My Rats are MURDERERS!!!

[Orangephoner]

So i have had a couple female rats for a few months now. they have been really nice not mean easy to take care of. So i have been thinking about breeding them to save a little money since i have to drive about 30 mins each way to get rats for my snakes. So about a week ago i bought a male rat from the same place so they can start their "business". Well last night while i was sleeping i heard some commotion going on in the rat cage but didnt think much of it since at night ( with my rats anyways) they are crazy and loud and play, yell and destroy their cage. When i went up to my room this morning to check on them their house was up side down and there was my favorite rat laying there in the middle of the cage dead. Her head was shredded into pieces. couldnt even tell the head was a rat. body was all still intact, and the other female and the male were in the corner scared..... So is this a common occurance for rats to kill each other? i would like to think its not . what do you guys think happened?
thanks

Christian

[I-KandyReptiles]

If you just dropped him in with the females, there was probably a lot of fighting. When introducing new rats you should scrub down EVERYTHING in their tank, including toys and then once clean, add them all in.

[eatgoodfood]

could have been a lack of space, or food, or water... I have had this happen when I have a lot of feeders together, they sometimes eat each other.

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could have been a lack of space, or food, or water... I have had this happen when I have a lot of feeders together, they sometimes eat each other.

[Salamander Rising]

So i have had a couple female rats for a few months now. they have been really nice not mean easy to take care of. So i have been thinking about breeding them to save a little money since i have to drive about 30 mins each way to get rats for my snakes. So about a week ago i bought a male rat from the same place so they can start their "business". Well last night while i was sleeping i heard some commotion going on in the rat cage but didnt think much of it since at night ( with my rats anyways) they are crazy and loud and play, yell and destroy their cage. When i went up to my room this morning to check on them their house was up side down and there was my favorite rat laying there in the middle of the cage dead. Her head was shredded into pieces. couldnt even tell the head was a rat. body was all still intact, and the other female and the male were in the corner scared..... So is this a common occurance for rats to kill each other? i would like to think its not . what do you guys think happened?
thanks

Christian

This is a little early for Halloween but yes, they can be murderers...and worse.

I had 3 pet rats, Betty, Alise and Carla.

They were fine for about a year.

Then I found Carla dead and partially devoured.

I assumed she passed away from some 'normal rat disease' and the others took the opportunity for a snack.

Then Alise "disappeared" from the 3 story rat condo.

Betty looked distressed.

[?]

Soon, Betty began to mope and throw her food out of the condo onto the floor.

I assumed she was lonely and got her three little friends, Buffy, Grace and Blackie.

Everything seemed fine..for a while.

Buffy "disappeared".

Again, I assumed they'd simply fed opportunistically.

Then Blackie vanished.

Now I was getting suspicious.

Grace looked nervous.

Then I found Grace's remains.

Once again, Betty was alone.

Betty was a serial cannibal.



After Grace was killed, Betty started 'whimpering' on the top platform of the condo and again, threw her food [many different varieties of food, I might add] out of the condo and "moped".

I did not buy her any more friends and a few weeks later, I found her dead.

She refused to eat rat chow, grains, cereal, bits of meat, dog food, cheese, etc etc etc.

She only wanted rat meat.

At this point, Betty was giving me the creeps and I wasn't terribly sad when she died.


I have never had any of my many pet rats do anything like this before, in 30 years of keeping them and I'm wondering if the supplier for PetCo is having some kind of "problem" in his breeding lines.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

In my experience (I produce several thousands a year) rats rarely fight to the death unless you have males house together that did not grow up together.

Now can it happen yes but again RARE, lack of food, improper food, lack of water could lead to such issues.

Now you also need to take in consideration that commotion when introducing a new rat is natural, but it does not mean they fought to death either.

Your rat could have died of natural causes and since rats are scavengers they clean up and eat their dead.

At this point you really do not know what happened.

The key with rat breeding is proper nutrition and selective breeding (eliminate any overly aggressive rat from your breeders.)

[iPanda]

I dunno about rats, but gerbils do this too. *shudder* Woke up one morning to a gerbil carcass in one corner, and my other gerbil dead in his hut.

[el8ch]

The key with rat breeding is proper nutrition and selective breeding (eliminate any overly aggressive rat from your breeders.)

^ This.

I learned the hard way and had a rat or two pass on. Mine was not with breeders, but a similar scenario. Now, I find that as long as they are kept clean, always have a full supply of water and some decent food everything is good.