Quote Originally Posted by D.R View Post
I was thinking it was piece of cypress mulch, you can see it in his mouth in the photo, this is the first time I've ever had any problems with substrate sticking to a rat which is why I assumed impaction. I have no idea what actually happened, just a guess. And I check my temps a couple times a day with a temp gun
That's to bad. I know the feeling, it sucks.


I really doubt that this was an impaction issue from just feeding. Just a guess but I would bet the substrate in its mouth is from the moments before death. I lost a GTP that seemed to be having a seizure one morning when I was checking on my collection. It was on the cage floor twitching, spinning, and squirming. As it did this it got a ton of substrate in its mouth. I got it out and removed the substrate and it died in my hands.

As for the actual reason for the death I just don't know but Im interested to see what you find out.