death of a rat

Question
Two days ago we lost the best rat in the world. His name was Muffet. We've had him for almost 3 years and he literally had the run of the house. He was more like a dog or cat, would climb into bed with me and sleep, ate from bowls we had on the floor and he got along with our two dogs and two cats. He was really the boss of the house. This rat was one in a million. We are very heartbroken and looking for answers. Actually we have a good idea what happened, but I'm not convinced. In our laundry room, we house the 12 other rats, in a cage and a ferret, in a cage. Also in there is the food for the dogs and cats and rats, all in plastic containers. My wife left a bag of dog food laying on the floor and we hadn't got it into the plastic box yet. My wife gets up at 6am to go to an appointment and hears our black lab growling and being aggressive sounding from the laundry room. She goes to look and he's sitting there in the kitchen. She leaves the house and at 630am I get up to hear both dogs sounding aggressive in the laundry room. I get up, it's dark still and tell our lab to get out of there and get in the bedroom. He's licking his lips like he just ate something and I didn't think anything, but in the back of my mind I had a feeling. 10 minutes later, my daughter gets up to get sick, she's been ill. I decide to look in the laundry room and notice under the rat cage is Muffet, laying next to the wall, covered in blood. There was blood on the wall and all around him. I was in shock, I couldn't believe it. I feel a little embarrassed to say, since I'm supposed to be a tough guy, but I was crying like a baby and I picked him up, told my daughter to go lay down and I took him to the sink. His head was drenched in blood and I was freaking out. He was dead, but I was hoping that it wasn't true. I washed all the blood off so my daughter wouldn't freak out by the blood. It took me 15 minutes to get him cleaned off. I noticed there were no bite marks at all. It appeared the blood was coming from his ear. I wrapped him up and put him in the freezer. I went and looked at the floor where he was laying, trying to analyze the scene, as it were. I noticed drops of blood, which told me at some time he was upright and walking with blood dripping out of his ear. But the question is how did this happen. He wasn't bit, so was he stomped on? He's pretty agile, how did he get hit hard enough to cause head trauma. My wife is so angry, she sobbed for an hour when she found out and now is ignoring our lab. She is certain it was him and not our little terrier. Food aggression is our guess. We think Muffet got into the dog food bag and both dogs were fighting over Muffet to get the food. But our lab can't get under the rat cage and all the blood was there, no where else. And how did the blood get on the wall? It was no higher than Muffet's back, so maybe he smeared against the wall. I also noticed in the blood that there were what appeared to be paw prints, of our terrier. I checked our lab for blood anywhere on him, none. I didn't check the terrier. It wasn't obvious paw prints, but I am devasted and looking for answers. I'm very angry and we both want someone to blame. My wife is blaming the lab and me. I'm blaming her and the terrier. I sat up for hours last night trying to piece together in my mind what happened and I just don't see how the lab could have done it. Then I thought, maybe Muffet had a natural death, a tumor in the brain, he got scared of the dogs behaviour some how...I don't know. He's had tumors in his side before, all went away and he was healthy as could be. If you could provide any insight into this, I would greatly appreciate it. Muffet's death was horrible and he could have lived another year or more. We lost a great friend and there is a hole in our life. Thanks.

Answer
I am so very sorry for your loss.  It was hard to read this, I will admit.


I am going to just say this though and forgive me if I sound bossy, but....it needs said. Animals are unpredictable for the most part. You just cant be sure how they will react to another animal and when you put a rat, who is by nature, the bottom of the food chain, the most preyed upon animal, with his biggest enemies, cats and dogs, and heck, even the ferret for that matter, you just dont know what can occur. This is not the first time I have heard a story like this and I am sure it wont be the last.  We think because we trust our dogs and cats and see them display the most gentlest disposition around the rat that all is well.  We cant imagine our dog hurting a fly.....but thats just wishful thinking.  Dogs are dogs. They are naturally aggressive with food, and I dont care how much training they have, they are bred this way.  IN a wolf pack, another wolf dare not even think about trying to eat until the leader of the pack, the alpha, is done, or he will be killed. This is the rule.  My dog is a 70 pound lab.  She eats in her cage because we have 7 cats and she eyeballs the cats the entire time she eats. I can take the food out of her mouth and she would let me, but if the cat did?  I shudder to think.  

As for free range rats, again, I am against it. I have heard stories (and feature one on my critter city site about a terrible accident due to electrocution) of people shutting the rat in the door, the window falls down on him, he gets flushed in the toilet and drowns, sat on, stepped on, sucked up into the fans of the refrigerator, you name it, I have read it all and it turned my stomach every time.  One rat ate through the screen of a window in an apartment and fell 10 stories to his death. It took a while before the owner figured out what happened as she just thought the rat got lost in the apartment. The window was open and forgotten about since the curtains and mini blinds were down but she eventually found the hole chewed in the screen. She ran down to the sidewalk to see if she could see if the rat fell and just found what was left of him that the buzzards did not get.  

I have a huge ferret nation that could house 16 rats but only kept 4 in it.  Now there is just one male left.  I never feel guilty that he lives in there because I know he is safe.  He comes out and roams freely in a room meant only for the rats. No dogs, no cats, just me and the rats.  You just cant tell what will happen and you cant get mad at the other animal if he did kill your beloved rat.  This is  nature at its worst. An instinct between two natural enemies that you thought were best friends.
As for this being a natural death, I doubt it...not if you heard growling coming from the laundry area.


I dont like to think how the rat was killed. My guess was that they shook him and broke his neck. They may have hit his head against the wall and he started to bleed.  I just cant say for sure. I dont like to think of it.

I am just so sorry you lost him. All rats have a special place in our hearts and each one we lose is so hard to take, esp that one special rat that seems to stand out more than the others.

I wish I could help more, but unfortunately I am really at a loss.