at a loss??

I have lost THREE males this week!!!!
I dont know if it is just because they are all about a year old or what??
The 6 tub rack has been going for almost a year now.
I leave the 1.2 together at all times and havent had a problem.
The only change was about 2 months ago I started mixing HEB Large Breed dog food with the lab blocks to try and cut food cost a little. About 80% lab to 20% dog.
I would think IF the dog food was a problem then I should lose all rats, not just the males, right?
I know they are not going to breed for me forever but I would hate to think I "screwed" them to death in a year.
Anyone have any ideas??

There's so many possibilities, that you'll probably never know. Weather, internal parasites, heart disease, cancer, old age, blood clot, feed, water, bedding, there are sooo many things. :/


What's HEB dog food?

With out having a background with rats it sounds like your reasoning is solid. It would seem to be something that targets males over females. Could there be a disfunction of the reproduction system? I am 100% guessing it seems to be too large a quinsidence to be random. Just trying to help, were there any signs of problems?

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Originally Posted by Rhasputin

What's HEB dog food?

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HEB is a local chain grocery store, I know a couple people that only use their dog food for rats but I though I would throw that out there as info as well.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

I have lost THREE males this week!!!!
I dont know if it is just because they are all about a year old or what??
The 6 tub rack has been going for almost a year now.
I leave the 1.2 together at all times and havent had a problem.
The only change was about 2 months ago I started mixing HEB Large Breed dog food with the lab blocks to try and cut food cost a little. About 80% lab to 20% dog.
I would think IF the dog food was a problem then I should lose all rats, not just the males, right?
I know they are not going to breed for me forever but I would hate to think I "screwed" them to death in a year.
Anyone have any ideas??

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I lost 9 breeders this week, both male and female.
They srart to die off after about 10 months breeding.

I lost 6 and then I noticed there was a lot of sneezing. I picked up Tylan from TSC and started them on it. The sneezing is very sporadic and almost completely gone after a week and I haven't lost any more. That's all thanks to another thread here.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

I lost 6 and then I noticed there was a lot of sneezing. I picked up Tylan from TSC and started them on it. The sneezing is very sporadic and almost completely gone after a week and I haven't lost any more. That's all thanks to another thread here.

Good luck.

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do you just administer the antibiotic in their drinking water? I am hearing some sneezing as well and would like to get rid of it.. I have a lot of rats though and don't find it possible to individually inject every single rat. Please tell me it's through the drinking water. lol.

My males have all bred until they were around 1 1/2 yrs old but I had one male breed for 2 yrs before rehoming him.
Genetics will play a huge roll in how long they live and how long they can breed and remain healthy.

The only males that I have had die after 10 months of breeding were dwarfs, but then they don't have quite as long of a life span as standard size rats.

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Originally Posted by cdavidson9

do you just administer the antibiotic in their drinking water? I am hearing some sneezing as well and would like to get rid of it.. I have a lot of rats though and don't find it possible to individually inject every single rat. Please tell me it's through the drinking water. lol.

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The Tylan is in the water. See this thread.

BTW, don't tempt fate. Right after I posted above that the rats were doing better I got home and found another one dead and one that had such a hard time breathing that I put her down. I'm going to the vet this morning and I'll post what he says. Isn't it weird that we don't have a vet using this forum?

Certain things can affect only one gender. For instance, orange juice has been shown to cause cancer in male rats, but not females.