Why the heck would she do this?????

djc3674 · 12-27-03, 10:19 PM

I have been keeping a jumbo rat alive for over a week now, my male BCI isnt interested in food right now, he is courting a female. But I tried to feed him anyway. So, on either xmas eve or xmas, she gave birth to 4 or 5 rat pups. I touched one of the babies, later that night they were still all there.

Yesterday, I gave her some water and food, then went about my business, I didnt pay much attention. Then today, I checked on her and all the babies are gone. SHE ATE ALL OF THEM!!!. There is no way in hell they escaped, they were in a rubbermaid for one, and two, they were only a few days old. Why would she eat her babies, was it my fault cause I touched one of them?

Zoe · 12-27-03, 10:27 PM

Mothers sometimes do it from stress, lack of food ,etc. Basically if she thinks her life is at risk, she will kill and eat the babies. In this case it's probably because it's her first litter in a new home. If she were to ahve another litter, she probably wouldn't eat them.

Zoe

BoAddict · 12-27-03, 10:34 PM

i also found years ago that when i bred rats that if they could see the snakes the mothers would eat more babies than if they couldnt see the snakes

im not sure if you ever put her in with the snake and the snake refused if you did that could be the cause

djc3674 · 12-27-03, 10:35 PM

hmmm? well thanks for the insight Zoe. I thought it may have been from my scent, kinda like if you touch a baby bird, the mom will kill it. They were going to be fed off to my baby hog island anyway, but from some reason I feel bad that they were eaten by their own mother! She built such a nice nest and everything. I was giving her water and food each day (Purina puppy chow)..lol Its all I could think of to feed it, she ate it all when I would give it to her. Oh well, I was looking foward to a few free rats. :-/

Zoe · 12-27-03, 10:41 PM

Nah, it's not you touching the babies.
In the future, if you have a pregnant rat, you may want to lower intrusions to a couple times a week instead of daily, but I doubt that made her eat her babies either.

Zoe

djc3674 · 12-27-03, 10:52 PM

Quote:

In the future, if you have a pregnant rat, you may want to lower intrusions to a couple times a week instead of daily

Gotcha!..this was a lesson learned. I didnt even know she was prego...total surprise to me!

Quote:

im not sure if you ever put her in with the snake and the snake refused if you did that could be the cause

yep..over the course of the week, I tried to feed her off a couple of times. I have her in a rubbermaid, with the lid a little crooked to let air in. I also have her next to a space heater for warmth. I am hoping once the female is out of blue, she will eat. I am trying to plump her up a bit more in case breeding is successful.

brandi · 12-28-03, 01:47 AM

Just an fyi... Birds have practically no sense of smell, so touching the nestlings won't make them kill them. Rats do have a sense of smell, but most females only eat their babies when they are very insecure, ie, have been placed in a cage with a snake, are caged where they can smell the snake, etc. I keep breeder rats in a totally separate room and they do much better. Better luck next time!

mykee · 12-28-03, 02:02 AM

I have a few mothers that will eat their babies, and this doesn't stop. My thoughts on that are this; better to get 4 rats from a mother who has already eaten 10, then get none at all. I grin and bear it. I keep all my rats in the same conditions, 1.2 colonies, and some eat their young, some don't, it's nothing you have done wrong.

unknownclown · 12-28-03, 04:31 AM

Sounds like you need to find new breeders Mykee, thats pretty wierd for them to do it all the time.

unknownclown · 12-28-03, 04:54 AM

My guess is the mother was stressed out from a new home and having that snake in its face. Was the cage in a high traffic area? That could do it too if its a first time mom in a new place.

Are you planning on keeping it as a pet/breeder now? If not I wouldnt worry about it too much

Umm Im not sure if I remember right but I think Purina Puppy Chow has dyes in it. If Im right you may want to think about feeding her that since it will eventually get into the snake.

djc3674 · 12-28-03, 05:25 AM

Well..she was most likely stressed because I did check in on her quite a few times after I noticed that she gave birth. (a mistake on my part I now know). Plus, days earlier I tried to feed her to a 8 1/2 ft female boa, then a 7ft male boa. So I am sure she was freaked out. I am planning on feeding her to one of the boas as originally planned. This whole birth thing was a surprise. As far as the puppy chow, I have fed this to other mice/rats that I had to keep alive until my snakes decided to eat them and havent noticed any problems, unless it would take a build up to cause harm. I will check the ingredients anyway just to see.
In the meantime, im not sure when my snakes will want to eat. Like I said earlier, the male is just concerned with trying to get some lovin' lol The female is really dark and in blue, so she wont eat either. I am hoping this is her POS (post ovulation shed), but I have no way of knowing for sure until I see her swell. The male is a persistent lil ******* thats for sure. Once she sheds though, I am going to try feeding this rat to her.

I really dont have an interest in breeding rats, they smell horrible!!! It would be nice to have some free baby rats to feed to my smaller snakes, but the trouble isnt worth it right now. If in the future I do start a colony, I will remember this incident and not do the same things. Thanks everyone for all the input!!

Jayson · 12-28-03, 12:08 PM

Healthy domesticated rats do not stress from human handling if they are handle regularly. I have over 100 breeder rats and approx 2 litters per day, I feed and clean in the rats house daily and in many cases handle the babies the day they are born.

I have had the occasional time when a female would eat the babies but she did not live to breed again. Rats in general are very good parents. (then again i do not try to feed off females before they give birth ).

mykee · 12-28-03, 07:22 PM

That's true, I have feeders for feeding, and breeders for breeding, they never get mixed up. Unknown; it's happened in the past, but I do not cull, so that's most likely my problem.

sapphire_moon · 12-28-03, 08:17 PM

I feel the same way you do. I didn't want to breed rats because I didn't want the smell or having to take care of them. But I went out and got a 1.1 pair, figured if they give me 8-12 babies a month that will be fine. I will only have to buy large rats (frozen) for my male bp, and thats it. Just use the babies for my corn snake and little bp (until she gets bigger)