Mama rat eating her babies??

[aarondm]

Our Mama rat had 21 babies the other day. Then the next day I only counted 18, then 16 and now about 14. Does she know that she cannot sustain 21 babies so she eats the rest?? She has had food and water the whole time. Dont understand... thanks

[SlitherSister]

typically a rat will not kill offspring but rather clean up the ones that pass or have something terminally wrong with them.... that could be what is happening with this litter. If the numbers continue to decline then some questions written below would need to be answered in order to gain a better insight as to what is going on

there are rare cases of a litter being killed off by a mother & that is typically the result of the following: it may be the result of a stressed mother, a fearful mother, a mother that is too young, a malnurished mother, it could be an issue of her not lactating or things along that line. The mysterious cases are often along the lines of genetic issues & at that point it is all guess work without first hand knowledge of multiple generations of the lines involved.

I have had females care for large litters of 18+ with no loss. I have had large litters that reduced in size by a few the first few days to what I assume was sustainable levels after the weaker pups passed.

Momma-rat only has 12 nipples so it is survival of the fittest. Often a female will split a large litter into 2 feeding groups or nature takes its course & everyone seems to get what they need.

The only way she can keep up with a large litter without loss is to be in peak health & to have a proper diet so that she can produce milk to nurse the young.

I could ask a whole list of questions as to her age, health, environment, diet provided, first litter, has she had back to back breedings, history of her line, history of the male's line, etc, etc, etc

Hopefully something written here helps answer some questions you have, if not go ahead & answer some of these general questions written above.

[rebeccabecca]

When first born a pup has to eat at each feeding or else the siblings will be stronger and slightly larger so that the next feed will be almost impossible and the baby dies quite quickly. I find new moms and litters over 10 or so tend to have a few pups die off if the mom isn't as maturnal as some.

[frankykeno]

21 is a very large litter. I don't even normally allow my female to even try and raise that many and will quickly foster off some of the litter if I have another female that can take on a few extra. Either they are passing naturally from being pushed away from her milk or she's culling them in an attempt to put her resources to her strongest offspring. The numbers should stabilize soon and the deaths should stop if that is what is going on.

[SyderBall]

Ya rats do tend to kill the weakest. When my rats have babies i can almost immediately tell if any are going to live, and if so which ones will most likely get killed. Usually its due to a first time mother with a weak litter or just killing off the weakest.

[cornmorphs]

I feed my rats very well, i find they rarely eat each other now. When i 1st did it, i didnt pay enough attention.. not knowing that at the time, but now i feed every day without fail and i rarely get this sort of thing.