why are my rats eating their babies?

[Dirtydmc]

Not pinkys either. Eyes open climbing walking eating food. Parents ate all of them. Everything. Even the tails.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

Is it possible that one of your dogs or cats got too close to the rat cage (I'm going to assume the rodents don't hang with the boas and tegus)? Murine rodents usually only consume their young when the nest is being invaded my a predator and there is no chance of saving the pups. It's natures way of conserving resources. Maybe your rats thought one of your other pets was a predator and it triggered this instinct. Rats are well-known for being cannibalistic even outside of this scenario, so it'a possible your rats were just overly hungry. Is there anything at all you can think of that may be stressing your rats?

 

[james.w]

Do you handle the babies at all?

 

[Dirtydmc]

Rats are in a different room that the rep's. Cats do go and sniff the cage. Not a lot I can do about that. Cats own the house. Rodents are fed plenty everyday. They get our leftovers minus any pork. We only way Bacon once or twice a month and I'm not sharing. Pork kills rodents too. So.......

Only time I handle the young is when they are going to die. And I only touch the ones that are going to die. Ive had rats before. Quite a few times. I've seen one or two get eaten but never the whole litter.

 

[Gedy]

are the mother rats from the same store as the males you breed them with ? because incest can be a reason for canibalisme.Unfortunatly pet stores almost never know if there from the same clutch, so I always bought my mice from multiple stores to get some not related.