Overpopulation leads to cannibalism????

[RPlank]

Ok, here's what I've got.
I have had 1.3 breeder rats in a 20g long aquarium for about a month and a half. One of my females had a litter of 9 at the end of September, and they were raised and fed off successfully. Two weeks ago, another female had a litter of 13, and ate one, leaving 12. This last week, another female had a litter of 15, and today there are only 9!
I have three females who are sharing nursing and ratsitting duties between 27 babies. Would they have eaten 6 of this week's pinkies because of overpopulation in the tank? All the pinks looked healthy at birth, and were ok for the first couple days. Today they are just gone.
I guess it makes sense if they are practicing preemptive population control, I just wish I had thought of it sooner.
Oh, and I did move one female and the 9 fuzzies out to a different tank today.
Opinions?

[Ironhead]

We raised rat's in Florida many year's ago to feed our Indigo's and had a simular problem but were told that our rat's had a sodium deficiency due to the many litters that they were putting out, and that by eating thier young, they were getting the sodium back. So, if they were healthy I guess this could be the problem, but more likely the over population. They wouldnt have happend to have been Chinese rat's and only the female's were missing were they?

[BallKingdom]

When I had mice the mother intentionally drowned 3!

They do that when they get stressed with their babies, or feel a few are too weak. You'd be best leaving them to their litters, not as a group. I wouldn't really be sure tho. Jeanne would tho.

[Jeanne]

OK, this is def. my area of expertece...

If the rats have any definciencies they dont normally eat thier young. And, they dont usually eat their young for over crowding..your most likey reason they ate some of thier young and not all is cause something was wrong with them. Rats (rodents) in general think in terms of "the fittest servive".. they may have looked healthy to you, but, there may have been something wrong with them so the mothers dipatched them knowing that they were prob. gonna die anyhow. Also, I have seen rats do this when they are having too big of litters. So the mother may have felt she could not have cared for them being there were so many. I would not worry about it too much, it does happen sometimes. If your rats were over crowded, they would have eaten the whole lot of them, not just a few. Hmm, also on the note of "chinese rats", I have bred rats for many years... I have never heard of such a creature. However there are only a couple of other "rat" species, and chinese is not one of them. I had run my rattery and bred rats for show/pet/feeders for a long time, and was very successful business wise and well known to those who bought rats for show purpose and for pets esp. , so I do have alot of experience with rats and many other rodents since rats are not all I bred. I know alot of the genetics/disorders that are common..etc. Hope this helps.

[Ironhead]

About the reference on the "Chinese rat's" This was ment as a joke. In China, female infant's dissapear, etc. because of the overcrowding of China's population, and the Government only allowing families to have X number of children. Therefore, Male's are preferred to keep th family name going and the female's dissapear, killed, etc.

[BallKingdom]

Yeah, female babies are killed and dumped by Chinese families. With 2 billion people China is seriously trying to shrink it down. Besides the economy heading down the toilet because of the effects of this, females are not prefered. Families get benefits and reqards for only having one kid. So if you get a female, you're screwed. Honor is a big thing over there, and if you have no body to continue your family name, you're screwed. Plus dowry is pretty big over there, so to get your daughter married it's gonna cost you a hell of a lot. So being a female chinese person is no walk in the park.

Just a bit O' info.