Cannibalism

I'm so sick I tried something different and left a pregnant female in a tub with another young female and a male. My son callede upset and told me one or all of the rats ate all ten babies it made me sick. body parts were everywhere

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by my experience if the other female rat in the same cage is pregnant then she may kill or eat them but not always
breeding rats for two years

I think you should of removed the male from the females. Coulda of been the problem there but who knows it could of been a female that did it too

I think I had read some where that a mother may resort to cannibalism if stressed I think? I could be wrong so don't think my words are set in stone or anything but I'd find a rat breeding specific site or forums to ask there if no one is able to tell you here. I came across a good rat breeding forum at one point but I can't remember it's name at this moment.

Well I keep 2 females and a male in the same bucket all the time and never had any problem. I mix the females up all the time as well so different males breed different females....How old is the mom?

Sometimes the other cage mates think that the new babies are rivals for food and water, either for themselves or their babies so as a result they remove the rival. Then there are the cases of just flat out bad mothers that will do that to every litter we call those Boa food. Sometimes if they are low on water or aren't getting the right food they will kill and eat the babies even each other to in their mind stay alive.

I used to keep 4 female rats and 1 male in a tub all the time, never had any problems


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I've been breeding g rats for a few years and the ONLY time I've ever had this happen is if I put new rats together.. Or if you pull a prego female and put her in with other mature females who have had babies already but the new prego female was not raised with the others.

Otherwise, I've never once had a killing. I always leave my male in with the prego and/or nursing females that he's been with all along.

Of you put a prego female in with other rats that she wasn't already with of course that could be the issue. Rats need time to get to know each other. If that male is not the one who impregnated her, and she hadn't previously been housed with that group, then yeah.

This is the first time I had this happen. The female was young and inexperienced. I normally put the female in their own tub to birth but I built a rack and thought I would try something different. I have three females sharing one tub with babies all they do is steal each others babies its so funny one momma will have three different stages of development.

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I keep two females with a male, and never had any problems. Maybe she was stressed or felt threatened??

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