I've had two females die in the last 4 days. Some background:
I had 10 females and one male as breeders and the offspring, varying in size, totaled around 25. They are spread between 6 tubs with 5 tubs having a breeding pair of girls and a 6th tub being for raising up feeders for my larger snakes. The male rotates between the female tubs.
I used pine bedding from Big R and changed it all out on Sunday. I've been using it (pine) for months with no issues. I've also had them on bedding from the same bag for a month now (big bags that last a while) which leads me to the assumption that I don't have a bad batch of bedding.
I use half gallon water bottles that always have water and they always have Mazuri 6F available to eat.
The females were in different racks in opposite corners of my rat/snake room.
Temperatures haven't changed drastically in the last weeks and both the tubs and the room has great ventilation.
Death #1 - an older female that I've had for about 8 months and that I bought as an older rat, maybe 4 months old at purchase, from PetSmart. There was one other female in the tub with her and each had a littler within 2 days of each other. The other female in the tub didn't nurse (first time mom, she's got one more chance in a tub by herself and then she's gone) when she dropped her litter and I assumed that trying to feed 25 pups killed the girl that died. I threw her out, not wanting to feed her off without knowing what killed her. When she died the male hadn't been in the tub for approximately 1 week.
Death #2 - A younger female that I produced, maybe 4 months old, in a tub with another male and female. She had a male introduced yesterday for the first time and I had heard a little more ruckus than usual when the male first gets rotated into a tub with some ladies that he hasn't seen for a while. She was apparently fine 2 hours before I found her but earlier tonight she was dead. She was still warm and pliable, so no rigor mortis when I found her, indicating a very recent passing. When I picked her up by the tail the bulge, or pointy organ/tissue, that is anterior to the vaginal opening had a bit of dried blood on it and the vaginal opening seemed rather large. I am assuming that this is either 1) from the vaginal walls being relaxed in death or 2) the male breeding heavily with her. I suppose it is possible that he was forcing himself on her when she wasn't actually sexually ready (and/or willing, explaining the increased ruckus in the tub after I introduced the male) and that the stress killed her. I put her in the fridge and am considering getting a necropsy done but am still undecided on that as I am not sure how much it will cost and at this point I am not sure if any more will die.
Basically I have a theory for why each died but I find it strange that two females died that close together simply by chance. Also strange is that the females both were housed with other rats in their tubs, all of which are fine as I type this.
I think that I have covered most everything at this point. Let me know of any thoughts that you have or if you have any requests for more information.
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