What has gone wrong with my rat colonies?

[anthonym]

I finally had my rat colonies going full steam. 4 groups of 1.3. In the past week, I've lost 3 entire litters to cannibalism/starvation.

Last week I had a what I assume to be a small litter of 5 or 6 that were eaten. I didn't discover it till after the fact so I have no clue who in the group did it. Another group of rats had a littler that seemed to be slowly dropping off. I think the mother wasn't producing enough milk and the others weren't nursing them. They were all really skinny and seemed to rarely have milk in their bellies. Last night I decided to move what was left of those babies in with another group who had a litter of 13 babies yesterday. Today I woke up to check on them, and most of the skinny ones had died, and every single other baby had been eaten except for one. I've heard from a lot of different breeders that their rats do just fine in groups without separating pregnant mothers. But I seem to be having bad luck with that the past couple weeks. It's hard to track down who is actually the culprit to replace in each group.

All the rats had plenty of food/water and I keep them in a room that stays at a constant 80-83 degrees. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[llovelace]

What type of watering system? If gravity fed, make sure it's not clogged, just a thought.

[anthonym]

What type of watering system? If gravity fed, make sure it's not clogged, just a thought.

Just regular rodent watering bottles for each level. They all seem to be working fine right now.

[llovelace]

I would make seperate maternity wards, to see if it is just one female killing off the babies

[Amon Ra Reptiles]

What are you feeding? We just switched to keeping the females in with the male and it's been going good. Only one male that has been a problem. We also switched from dog food to Mazuri and have has more, bigger, and healthier litters.

[ptate]

What type of diet are they on? Maybe you should try separating the nursing females and see if they do fine nursing by themselves


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[Michelle.C]

For the good of your colony, separate all females into their own tubs so you can evaluate who's eating the babies. It could be from stress, but I will not keep females who eat their young, not even their first litter. I've always ended up regretting keeping them, because they usually turn right around and nom-nom on their babies heads.

Make a maternity rack/tubs and do one gravid female per tub to see who's the good mommies. After this, I will hold back the offspring of the good mother's and you should also hold back females from litters who produce more young. I will raise the females up in group of three to five per group and allow them to bond. As a pet keeper, I will allow all females to socialize with each other, but I keep groups together, usually siblings so genetics are easier to keep up with. At this point, they will be able to be bred and have their young together. I rarely have any issues with bonded females raising young together.

Since I made my initial cull to the my colony, I have had zero cannibalization, no fights over babies and only a female once every blue moon that is unwilling to care for a litter. If it's her first litter, I will not remove her from my breeding group, if she has done it twice, I will remove her and her genetics.

Also, the most common cause of cannibalization is dehydration. Make sure the water is flowing very freely, especially in above 80 degrees. While it's not too hot for them, it will slow production to a degree. I find 70-75 is the best for production and the females seem to be able to care for them better in that temperature range. I guess they are just happier.

Make sure you are supplementing the females with table scraps as well. Especially things like eggs and chicken/chicken bones. If you are feeding rodent block, adding a decent quality dog food to their diet will help milk production as well.

All that being said, getting your colony going can be rough at first, but once you have the genetics you want, things will get easier.

[jasbus]

Yeah, I give a new mom two chances, after that, they're culled out. Generally speaking, new breeders, especially if you purchased them can be very nervous. If you plan on growing, do it with your own stock, and raise them together. They are social animals, and it really helps to keep a bunch of females together to raise them up.
Short of that, keep them well hydrated and use a quality rodent diet. Should they eat babies again, cull them out....
The higher the temperature, the lazier they become. Eventually, they will stop breeding and just lay around. But, that generally doesn't happen at the temps you mentioned. Anything above 82ish, I start up the fans and make sure they have plenty of air circulation. I usually run my A/C in my buildings when it gets above 80.

[deathadder1069]

ive had that problem happen to me at times but i usually find who done it and scream "Off with their heads". I recently lost 2 females that were nursing and had to find surrogates and fortunately both surrogates took the litters and have nursed them all. I doubt the food had a thing to do with it as im still feeding the same thing i have from the begining so not sure whats the cause other than stressed moms at birth and nursing.