Last night, we had a casualty.

This is what happened. I had 9 female rats in a 10gallon tank from 2 separate litters. So, some are around 3 weeks older (and bigger) than the others. The first litter was born on 12/8, the others 3 weeks later. I was watching this whole thing happen (I just like watching them run around for some insane reason - I spend more time with them than I do on the snakes). Anyway, these crazy rats decided to run a marathon on the wheel... 6 rats all at the same time! They keep on piling up on top of the other, running over their sisters, some getting flung all the way around like they are in a ferris wheel. It was hilarious to watch. But then one of the rats tried to get off the wheel right at the time that the other rats managed to turn the wheel really fast, so the rat got stuck on the wheel post and broke her neck! She was still alive but really injured. So, i put her inside the rat hide. The other rats were in there and they just huddled together like normal. I checked up on her about 5 hours or so later and she was still good but couldn't move much. But then, this morning, I saw her "buried" in the opposite corner of the tank. She passed away sometime in the night. I find that really interesting that the rats would take a dead rat and bury her in the corner. That is the 2nd time that happened to me. Our first female breeder passed away unexpectedly and all the same, the other rats buried her deep under the substrate in one corner.

I found out that the wheel can really injure a rat if a bunch of them use it at the same time. I went to the store and looked at other alternatives for the wheel and I found this:
http://www.petdiscounters.com/Flying...els-p8564.html
at PetSmart. It claims to be the safest wheel, but I don't see where the poop/pee would go through. I know I've only had 1 casualty in the 3 months that I've had ASFs, so the wheel I have is relatively safe, but I really would hate for it to happen again.

She must have died not too long before I checked up on them this morning because she wasn't stiff yet and she didn't have a smell. So, I fed her to our western hognose who only eats p/k.