Infanticidal Maniac

I don't know why, but one of my good breeder rats decided to eat most of her litter. :( This was her fourth litter and everything seemed fine. She had about 10 babies, but every time I checked it seemed like she culled a few. The last time I checked she only had three left. At first I thought she was just culling the weak, until I saw the three. The strange thing is that she built a normal nest and seemed to be taking care of them, unlike the mice that would just leave them spread out all over the place.

Nothing has really changed that would stress her out. I had another female in the tub with her, but that was never a problem before. My wife thought that the other female might have eaten them, but I didn't think that was likely.

I'm going to give her a few extra weeks off before I try to breed her again, but if she does the same thing I might have to feed her off. Has anyone else experienced this with an established rat?

We have had two do that with their first litters, but none after that. Did anything else change environmentally?


Neil

one of my breeders started eating her litters recently too. apparently she does not like to have another female in with her at the time that she gives birth. twice in a row now she delivered at some point during the night and culled the entire litter before i even saw the babies. both times there was another pregnant female in with her. there are only a few spots of blood on the bedding and an obviously no longer pregnant female in the tub the next morning as evidence. maybe our females didn't like the other female that was with them or were stressed in some way by her presence? maybe the females they were with when they had litters before were different and didn't cause the stress?

Nothing changed with the environment, but I think next time I'll leave her by herself when she gets close. I'm not sure if she shared a tub with the other female in the past, but it could have something to do with it. I thought she would appreciate the company, but maybe not... :(

I always pop mine into a 10 gallon alone Lawrence. Easier on me to keep track of who is doing what and the litters they produced. The only time I've had an experienced good breeder female rat cull her litter back like that was with one that was getting a bit older and likely lost her milk supply or had insufficient for her litter of 10 (she culled them back to 5). I fostered off the remaining 5 and retired the female.

Thanks Jo. I've been keeping the mothers paired with a resting female until the litter was a week old, then I would place them on their own. I guess it didn't work out so well this time.

No problem Lawrence. I can't say I've had any trouble like that with multiple females though the only times I've tried it it's been with two females both nursing littters. That didn't work out so well for me as it always seemed one momma rat ended up doing all the work and the other one lazed about letting her LOL.