2 dead rats

[derrabe]

Well I woke up yesterday and found 2 dead female rats, nearly decapitated in my rat enclosure. I had 3 males and 3 females not for breeding but for feeding. Any idea why the two females were attacked. I could see if they were males fighting to be the only male in the group.

[littleindiangirl]

Since it's summer. How warm are they kept? I ask because rats easily die of heat stroke.
I'd more believe the other rats took advantage of the dead bodies; remember, rats eat meat and will scavange dead bodies if they can.

Other than that, how much room do they have to move? Did they have fresh food and water? Where did you get the rats from? Any less than stellar conditions can kill a rat.

Other than that, yes sometimes rats just die, but they usually do not fight to the death, especially females.

[derrabe]

they are all small rats size and they where houses in a 30 gallon high tank in my basement on the cold floor. They were given fresh food and water daily.

[SlitherinSisters]

I had this same thing happen to me not too long ago. No reason the rats should have died, they were young, had food water etc. In my case I wonder if it wasn't something that came home with a few live mice I brought home??? It's upsetting that's for sure! My rats are kept in my basement as well, our basement stays around 65 year round, I'm sure yours is somewhere close to that.

[frankykeno]

It may be that the three males started in at the females and they got injured and died or just simply died. Rats will consume dead rats. It's gross to us but to them it's just a free all you can eat sort of buffet. Makes sense from a rat's point of view since for them it's better to consume that protien than have a dead stinky rat laying around. If all your conditions were fine sometimes it's just unhealthy rats that came from a poor supplier though I'd suggest it's likely best, even with feeders, to keep the males and females seperated once they've reached or gotten close to sexual maturity.

[th3jok3r]

i had a rat die on me it was jumping around and banged its head on the corner of the water bottle holder i didnt think much of it he was always wrestling with my other rats and after a few ours of xbox live i went to check in agin and saw the rats kept biting and attacking his wound i took him out i felt bad for the little guy and then.............. fed him to my bp.