>_< mice eating their babies!

[Zoe]

I have had a colony of mice for months now. I have not added any new mice and have only removed the surviving babies when they are well weaned. There are 5 or 6 females, a male, and a couple youngsters in there most of the time.
Yet the mothers still eat the babies!!! They have lots of food and water, toys, and I rarely enter the room other than the feed or clean, and even then i am hardly intrusive.

I'm at a loss now. They have no reason that I can see to keep eating their babies yet they do... Maybe 1 in 10 litters will survive? They will even eat babies that have a wee bit of hair (enough to show their pattern well enough), not just the newborns.

grr.

Zoë