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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Sometimes it happens. Then if it happens again and its the same rat eating babies, they get fed off.
It could be because they didn't have enough food or water. It could be a one time fluke.
I keep my rats harem style as 1.3 and move around pregnant females, nursing females, pinks, pups, etc 99% of the time without a problem.
I have had this happen once and the male didn't do it again. I feel high quality rat block which I think has an impact on this not happening.

If it happens again, feed off the culprit. As much as I love my breeders, I personally don't have time to babysit rats. If you only keep the rats who don't have problems being shuffled from bin to bin and will take ANY baby dropped in their nest, you shouldn't have problems like this in the future.

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Originally Posted by aldebono

I keep my rats harem style as 1.3 and move around pregnant females, nursing females, pinks, pups, etc 99% of the time without a problem.

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Can you explain when and why you would move them around?

Thanks

I feed mazuri 6f and keep them fed and watered. I feed them treats like stale bread, cereal, cheese lunch meat things like that this particular to.e I did put some ham in with all the rats to give some extra protein. Maybe they liked the meat so much when it was gone they found their own.

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Can you explain when and why you would move them around?

Thanks

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I have a very limited space which I am keeping my rats, they also have to be discreet as they are on an enclosed porch and we live in a condo type place. I breed for pet as well as feeders.
I may move females to be bred by different males for color/coat/conformation.
I may have too many babies in one bin, while another has a similar aged litter. Pinks can get pushed out by crawlers and fail to thrive if moms keep everyone in a communal nest instead of splitting into multiple nests in the bin.
Just last night I moved my 3 grow outs from the top bin to the middle so they wouldn't be as cold. They also haven't learned to make nests from newspaper, and one is a hairless. The adults in the middle bin will theoretically teach them to use newspaper and the grow outs can use the nest already made.
I just sold some unneeded adults to a fellow bp.net member and replaced adults with young holdbacks and had to do a little rearranging. Everyone got along and everyone fed babies that may or may not have been their own.
I also don't keep males that pester females too much. If they are causing a problem with the younger girls, they get put into my oldest and best breeder bin. Those girls whip him into shape.

I just expect everyone to get along, males and females alike. The head of the property committee that lives next door does not need to hear rats screaming if I need to move someone.

Most of the unwanted behaviors are easy to eliminate. After ensuring their needs are met, the behaviors are either learned or genetic. Removing the animals that exhibit the behaviors will keep them from adding to the gene pool and keep them from teaching the others to do the same unwanted behaviors.
My rats never even eat the bodies of dead babies anymore. My desert king snake is thankful of that!

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Originally Posted by milesp

I feed mazuri 6f and keep them fed and watered. I feed them treats like stale bread, cereal, cheese lunch meat things like that this particular to.e I did put some ham in with all the rats to give some extra protein. Maybe they liked the meat so much when it was gone they found their own.

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My rats get all sorts of table scraps.

A side note- I was rat sitting for a friend who fed generic Publix dog food to her colony. Pinks were born after she moved them to my place and they grew to weanling before one of the rats decided to kill (not eat, just maul) them all. A second time I was taking my own weanlings to a friend for feeders and picked up some of her adults. I put them in the same bin and one of her rats mauled the weanlings. I didn't think it would happen again and my rats would have never done that. I still feel horrible.
I think her rats are either messed up because of the low quality dog food, or just have bad genetics. If I were her, I would start the colony over.

In your case, I would just make note of what rat did it, and feed it off if it happens again.

A pregnant female should be housed alone. The other female and/or male could of killed the babies or the mom rat could have been very stressed out with them in the cage and killed them herself. In nature with rodents if they sense danger or that one of their babies is sick they will kill it. They have to dispose of the body because if just left there it would attract predators so that is why they eat them. It also provides the mom rat with extra protein that she may be in need of depending on her litter size, diet, etc.

Some of us don't have the room for a birthing rack. Unfortunately/fortunately, there are no set in stone rules for breeding rats. Just what works for each individual keeper.