Violent Mother Rat

Baby rats were 3 weeks old. Mother rat had food and water aplenty. I heard some squeaking and looked over. The mother rat had the baby pinned to the floor by the neck, I opened it up and pushed her off him, she had bit into his neck and he twitched and died.

She has 11 other babies, all healthy, not sure what provoked this, I was close to smashing her head into the floor, but I didn't know what had caused it, and she still needs to take care of her other babies. I counted them, 1 more strike and she is snake food.

Thoughts?

It's not uncommon ... I see it most often with young or first time moms ... sometimes they chew up the entire litter for no reason ... give her another shot, in my experience she'll do better next time.

It's the circle of life. ;)

-adam

Yeah Ive seen it in mothers with younger babies, and mothers who were stressed, but this was the first time I saw one do it randomly out of the blue, with no factors I could attribute it to.

If she does in another I will just put her back in the population and feed off the babies, they are almost ready to go.

we need to remember... just because we don't understand why they are doing what they are doing doesn't make it wrong.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

we need to remember... just because we don't understand why they are doing what they are doing doesn't make it wrong.

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I agree, hence this post, but I'm open to some suggestions :)

I have also seen that behavior in dogs. Stress can cause it, but also they can pick up on something wrong health wise that we can't always see. I've had pups attacked or pushed off by mom only to find out later that they had a very serious medical condition. Animals do cull their own.

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

I agree, hence this post, but I'm open to some suggestions :)

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sorry, i thought adam had already done that. ;) :colbert2:

don't kill the mom - allow her to breed again and see how she does the next time. ya, you can get a mom who doesn't want to be a mom... but perhaps giving her a female friend to help out with the litter next time will help to give her a little break.

i always keep my females in groups so they can help each other out. :tricho: it can be stressful with all these babies wanting you ALL THE TIME :(

hope that helps ya :gj:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

we need to remember... just because we don't understand why they are doing what they are doing doesn't make it wrong.

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Sorry I meant I am open to reasons why they would do it that would make sense. Ie them noticing it was sick, or that it might grow up to be the next hitler, etc :)

I am aware it could just be random/stress and will give her another shot. I was just hoping there was an identifiable reason so it could be avoided in the future =.

i believe they have a 'sense' that we don't. they may know the baby isn't healthy... and so they kill it.

but... i also believe, given the age of the pups... that she was stressed out... and that's why i suggest giving her a friend to help (not a male who'll just get her pregnant again) but a female to wetnurse the pups with her.

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Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake

I was just hoping there was an identifiable reason so it could be avoided in the future =.

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It's going to be unavoidable. Working with animals ... that's just the way it goes. As much as we may try to understand them, they just don't fit into a little "mold" that makes sense to us. They do their own thing ... just roll with it. ;)

-adam