Disapointed

[ddiaz]

So I had two prego rats in the same bin in a home made rat rack with home depot tubs. Well the one rat gave birth and cared for her babies then a few days later the other mom was suppose to give birth. To my surprise, when I went to check on them, I found the one mom that had aready given birth with all of her babies, still taking care of them, and the other mom, no longer looking prego, with no babies! I could only come to one conclusion either her or the other rat ate all the new babies! Has anyone else ever experinced this? The lesson I took away from this is that whenever possible seprate the expecting mothers.
Disapointed!

[PghBall]

So I had two prego rats in the same bin in a home made rat rack with home depot tubs. Well the one rat gave birth and cared for her babies then a few days later the other mom was suppose to give birth. To my surprise, when I went to check on them, I found the one mom that had aready given birth with all of her babies, still taking care of them, and the other mom, no longer looking prego, with no babies! I could only come to one conclusion either her or the other rat ate all the new babies! Has anyone else ever experinced this? The lesson I took away from this is that whenever possible seprate the expecting mothers.
Disapointed!

Some first time moms will eat their babies. I have had this happen. I would try her again, if the same happens..feed her off or make her a pet. I have had several moms in the same tub with babies and never had an issue with one mom eating the others pups.

[bsash]

First time I have ever had any issues with eating babies one of my rats went homicidal and killed all of the babies in the bin, there were about 50-60 babies too. Haven't had anything happen since, and I couldn't tell you why it happened, it just did.

Good luck with your breeding colony!

[ddiaz]

Thanks for the responses!
This is getting way to dramatic.....
I went to check on the rats this morning, just like I do any other morning, and I found one of the momma rats dead with her 11 babies still on her nipples. Those pups are about 1 1/2 weeks old, just barely opening their eyes. I have another mom that just gave birth to 11 pups about 4 - 5 days ago that I was going to drop in with older pup and see if she will let them nurse. I guess what concerns me the most is what caused her death!! She looked fine the day before, the only thing I did different was I fed her some apple for the first time the day before. Sounds alot like Snow White! lol! <-----Bad Joke, Sorry!

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

Aw. D:

Good luck with your colony/ies. My females are in the process of dropping pinks, 7 so far from one that I thought was 2 weeks pregnant at most. Very exciting... to see snake food being born. Hmm.

[Rhasputin]

They can also re-absorb the babies. It seems more likely since you didn't see any dead ones, or blood.

[kellysballs]

Did you feed her the apple with the seeds? Apple seeds contain a cyanide compound that can kill small mammals and birds with just a few seeds.

[ddiaz]

Did you feed her the apple with the seeds? Apple seeds contain a cyanide compound that can kill small mammals and birds with just a few seeds.

Yes, actuallly she got mostly core and she ate the whole thing. I went back to her bin and it was all gone.

[Kingofspades]

I think maybe some mothers like to be alone.
I had a female rat do the same thing...so I said I'd give her one more shot before she was snake food.
She dropped her next batch and I separated her into her own tub with her babies. She has been fine. No eating of the babies at all.

[steveboos]

I had a pregnant female rat go on a killing spree and kill all the rats in the cage, the other 2 females where scared and in the corner of the 3rd story and she just looked at me like Rambo. All 3 of those rats were the spawn of Satan and i had to use fireplace gloves to clean the cage and take the babies out once they weaned off. I was given them for free since i helped the woman out with rats before, so she gave me these, i wish she never did!

Lets just say that those female rats ended up being very tasty to a large Red Tail Boa, I started over with new rats and never had that problem again. Every mom is different and certain things will set them off, just separate or feed that mom off if she does it after the first litter.

Eating babies from the first litter is fairly common, but if they continue to do it, cull em'.