Rats eating eachother

[ALLANA]

Hi, I've been trying to breed some rats and had 1 male 5 female in a cage together and this morning I went down to feed them and they had eated one of the other female rats:| , does anyone know why this would be or is it usuall, I didn't think they were canabalistic :? . They have more then enough food and water and they are all the same size

 

[mitchdiamond]

It might of been a territorial thing
Or the mother ate her babies because she is pregnant

 

[nook171]

it is realy supose to b 1 male to 2 females

 

[Jungletrans]

If one dies the others will sometimes cleanup .

 

[Australis]

it is realy supose to b 1 male to 2 females

it doesnt matter if your use 2 0r 20 females to a male :S

 

[TrueBlue]

the food you are feeding them may lack essential trace elements and minerals etc which will make them do this.

 

[Jungle_Freak]

lack of protein i believe courses rats to eat their cage mates ,
try adding some high protein dog kibble to there diet
with some fresh vegies

 

[steve6610]

it is realy supose to b 1 male to 2 females

pmsl mate, i have 6 to 8 males to 120 females, i just pull out the females as they are ready to give birth, as i wean the babies the mothers go back in, lol

 

[ALLANA]

Wow, I've been feeding them that guinea pig food you buy from the pet shops as that's what they told me to give them the grassy stuff with pellets and bird seed etc in it, they also get the occasional scraps of vedgies etc, I couldn't belive it all they ate was the stomach area, they didn't touch the rest of it, I'm starting to think maybe just buy them frozen lol that was a bit much for my liking, none of them as far as I know would be pregnent as of yet or if so not far at all as I've only had them a week, I'd say there all brothers and sisters and they were seperated when I got them. YUK

 

[Magpie]

Guinea pig food is for guinea pigs.

 

[tommomotto]

if your using water bottles with the ball check that they can get water ,lost a few from water not coming thru the tube but bottles are full

 

[ALLANA]

if your using water bottles with the ball check that they can get water ,lost a few from water not coming thru the tube but bottles are full

I"m not using a bottle I did try that but it kept falling off the cage because they would pull at it, so I've now got a big water bowl in there which was still full when I seen the rat killed, ok I'll rename the food rodent food lol, they sell it at the pet shop for all rats, mice and guinea pigs

 

[OdessaStud]

Allana1313 Id say from past experiences ive had is that the female died and the others have cleaned up the mess :?How big is the enclousure you have them in?Do they have enough space for them all to nest?many things can cause this to happen , the female in question may have had something wrong with it they tend to kill the ill or the weaker of the coloney.Try putting the male with only 2 or 3 females and if you find it keeps happening you may have a canibal in your coloney hence until you can figure out who is doing it you will continue to have the problem.Grose it is I had one do it yesterday and they will continue to do it if they are that way inclined.
Hope this helps
Cheers Odie

 

[Kirby]

rats and mice eat each other when they dont have enough room, or food.. they figure it would be less crouded if we killed one off......

 

[cris]

I would say they probably arnt getting enough protein.
Some rats and mice just dont get along either, they may have just killed it because they didnt like her.

 

[ALLANA]

Allana1313 Id say from past experiences ive had is that the female died and the others have cleaned up the mess :?How big is the enclousure you have them in?Do they have enough space for them all to nest?many things can cause this to happen , the female in question may have had something wrong with it they tend to kill the ill or the weaker of the coloney.Try putting the male with only 2 or 3 females and if you find it keeps happening you may have a canibal in your coloney hence until you can figure out who is doing it you will continue to have the problem.Grose it is I had one do it yesterday and they will continue to do it if they are that way inclined.
Hope this helps
Cheers Odie

Thanks Odessa, well I think they are in a big enough house, I have them in a very large plastic box like you would get and put kids toys in or to store stuff, the ones you can get at like bunnings , warehouse etc with the lid and clip up sides, it's proberbly 4ft maybe more long and 3 foot high, well a lot bigger than the tank they were in at the pet shop anyway, I have a mesh lid on it instead of the lid it came with, and the rats arn't big one's there proberbly only a couple of weeks old, none of them looked sick or anything, how do you tell which is doing it or do you just sit there and watch, and I think they all may have had a go at eating it and it was a female that died so would they all be that way inclined now, I'm really thinking just buy frozen rats, there's only one pet shop around me that sells frozen rats and they want an absolute arm and let for them like $8 each for little rats which would work out pretty dear after a while, that's why I thought breed my own, also I've seen a lot of debate about freezing rats before you give them to your snakes to stop disease, I havn't feed my snake any of these rats yet but should I kill them then freeze them or just kill them and give them to him like that?

 

[ALLANA]

actually thinking about it all the female rats were in together at the shop but the male was on his own, mind you though there were no other males there maybe he's the killer I really can't belive it and people keep them as pets who would of thought

 

[ALLANA]

I can now see how they harm snakes

 

[shellshock]

same with mice

i have had the the same thing happen with my mice one female "seemed to have been up the duff"and the other female has b'tween 10&13 babies but only 2 or 3 survive i fed the one that hasnt had any babies to my new hypo but that doesent solve the problem of the other one my riends [other members] have told me its should be food. same as the question though big tank plenty o food also the head female 9the 1 dat eats its baby,s started atacking a newbe but the newbe has been giving it to the head of the household 4 about 1 hour now

 

[OdessaStud]

Allana rats do really make wonderfull pets as well as feeders.Dont be put off by what happened but im guessing it was one of the females that killed the other one not the male.Once they are dead everyone has a pick at the body,sick yep but nature is a little that way!!.I have to go through caboolture on my delivery's and would be more than happy to come and see you if you like and either swap a couple of "good females"for yours or supply you with frozen and not for $8 a pop, my maximum price for extra large frozen rats is $6 each.Pm me if i can help you further.
cheers Odie