rat cannibalism

[Fallguy]

I came home the other night to see that one of my rat moms went crazy. She did have 11 babies, but when I cleaned out the cage I could only see about 8 in pieces. The babies were over a week old. She had both food and water in the cage. I just fed her a few hours before I found the mess. I told a guy at work about it and he reccomended wet cat food. He said to just give them a teaspoon a little before, or right after they give birth, and they wont do this. I think he said that it works on mice and rats. Has anyone ever heard of this? Does it work? Should I keep her as a breeder, and try again, or just have her prepare to meet my big girl. As far as I know, this was her first litter. The babies looked healthy, and no runts. Thanx in advance for the advice.

[SGExotics]

I came home the other night to see that one of my rat moms went crazy. She did have 11 babies, but when I cleaned out the cage I could only see about 8 in pieces. The babies were over a week old. She had both food and water in the cage. I just fed her a few hours before I found the mess. I told a guy at work about it and he reccomended wet cat food. He said to just give them a teaspoon a little before, or right after they give birth, and they wont do this. I think he said that it works on mice and rats. Has anyone ever heard of this? Does it work? Should I keep her as a breeder, and try again, or just have her prepare to meet my big girl. As far as I know, this was her first litter. The babies looked healthy, and no runts. Thanx in advance for the advice.

Yea, one of my rats did the same exact thing.. She raised all of them up till today and they all opened there eyes, and when i went to check on them, she had killed about 5 out of 11... And brutally, cracked there skulls, and it was just terrible, and so i didnt risk anymore getting killed so i just put out the mother and am going to try and wean these guys early.. Its better than risking more of them getting brutally killed... I would rather just one rat die for all of them to have a better chance... I want to use them all as breeders (i think i got all females...)

[RichsBallPythons]

biggest mistake beginner rat breeders do is feed bagged food from pet stores. All it is, is a filler and does not give the mother rats who are nursing enough nutrition. You need a high quality lab block for food. I use only Mazuri 9F and have no baby killing except in mice.

[littleindiangirl]

I have not heard of kitten milk stop a mother of any rodent curb her killing of a litter. Rats are excellent mothers, and there are a lot of reasons why she may kill her litter, could be the animals weren't being nursed, weren't thriving, she wasn't thriving, etc etc.

Provide a rat lab block, clean fresh water, clean nesting bedding, and give her a stress free environment with no other animals or interruptions.

Try her one more time if you like, if she does it again, she is best passed over as a breeder.

[anendeloflorien]

I've always fed Mazuri 6F and I've only had a couple litters where the mothers killed some of the babies. It seems like the babies were unhealthy to begin with so whenever I see that happening I pull all the babies and euthanize them.