Eating your own children

One of my female rats has eaten her whole litter twice in a row... What would make her do that?

I have a 1.2 trio of rats set up in a 20 long tank, and I do not take the females out when they give birth. The other female raises her pups fine, but this other one always eats them when they are still in pinky stage.

Next time I see that she is prego, I am planning on putting her in her own tank to give birth, I hope that helps, or that I can get some advice that will. If not... well... I have a Borneo STP that would like to meet her.

Sometimes rats that are bred too young the first time have trouble learning how to take care of their babies.. sometimes they eat them, or don't feed them, or whatever. Other rats just make bad moms and are better off being fed off.

Also if the mother rat feels threatened or stressed, they sometimes eat their babies.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Sometimes rats that are bred too young the first time have trouble learning how to take care of their babies.. sometimes they eat them, or don't feed them, or whatever. Other rats just make bad moms and are better off being fed off.

Also if the mother rat feels threatened or stressed, they sometimes eat their babies.

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what are you feeding the mother? if they are not getting enough they will eat their young for food

My rats always have a supply of Mazuri lab block available. I don't think it's a hunger issue. Being bred too young is a possibility on that rat.

I try not to eat my own children

Well for future reference the females should be around 4 months old at least before they are bred. Mothering skills may be genetic too... so if you get a bad mom rat you may not want to try any of her sisters.

New mom rats often make mistakes.. it's a good idea to give them one or two chances (litters) before you feed them off.

as others have said it happens sometimes with new mothers . i always seperate my preggo females to their own cage to give birth and raise their babies . this IMHO not only reduces the stress on them , it also allows my to give them a week or 2 to recuperate after weening the babies before being bred again by the males . if i have a mother that eats her babies more than once i feed her off and start with a new female to replace her .

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Originally Posted by Rapture

One of my female rats has eaten her whole litter twice in a row... What would make her do that?

I have a 1.2 trio of rats set up in a 20 long tank, and I do not take the females out when they give birth. The other female raises her pups fine, but this other one always eats them when they are still in pinky stage.

Next time I see that she is prego, I am planning on putting her in her own tank to give birth, I hope that helps, or that I can get some advice that will. If not... well... I have a Borneo STP that would like to meet her.

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I take every female out of the community breeding cage when i notice they are getting close to having the babies(i have it down to 24hrs before the bare the babies:) ).I place each female in a 10gl tank and they are kept their until the babies reach the size i need.Of course the larger rodent breeders are unable to do this for obvious reasons.I run 14 females at a time and 2 males.Since my ball pythons have shut down eating now i cleared out my breeder rodents and have started a new group that will produce babies just about the right time next spring.If that was one of my females she would not get a third chance.Sorry to be blunt but why waste the time and food if she more then likely will be fed off.

I am going to give her a chance outside of the trio to take care of her babies.

good luck with her .