Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a breeder colony of rats. I've been quite well for a good handful of months...producing rats out my ears. All of a sudden, I begin to see some of the adults dying! 3 dead one week. 4 dead the next, 5 the next, 2 the next....etc etc. Seems like only the big ones are dying. Most of these females have not given birth more than 2 times each. I begin to notice that all the rats are sneezing. And I did see a couple with the bleeding from the tear ducts. I did read the post on page 3 of this forum about stress, and change of enviroment. The only thing I can think of as far as change goes is taking females out to nurse thier babies, then putting them back in any old tub...not always the one they were origianlly pulled out of.
Now that everyone seems to be sneezing, I was just thinking I should feed off everyone, and start over. That's not such a big deal. My main concern is...I don't really want this repeating every few months. How can I avoid this?
The bedding I'm using is Woddy Pet. Not very dusty at all. Does the tepms in my area getting cold her have something to do with this? It's not freezing, but it is getting a little chilly. Also....are the rats safe to feed in this condition???

Thanks in Advance!!!

Sounds like a myco flare up or possibly a virus. If they are suddenly dead and you are not noticing other symptoms I would suspect virus. Rats don't deal with heat worse but also if they get too cold you will aggravate their upper respiratorys and end up losing them. If the weather change and losing them coincide....I would say that is it.
I personally don't feed sick animals. If they have some good weight and you want to freeze them first then I would worry less. Some will tell you that it doesn't matter.
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Sonya

Unless the rats have an identified zoonotic disease then it shouldn't matter. Even rodents that have rabies can be fed to snakes or other reptiles because the rabies virus cannot live within an ectotherm's system. There are very few zoonotic diseases, bacteria's or virii... Even rodents with suspected abscesses or cysts can be fed off to reptiles due to the fact that their stomach acids would kill off any bacteria's that weren't indiginous gut fauna... Nile crocodiles have one of the strongest digestive systems in the world for just this reason.. they often eat rotting carcasses and mammals that have died from various mammalian diseases.. Snakes, monitors and other lizards routinely eat the sick, weak and dying or dead.. and its very rare that you find a reptile who's eaten something then come down with the disease that animal had that was killing it in the first place.

Excellent!
Thanks guys for the help!
I just found a great supply of new rats, so starting tonight I will be feeding everything off and starting from scratch this weekend!
Thanks again!!!