Cannibalistic Rats..?

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Well, always found in my experience of breeding rats, that cannibalism seems to happen mostly due to different feeds, as well as mothers seem keen to eat weaker/or dead pups. I got told along time ago the negatives of feeding cat/dog biscuits to rats - something about the excessive salt levels in those feeds, and over time how that can build up in your snake causing complications. Something Ive never and would never risk my snakes with. At the mo, feed rats and mice a combination of pig pellets, rat pellets, and a horse feed. Also back up with vitamins that are added to their water and have no trouble whatsoever anymore.

I have also added new females and/or males to a breeding tank with hardly any problem, also raised 'pups' wit Mum, in a common tank, with only a cpl of deaths of pups, with the mum eating them. They always seem to the smaller and weakest of the pups however. Only saying this info, as for years, had problems wit females being eaten, pups and males, even when I had separated the females from common tank while they were preggers to prevent cannibalism of the young.

But, would just like to add, these are but my experiences, each to thier own, work with what works best for you.

Cheers,
Dee.
 
Thanks for the suggestions peeps.

mcloughlin2 said:
I'm guessing she died perhaps from over breeding.

Not possible. She'd only had one litter previously.

MrBredli, I can't say for sure that it was the male that killed the female. I didn't see any other obvious marks on her body and the male does not appear to have suffered any injuries. Having said that, she definately wasn't showing any signs of illness beforehand - last night she was as happy and active as ever. Although I did wonder how exactly he could have killed her, I imagine if he ripped into her stomach she probably would have ran around and made quite a mess dripping blood everywhere. But there was no mess in the tub - just one disemboweled rat corpse.

Either way, I think I will cull the male just to be sure. And I might add some rat/mouse cubes and dog kibble to the bio-mare.
 
I agree with Mr Bredli, he would have started eating her after she died. It sounds like it was just a sudden death, nothing obvious (maybe stroke etc who knows?). I work in the research industry with rats and mice and it isn't uncommon at all for them to eat each other once they have died. They are opportunists who can't go past a meat snack! It is normal rodent behaviour.
I have never known/heard of a male rat killing a female in my experience. They are quite social animals in general.
On a unrelated topic, biomare may not quite fulfil the dietary requirements as horses don't eat meat and rats do (omnivorous), so some dog kibble would be a good addition and tasty treat! The rat/mouse cubes are a complete diet and good for their teeth too. JMO and experiences

Kim
 
i just weaned a few miss b, i can grow a few up for you if you like to replace them.
 
Thanks for the advice kimbully.

Helikaon; that would be great - I'll talk to you about it at work :)
 
I had a problem with that a few months ago and I started putting mixed grain through the feed and it has stopped now.
 
i had a similar thing happen to me earlier this week, i thought the male must have killed her, but after reading mr bredli's post im thinking he chewed through her throat after she died. yet, in another one of my breeding tubs, the male died and had no wounds at all. maybe he just hadn''t been dead long enough for her to start feeding on him....
 
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