Quote Originally Posted by brettliff View Post
I literally just read that excessive inbreeding can cause that to happen. Cant figure out where so I cant link you so just ask Google. Its not the most common reason though. And more often than not its because the babies are weak. Not because they need protein. Also increase protein halfway through pregnancy with a milk one for dogs. If you have more than one male with the pregnant female that can also cause this to happen. But the mothers being hungryfor protein is a grossly over used assumption. They eat LOW protein diets.

my mom never went to college thank you very much.
Thats cool, Im not going to argue with you about it. Just the past 10 years Ive been breeding rats this is what Ive noticed. And believe me....there has been a couple times, over the years, I didnt have time to get out to feed or water and mama did eat her babies. And I said nothing about them "needing protein", what I said was "I think even if they detect that the young are sick they will eat them". Again I wont argue with you about this, just what Ive learned.