder rats. the lady told me that the rats they sell are mass produced and that i may have just ended up with a defective rat, as can be the issue sometimes. i didnt call them expecting a replacement but i was hoping for something more then just "oh, well you might have just gotten a bad one."
ok well thats all fine and dandy but now that's 1 less meal for my snake this month. (the rat finally died just hours after i noticed the noisy breathing.)
we MIGHT be able to replace that rat later on in the month, and i'm keepin' my fingers crossed.
is there anything i can do to make sure i don't continue getting "bad rats" cuz quite honestly our financial situation will not allow us to be constantly replacing these rats that meet a premature end.

just check out the rat before you take it home.. i mad the mistake of not doing that and now one of my rats has a RI...

he wont stop sneezing and im afraid he might infect my whole group of breeders...
make sure the rat is not sneezing or itching constantly...

goodluck,
Mike H.:D

ok thx

Well, I'll play devil's advocate here I guess...
I own a pet store, and breed all kinds of rodents. Mass breeding rodents, you will have a lot of unhealthy specimens. It happens.
Now, that being said, and like I said, owning a pet store, you have to look at it from my perspective too... There are lots of "not-so-honest" people out there. Most of the time, people are honest, but when you run a business like a pet store, it seems all the not so honest ones seem to visit and often. People think that we just get everything cheap, or because we breed them, they are cheap to produce. Basically, all I ever ask is proof that the said animal was sick from my store. IE- a fish put in a cold fish tank, no heater, no chlorine remover, etc etc...
Everyone expects absolutely everything to be spot-on. If the rat was sick, and you had the proof-ie- the sick rat, they should have either replaced it, or offered a refund. I get these calls all the time, usually from someone who bought such and such three weeks ago, it died the next day, yadda yadda.
Look at it from the pet stores perspective: turn the tides, and look at it that way. I always go out of my way to help my customers, but like I said, if I trusted everyone, I'd be out of business. Call as soon as you notice a problem with an animal, you'll have a better chance of getting a replacement or refund. Or, better yet, freeze him after he dies, bring him back in, but always call as soon as you notice a problem!
When I buy an animal, say a ferret, if one comes to me sickly looking at all, I'm on the phone ASAP, let them know that there's a problem. That way, if it does ultimately die, or cost me a vet visit, I had the phone call already there...
Hope that helps, not trying to be snooty at all, just trying to show how a pet store owner has to look at scenarios like this...

Yes. I have.

why does it matter if it was sick and died? feed it off anyways. they eat worse in the wild, it wont hurt your snake

as jas stated, breeding mass rodents sometimes they just die for less reason that what you stated even, ive fed off plenty of rodents that i found dead in my racks. as long as they don't smell like rank death. and even then, im pretty sure it would still be ok for the snake. heck, i even know a guy who has some rat snakes that wont eat anything until its dead and bloated.

Most snakes in the wild will eat carrion, to them, meat is meat.
I too feed fresh dead rats and mice, why waste?