What to do?

[Johnny84]

So this morning my wife calls me and says she just found 1 out of the , FOUR week old babies dead with its head chewed off...how do I go about finding out which adult killed and ate this baby? I have 3....1/3 colonies and havent had a problem until now!!! What do you experienced people perfer?

Thanks!

[Driver]

Best thing to do is to catch the ASF in the act and feed it off. That is what I did with one of my colonies. however I had another colony that I could never catch the culprit so i just took the babies and placed them with another colony that I had just weaned the babies from. That colony adopted and nursed them.

[carlisleishere]

Yeah the best way to find out who did it is to catch them doing it. If it was only one baby I wouldn't worry about it too much, but if they start doing it to the rest of the litter then I would cull. Also check the watering system for your ASFs. The only time mine have cannibalized an older (more than 1-2 days old) baby, it was because the water bottle wasn't functioning right and they couldn't get any water out.

[dfriedlos]

im not experienced but i agree with Driver. Thats one thing you need to see to figure out who it is or you will have to call in CSI haha

[Johnny84]

Okay...so what if there are no issues with the water bottle and they have food and things to chew on....why would they kill and eat the head of a baby?

[carlisleishere]

There may have been something wrong with it. If there was a disturbance in the room, that could have triggered it. I used to have a high strung ASF that would start eating her litter as soon as I walked in the room. Needless to say she isn't around anymore. They also could have just felt like it.

EDIT: Reread your posts and I heard if it's just the head, it's usually a stress related thing. Do you know what was happening in the room prior to finding the baby like that?

[Redneck_Crow]

Okay...so what if there are no issues with the water bottle and they have food and things to chew on....why would they kill and eat the head of a baby?

They might not have killed it at all. Rodents will consume other dead rodents. If they didn't have that instinct then any time a rodent died the smell could draw their predators to where they live.

If it's just one, I would not get too upset. I found a mouse leg and tail in my mouse bin once. It was the only time out of 6 litters raised so far in that harem that it has happened. All of the adults are very gentle with the babies, the mother's nurse each other's young and even the male puts up with babies trying to crawl up under him. I think the bits I found were from a mouse that had died for whatever other reason, not one that had been killed.

[Driver]

The one I caught in action I just did it to do it or something. As soon as i fed her off I never had an issue with that colony again. I have had babies die before and they just move them to the poop pile. The colony that I never figured out who it was would make my so angry. They would take care of the babies until it was almost time to wean them from the parents. Then that's when I started getting the heads ripped off. If it continues to happen and you cant figure out who it is that is doing it. Then just feed them off and start a new colony with other babies. If not then I would try and get another colony to adopt the babies whenever they are born.

[Rhasputin]

If it only killed one, I wouldn't worry about it.
Could have been so many things, that it's really nothing to worry about right now.


If it's a repeat offender, then worry.

[Johnny84]

Thanks everyone for your input...But I have a ton of new babies now! Within the last month they've been popping them out like crazy...

Again THANKS!