dead newborns?

One of my rats had her babies today, she is a first timer, she is a dumbo. earlier today she had 8 live ones and this evening 6 were dead. They didnt look abused but my wife said it appeared as if she was eating one of them. I have her in a 1.2 setup. Is this normal for some first timers? I have had others that have huge litters that live n their first time, what should I do?

Thanks

not normal but it happens now and then

Dying off like that happens every once in awhile but eating the dead ones is totally normal. they always eat any that die or are stillborn.

It happens I have a female who is a great mom her last litter was 17 and all survived. This go round she had 15 and only 7 made it so far. The 8 that did not survive were dead with in a day or two of being born. The other 7 are doing great. I have no idea what happened they were just dead so go figure.

Yeah. My tan hooded female had 10 her first go and they didnt last 4 days. She has 15 and they are all doing great. I guess you gotta figure if all rats had successful pregnancies all of time, we'd be all overrun with them! lol!

UPDATE: So far 2 female rats have had their babies and they all died. What i noticed in the second rat, that was also present in the first rat was premature babies. In the first rat i thought they were torsos, but i took a closer look at the second rats and they were tiny rats all curled up not fully developed.

The rats were in different cages, the only thing i can think of was ising cheap rat food from the local feed store, i had to use because i was waiting for the mazuri to come in.