strange, found a male rat dead today

he was little over a year old. No injuries I saw. Body was stiff but not hard so he wasn't dead for long. Opened the bin to look for babies and found a dead rat right up front. All the others were cuddled in the back away from him. Veyr strange and first time its ever occured.

Gary,

The only prerrequisite for a living creature to die is to be alive in the first place. It happens to us humans and to animals too. The problem now is to try to introduce a new male into the colony so it will not be killed by the mature females.

Regards,

juist makes me wonder if i am breeding them too long before I use them as food. He was barely a year old, big and looked healthy yesterday. Very nice tan colored boy. Just very odd. Colonies get mixed up weekly so they will be fine.

second rat dead.....this is looking bad. large female, different bin. Same deal, no injuries.

We have some rats ourselves... though we sell them as pets, not food. Most people who do the feeder rat breeding WAY WAY WAY overbreed, interbreed, etc.
Unfortunately you've probably bred in some bad genetics. My guess would be cancer... did you feel for tumors.
Another thing is that feeders are not "mentally stimulated", with toys, human contact, etc. and this actually does have a negative impact on health and life span.
I would say get some rats from a show out of town or something... add a lot of new, different blood to your colony. Secondly, a year might be a bit long to keep a feeder with a boring life... since health issues will show up.
Good luck.