Why are my males dying???

[Andybill]

In the past week I have had 2 of my 3 male breeders die. All of my females are healthy as far as I can tell; no wheezing, nice coats, stools are normal, eyes clean and clear. My males were large too around 300g and healthy as well. I keep 2 females per tub in a 7 tub rack system. Temp is around 68 degrees at all times. I clean every 5 days and change water daily. I dont have a gravitational water system just bottles. I use Mazuri Rodent Breeder and they are never out of food. Could my females be killing my males? I dont know what the heck is going on... The thing is neither male showed any signs of foul play. They just looked like they had dropped dead.... My males usually spend about 10-14 days in each tub before being moved into another. Could it be that the ladies get aggressive after a while and off the guys?

[satomi325]

Does it look like a violent death? I switch males from female tub to female tub. I don't harem breed. My rats have food and water at all times. The girls and boys are usually fine. But I once introduced a brand new male into a tub of females. Maybe they sensed something off about him, but he was slaughtered by the girls when I was away. Blood was everywhere and all I found was a pile of skin.


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[Andybill]

I dont know whats going on. The males look completely unharmed like they had dropped dead.. And they were big boys good weight to them. I discovered the first male the day of cleaning day. The day before he was fine, no signs of aggression from my females. Nothing to indicate foul play. I cleaned all the tubs and I had to do some moving around and so I think I lost track of what males were with who. I placed the most recently deceased male in tub 4 like he had been before but I had moved some females around and in doing so moved the girls in tub 3 down a level to tub 4. I didnt realize until this morning when I found him that the females were the same ones as the first "victim". Yesterday everybody was alive and well. This morning yet another male is dead and from the same duo of females as the one 5 days ago. I know I wasnt paying attention when I rearranged the tubs and put the male in so its partially my fault but at the same time its got me confused because it doesnt look like the females are roughing the guys up. They will be new moms too if that makes a difference.

[sissysnakes]

Just a shot in the dark.. rats also have a lot of common hereditary diseases.. we have had one or two that passed suddenly... after a trip to the vet it was determined to be hereditary.

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[DooLittle]

How old are your males? That's kinda strange. Wonder what's going on.

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[Andybill]

One male was 3 months and around 300g... The other was around 6 months and about 350g... It is weird... I held back the only all black male I produced to be a breeder and he is in his own tub and I am keeping an eye on him. It sucks because my rat production came to a stand still and I had about a 3 week period where I had no females drop at all and now I have 2 litters on the ground from last week 2 that should drop in the next day or so and then 2 more that should be dropping in about a week. But before I could spread the love to my last 4 tubs my males dropped dead! I had to skip a feeding day this week because of my rat shortage and now I gotta wait for my new male to grow up some more before I put him with some ladies.

[Annageckos]

You would know if the females killed the males. How old were they? Any way they could have gotten into something? I remember hearing that mazuri had a recall not long ago.

[Andybill]

You would know if the females killed the males. How old were they? Any way they could have gotten into something? I remember hearing that mazuri had a recall not long ago.

Yeah I assumed that I would know if the females killed them... Theres no way they could have gotten into something my tubs are set in my rack pretty tight so they dont get out. I heard they recalled I wasnt feeding mazuri at the time, I bought the bag a while after the recall. I assumed that after a few weeks they had fixed the problem, besides when something is recalled they stop selling the product until they resolve the issue right??? But wouldnt the rest of my colony have issues if it was the food not just my males? I am just stumped by this.

[JaGv]

too much love for them? but sorry for the loss. try mixing fruits and veggies into their diet. i do that so they don't always eat rat food and get too fat or something.

[youbeyouibei]

You mentioned Mazuri feed; how old is your supply? I know they issued a recall of some of their products in the not too distant past. I don't recall the details on what symptoms the effected animals displayed but that might be something to look at. Check the batch code on your food to make sure it wasn't on the recall list. Sorry that's happening, that's never fun to deal with and then to not know why on top of it...sorry, man.