Cannibalistic Rats..?

[Miss B]

Is it normal for rats to cannibalise one another? :shock:

I've got two tubs of rats - one has a M/F pair, the other has a M/F/F trio.

This morning I found the female in the pair dead. The male has ripped into her abdominal cavity and consumed the entire contents - there's literally nothing left.

All the rats get bio-mare cubes and table scraps. Is this behaviour common? :|

 

[Jen]

they might need more protein, maybe milk powder mixed with their food, i used to give mine dog biscuits too.

 

[beeman]

I would say NO, we havent had anything like that happen and we run
250 rats in the system, Dont even have a prob with them eating thier young
at all

 

[Nikki.]

Sometime last year, when i was 10 i was breeding hundreds of mice as pets and then i'd sell them at the petshop.But one day i found a mouse half eaten I dont know :shock: I think it may be possible

 

[Miss B]

Weird.

Beeman, what do you feed your rats?

 

[wiz-fiz]

Nikki elmo, Do petstores let kids sell them animals like mice and rats?
cheers,
Will

 

[MatE]

Once the males have done there job i take them out the females get very protective if they have new borns.Ive had a female rat,which i think had mastitis(spelling)eat her own stomach contents.As there wasnt another animal in with her.

 

[spilota_variegata]

When I used to breed rats for my snakes, I would kill any rat that showed any sign of aggression towards the other rats. Of course a nip would be excused but killing another would not be tolerated. I would knock the male on the head and feed him to your snakes. Just an opinion.

 

[Nikki.]

Well my dad has heaps of best friends who work and own The Pet Centre at Birkenhead .At first i wasnt supposed to breed them i just happened to have a male and female and it started getting out of control.I once made $40 out of 56 or something

 

[wiz-fiz]

how hard did you have to hit it?

 

[beeman]

Hey miss b,
All our rats and mice get feed gr2 rat and mouse pellets and dog cubes
and thats all, we have constant litters of both rats and mice, thier growth rates are good
and we do seperate the females after mating into thier own tubs. we do this with both the rats and the mice

 

[spilota_variegata]

Well my dad has heaps of best friends who work and own The Pet Centre at Birkenhead .At first i wasnt supposed to breed them i just happened to have a male and female and it started getting out of control.I once made $40 out of 56 or something

At this price I'd be very surprised if the petshop would know Nikki_Elmo back. Buy them for 71 cents each and sell them for 3-4 dollars - 500% markup straight away.

I think a balanced diet (more protein might help) but I'd still knock the rat on the head.

 

[Drazzy]

Is it normal for rats to cannibalise one another? :shock:

I've got two tubs of rats - one has a M/F pair, the other has a M/F/F trio.

This morning I found the female in the pair dead. The male has ripped into her abdominal cavity and consumed the entire contents - there's literally nothing left.

All the rats get bio-mare cubes and table scraps. Is this behaviour common? :|

I use to breed rats and some of the breeders (females) would eat their own and even attack /nibble on the other sub adults, I think some are just bad eggs, fed them dog biscuits and sunflower seeds for milk production.

 

[JungleRob]

Ash, I had the mums eating rat pups when I was using Bio-Mare Cubes. I've switched to Organic Rodent Pellets from Samford Produce and it hasn't happened again.

 

[bredli_lover]

We've had dad eating pups...but never eating the mum. We've also had females kill females..

 

[wiz-fiz]

at my old school we used cat biscuts with 2 males didn't fight each other, though they had been together since they were babys and they were brothers

 

[Wild~Touch]

I've had my share of rat murderers ... only one place for them straight in the freezer.

Cull out the cannibals.

Lack of protein could be the problem try feeding a good quality dry dog food, veggies like pumpkin skin/seeds and broccoli stalks and a bit of wild bird seed, my rats love cabbage leaves.

 

[MrBredli]

I think it is quite likely the female died before the male began eating her. Did she have any other marks on her to indicate she may have been attacked (or does the male have any injuries on his body)? Once a rodent has died it is not uncommon for a mouse or rat to feed on the body, especially if they have no water or have an incomplete diet. The female, if under attack, would have been able to put up a hell of a fight so it would not have been an easy task for the male to have killed her. I'd be looking for other possible causes for the death.

 

[mcloughlin2]

how hard did you have to hit it?

There is nothing to gain by posting un necessary posts. Try make constructive posts beneficial to the forum.

I agree with Mr Bredli. I have never heard of male rats killing females. I'm guessing she died perhaps from over breeding.

 

[Australis]

Males are a lot bigger than females, just a thought.