one of my female breeders looks like she's going to die

[pliskin]

I'm not sure what's wrong with her. everything looked fine yesterday. looked in on them today and she looked a bit emaciated and lethargic.

I'm going to take her out just in case , so she doesn't get the other rats sick.

is it possibly to overwork a female by having too many pups nursing from her?
the other female in the colony seems to be doing fine, although she's a bit bigger.

if this one dies , which I think she might, since she doesn't look too good. is the other female going to be able to handle all the pups.

I was thinking of just feeding her off to my snakes , but I was wondering if that would be wise since she's sick looking and all. Although, I had asked before and most people said any illnesses a rat has would be unlikely to be passed to a snake since their physiology is so different being mammals.

[RichsBallPythons]

This is normal with older rodents. One day thier fine and the next day their dead. Theres nothing you can do if she is dieing but make her comfortable for her last few days.

[pliskin]

looked in again , and she's expired.

but , I don't think she was that old.

I got her in december, and the guy I got her from said they were a couple of months old.

I was reading the ASF caresheet and it said their normal lifespan is around 2 year, that's why I was surprised, and didn't think it could be old age already.

All my other ASF's are in perfect health , so I don't think its a big deal yet.
but I'd still like to know why she died just in case it was something in the husbandry that I'm doing wrong. I haven't been at this for very long , and I don't want them to start dropping on me because I didn't provide proper housing .