Rat Bedding Question?

Check the back feet and tails of the dead rats if you still have any around (any fresh deaths, not suggesting that you're hoarding a bunch of rats that died of illness), check for color, are they bluish? Also check the tails, are they rounded, or are they more box-like? Are they rats of all ages, or certain age groups? It could be a bout of myco, which could make them drop like flies. If they've got bluish feet, tails and sometimes lips, and sometimes they have weird boxy tails (sometimes old, old adults do as well, which is why I asked age group), then it sounds like it may be the case. Cure? Fish medication. Check into what I said, let me know, and if it sounds like it, I'll send you some extra, more specific information, as well as where to get the medication.

Myco isn't the type of infection to just flare up in a large colony like this unless there is a primary infection being spread around. Myco is generally a secondary infection that takes hold once something comprimises the immune system since it's virtually in every rat.

You could potentially save a lot of lives if you were to take one of the sick or dead animals into the vet to be treated or necropsied to find out the cause of death and find out what sort of infection is spreading.

It could be a disease, or it could be environmental, or your females are just old and died from exhaustion.

More details are needed before we start prescribing home remedies.

Thanks for all your suggestions and concerns. To be honest we haven't been tracking our females breeding, age group and things of that nature. We just make sure they are cleaned each week and change out the water twice a week. I told FatBoy that after breeding season (boas/balls) we are going to track their breeding pattern. That way we can cycle our females without stressinig them out. We just purchased about fifteen rats to help restoke the breeding population. Again thanks for the concerns. No dead rats have been found for three days.