Emotionally Attached?

[SnakesvsRodents]

I had 5 mice wealing on a cage waiting for them to grow to the proper size to be fed to my bp....well i took one out to feed my snake...and then the rest started to die, one by one...before i took the first one to be fed they were perfectly healthy and active. Did the removing of one mice affect them? Im completly stunned because they really had no reason to die. Whne the first one died, there was one of his cage mates on top of him..like how they normally sleep. So.. i moved him and saw him dead one...but the one laying on top of him look perty bummed out like really sad or something...and i say this because usually whne i stick my hand in the cage the run away from my hand and this dint happened hi just stood there. Well that one died fewdays later...and few day latrer after that another died. Im down to two, so this week i was going to feed another but im not sure if i should. The remainder 2 dont look sick or show the same signs as the previous 3...but my question is why did they die? Maybe some one can help me out.Thanks..

-Bernie

[Nate]

hmm hopefully a rodent expert will step in here and help you out...but just from a description, I would guess it could be a disease of some sort. Did you feed that one to your snake? Keep an eye on him.

[APeach]

How old were these weanlings? Were they a little runted? In my experience (I work in a research facility where I deal with thousands of mice a day), the number one killer of otherwise normal mice tends to be dehydration. If this is the problem, make sure they can reach the water source. Also, if you feed them "lab block" type food, soak it in water for 10-15minutes, and then feed it to them.

I hope this helps!

[SnakesvsRodents]

These wealings were 5 weeks...And im sure they reach the water sourse because i seen them drink from it. I feed them lab blocks and a seed mix every now and then.