I have 1.3 colony which have been together for around a month an half. All are 6 months old excpet the male whos a bit older.
I have had two litters of 8 of 2 females so far and my other female was due (in my opinion) to give birth this week. She has seemed totally fine and i even checked her this morning and she was live and well.

However i have come home from work to find her dead in a corner. No fight marks and no signs of labour.

Of all my feeders and breeders this is the first death i have had so im keen to work out why she died. so any suggestion would be helpful. Has anyone else had this happen?

I opened her up and found 15 babies inside her, All dead! I have put it down to too large a litter for such a young female but welcome anyone elses views.

All my rats are fed on a rat/ birdseed mix with fresh veg and mealworms given adhoc.

Now i have two litters weening and was ondering if i could just add another female to my colony or wether either she would kill the babies of the colony would kill her.

Obviously i want any opinions and thoughts on this as i dont want to lose anymore.

Regards Andy