New colony and babies getting eaten.

[Bruce Whitehead]

I have a colony I started about 2 months ago, 1.6 with 10 hoppers in there too. All first time breeders. The adult females are all pregnant now. I came home tonight to find the remains of several half eaten babies and 2 live pinks.

They are all housed in a jumbo kitty litter pan (22x16) in a breeding rack, I usually breed hooded rats in this size tub so I figured It wasn't over populated. They are kept on a good amount of aspen, with food (mazuri 6f) and water available at all times. I don't have any cage furniture.

Any recommendations to my husbandry would be appreciated.

Richard

I give lots of TP rolls as well. I usually leave a few spins of TP on the roll, they like to shred it and then nest with it.

I find overcrowding leads to a high pup mortality. I try and pull the pups as soon as I can. Too many ASFs results in crushing and dead babes (even hoppers).

Once dead the others will eat them. But I have had the odd litter that were culled as soon as they were birthed. Could just be that the mom's are culling the weak ones, or they were stillborns... were the babies new babes, or hoppers?

And were they related...?

Bruce