Horrific, horrific...

Sorry to hear about the ratie Jen, But at two years I'd say he was a gizzer.LOL I think I would have had the same reaction with the females though. Good thing males become sexualy mature very quickly.

I am going to go up to Markheim Pets for my new male. They are the best pet store in Buffalo, and keep their rats sex-seperated and use quality bedding and feed..
I am thinking of getting something a little exotic; maybe a rex or something that has cool, different coloration.. :)

oh ya get a rex... the babies are soooooooooo freakin' adorable!!!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm more disgusted that the females were "punished" for normal behavior by being killed and fed off. I'm really not trying to make you feel bad or anything, but I was more disgusted by that than the rats being cannibalistic.

I know it was all a misunderstanding, but next time I'd ask questions before making any rash decisions that affect living things other than yourself.

That being said, sorry for your loss, I know males are usually especially friendly and nice and I bet you were upset about losing him. I would be if the same thing happened to my older male.

I really don't see it in terms of punishing them, but more like culling them out of the colony. If he did have some sort of disease that killed him, I did not want to keep rats that had fed off of him, no matter who would advise me that it was OK. It'd be too dangerous to the rest of the colony; it just seems odd that he would just drop dead with no reason behind it.. I am not even using them as feeders or giving them to my friend for her BCI as I usually do with old breeders.. not worth the risk. People everywhere feed-off and put down their nasty breeders b/c of their attitude; I see this as nothing different. It is what I do with my retired breeders anyway. I keep them in the same manner that people farm beefer cattle; you don't see them keeping their retired breeders as pets. I don't view the rats as pets, although my new male is breaking that mold.
Now I kept what was left of his body; I plan on getting it to the vet ASAP for a necropsy.

Thanks for the clarification, what I said was what I got out of the tone of your first post.

OK; glad that I could clarify things. :)