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Mom rat biting male genitalia?

bokuza

bokuza

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Mom rat has been biting/chewing on the male pups genitalia and anus. Like shes leveling it off. The female pups are FINE. Its just the boys. Overall this litter seems...wrong. I cant quite pin point it but they feel bony and small. Not terribly. Ive seen litters like this before and they were fine but Ive got this gut feeling...something is not right at all. The Mom is normally great too. Shes my foster Mom when something goes wrong. She's never done this before and I can't think of why besides something is wrong with the pups...

Im thinking I should c02 tank them and save em for a rainy day...Or dont save em? :/

Your opinion? And have you seen this before?
 
are they inbred? if you feel at all that the pups are sick, i would CO2 them, but i wouldn't risk feeding them to any reptiles. just a little risky i would think. are they all thin or only the males? i've had this happen twice, the mom just doesn't let the boys live, and only feeds the females. especially in large litters. how many pups are there? and what are their ages? has she been doing it their whole life?
 
AtrociousOne said:
are they inbred? if you feel at all that the pups are sick, i would CO2 them, but i wouldn't risk feeding them to any reptiles. just a little risky i would think. are they all thin or only the males? i've had this happen twice, the mom just doesn't let the boys live, and only feeds the females. especially in large litters. how many pups are there? and what are their ages? has she been doing it their whole life?
Click to expand...

The pups are not inbred but the litter was 14 pups. They all are a little thin but again, not terribly.
Right now they are 1 week and 5 days old. Mum has had 2 litters. 4 week breaks after pups are weaned.
The first went very well, she gave birth to 8 and during that litter she foster 5 more pups. From all different litters.
I thought it was much for her but she did fantastic and all were healthy.
I still have some of the first as breeders. All of the females are great Mums too.
 
do you just have the one female? i have 4 females to 1 male and they'll take turns feeding all the pups, sometimes up to 20 under one female. also, what are you feeding her? if it's not blocks, i suggest using them. normal rat food doesn't have as much in it. it's more for pets. try and get some more females. at least a 3:1 ratio.
 
AtrociousOne said:
do you just have the one female? i have 4 females to 1 male and they'll take turns feeding all the pups, sometimes up to 20 under one female. also, what are you feeding her? if it's not blocks, i suggest using them. normal rat food doesn't have as much in it. it's more for pets. try and get some more females. at least a 3:1 ratio.
Click to expand...

I have the females 1.3's but when they start to show signs of pregnancy I switch them into their own tubs.
I find that some females become far too dominant when raising litters together and I prefer to be able to track the litters and the rats themselves.
So I avoid the mess all together.

Im feeding Harlan (sp?) Teklad rat blocks.
 
hm, then there's most likely something wrong with them, maybe a bad inherent trait, or deformity. i wouldn't risk saving them myself. i don't worry much about the pups getting mixed up cuz i'm not raising any for breeders, i only keep track of the litters for raising for breeders, i feed the pups off pretty quickly, but you're doing everything correctly as far as i read. let her finish nursing and see how the rats do after being weaned. if they continue to act lethargic, or unhealthy in any way, i'd suggest pitching them.
 
AtrociousOne said:
hm, then there's most likely something wrong with them, maybe a bad inherent trait, or deformity. i wouldn't risk saving them myself. i don't worry much about the pups getting mixed up cuz i'm not raising any for breeders, i only keep track of the litters for raising for breeders, i feed the pups off pretty quickly, but you're doing everything correctly as far as i read. let her finish nursing and see how the rats do after being weaned. if they continue to act lethargic, or unhealthy in any way, i'd suggest pitching them.
Click to expand...

This litter isnt really a planned breeding litter. I had the Sire breed with several extra females for the sake of hit and miss but I already have some great breeders from him. I agree with you, if they do show sings of negative changes I wont be saving them. My immediate reaction to dead pups in a litter after 1 week old is to evaluate every pup thoroughly. I think in this case if that does happen they'll be gone immediately. :/

What a waste...
 
Welll...Found one dead today. So like I said I would do, I c02 them and tossed them. Mom rat flipped out of course. I didn't take them out in front of her but I came back from brunch and there was no aspen in her tub. She went digging for them. After about 3 hours of her panicking about and making herself sick I bunked her with some pups about 3 weeks old. She is now pleasantly fostering them against their will. (their very confused & too old for this crap will)

I don't think parasites had anything to with her litter. I haven't allowed any new animals into the house in over 4 months or so and do keep a close watch.
Plus all the rats are dewormed, quarantined and so on....:c. Im puttin this gal on a lloonngggg break before breeding her again. (if i even do)
 
Yeh, I'd give her a break. I worked in a breeding lab for a few years and have never seen this. Rats (and mice) do cannibalise as a stress or overcrowding reaction, but I presume she isn't in an overcrowded cage.

I'm guessing, but she may have had too many litters / fostering too close together, and a break may fix her.

In either case, whether it's stress, or a genetically faulty litter, I'd think you'd still be OK to use the babies as feeders - there's nothing there that can transmit to the snakes (of course it's always 100% safer to discard if you don't need them).
 
lol well i'm glad it most likely isn't parasites. but even so, why risk the chance. i thought deworming was deadly to snakes? or do you just deworm the breeders?
 
Well it's too late, their disposed of. I wouldn't risk it myself.

De-worming is moderately dangerous to the snakes DEPENDING the method. If you de-worm months in advance, it doesn't make a difference. My policy is to avoid bringing new rats in. If i do they are quarantined and de-wormed ahead of time. They wont be fed to the snakes though. I only feed the litters of of my 'safe' rats to the snakes. Im pretty judgmental and which pups I feed too.
 
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