# My famale rat was killed & eaten by my male rat why?



## tarafield (Nov 4, 2007)

Please if anyone could give me some advice it would be helpful..

I brought a female baby rat for my baby male rat about six months ago so they could breed and keep each other company. They loved each other and groomed each other, and sometimes they would mate. We thought she might of been pregnant and that the male rat would make a great father. 

But yesterday I found my female rat dead. upsettingly, i found her half eaten by my other rat, her bottom half was gone. 

Why did my male rat kill and half eat my female rat? i am very upset and i need some advice.

Tara.


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## tarafield (Nov 4, 2007)

*My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why?*

   Please if anyone could give me some advice it would be helpful..

I brought a female baby rat for my baby male rat about six months ago so they could breed and keep each other company. They loved each other and groomed each other, and sometimes they would mate. We thought she might of been pregnant and that the male rat would make a great father. 

But yesterday I found my female rat dead. upsettingly, i found her half eaten by my other rat, her bottom half was gone. 

Why did my male rat kill and half eat my female rat? i am very upset and i need some advice.

Tara


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## tarafield (Nov 4, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

I would like to add that their cage was really big and they were fed regularly and healthy so they would not have fought over food or space. They were well taken care of and often let out of their cage for a free run.


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## AustinXAPMX3 (Oct 23, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

I have no clue. This breaks my heart. Im so sorry for that little girl and you.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

there are many things wrong with your statements but i will refrain from discussing those and just get to your question, i'm sure someone else will address the other issues. 

your male may not have killed her, the pregnancy could have done that. the male eating your female may have been because of the living conditions. if the food is unbalanced or if the space is too small may have been reason enough for him to eat her. sometimes rats will eat their dead cagemates for no real reason as well though that is extremely rare. 

another scenario could be that the male saw something wrong with the female (not having babies before after 6 months of being together leads me to think this way). she may have acted aggressive due to the illness and he defended himself then got carried away.


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## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

you shouldn't keep males and females together unless one is spayed/neutered. females can have 20+ babies in one litter, and can get pregnant again as soon as their babies are born. so you could have 100+ rats in less than a year. not a good idea.

concerning the death of your female - she may have died of natural causes; i've never heard of males killing females before

it's very odd that your rats were together for 6 months and never had any babies...are you sure they were male and female, and not two males? two males would be more likely to fight to the death...


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

even if they were both males after 6months of living together it would be very unlikely they would fight to death suddenly.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Sometimes when a rat dies, their cagemates will "dispose" of the remains on their own. Its a natural instinct to get rid of whatever may draw attention from a predator. Kind of like those herbivore animals eating the afterbirth when they have had their babies. 

It doesn't happen very often, but its a natural although frightening to us behaviour.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

There is such a huge number of homeless rats out there that creating more is considered a bad thing. In the future you should probably research rat care a bit more and get your young male a friend...no more girls and possible pregnancies for him!

The girl may have had an infected uterus (called pyometra) from a pregnancy gone wrong. She may have been pregnant but retained some of the babies and they became poison inside of her.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

I posted it in your other thread. the girl died and the male tried to clean up the remains. He didn't kill her, rats don't usually kill other rats they have lived with for so long.


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## rat_ratscal (Sep 23, 2007)

sorry for your loss 

but female and males should definately not be housed together ESPECIALLY when she is in heat, more than 2 pregnancies in a lifetime is not good for a rat

if you had one or 2 litters that would be fine but they cant be back to back as that would cause damage and stress to your female, possibly causing her to eat the babies :O

right after the female becomes preggers you should remove the male or he could hurt her

again im so sorry for your loss :'(, get that boy a cagemate, if you want a female get him neutered so he wont be so sad :'(


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## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

twitch said:


> even if they were both males after 6months of living together it would be very unlikely they would fight to death suddenly.


i was just throwing that out there as a possibility since the female never had a litter during the 6 month period and pet store rats are often mis-sexed. though i have NO idea how you could mis-sex an adult male. 8O


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

I can't answer the poll, there isn't a selection for "none of the above"


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

A1APassion said:


> I can't answer the poll, there isn't a selection for "none of the above"


I am having the same problem.


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

Next time I wouldn't suggest getting a female... especially so young many things can go wrong in a pregnancy and that may be what killed her. Not to mention male rats sometimes kill baby rats.


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## Bandit (Jul 30, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

Your male rat was just trying to get rid of the body. It's what wild animals do. Dead bodies attract predetors.


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## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

*Re: My female rat was killed & eaten by my male rat, why*

Chances are the female died of natural causes and your male was trying to do what comes naturally to him. In the wild, the smell of a dead rat would attract predators to the colony, so they take it upon themselves to dispose of the body. Not pretty to find, but remember that he was doing what he thought best for her.

That being said, you should not be breeding petstore rats, especially with a female so young. Another male is perfect to keep your male company, and you won't find yourself overrun with rats. Rats can have an average litter sze of 6-12, but often have more than that. The gestation is 21-23 days, and she can be rebred within hours of giving birth. Did you have cages to seperate the babies into? If not, they would breed again, and you would quickly become overrun with rats.


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## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

I merged both your topics together. For future reference, there is no need for two topics about the same issue.


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## teal (Oct 25, 2007)

Sorry for the loss; I remember many years ago gerbils doing the same. It was a natural event.


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## KimmiesGuineas (Jun 14, 2007)

This thread makes me upset on so many different levels it's not even funny.


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

Yeah.


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

I'm just throwing this out there as it occured to me- maybe she did get pregnant, but she obviously had a complication, and perhaps the male was trying to do a rattie c-section to save the babies? I have no idea what the rat physche is for something like that, but maybe that would explain why he went after the bottom half. Though it's not a likely reason, I'll be the first to admit. 

Please consider getting a MALE friend for you rat, and never trying something like this again. 

And you definately didn't give enough ways to answer the poll. My answer to that is- _only_ if one sex is nuetered/spayed.


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## tarafield (Nov 4, 2007)

Thank you for all your replies. it is comforting to know that my little male may not have killed my female. After all, he is so adorable! But it still upsets me to think of her death. I look over at her cage and imagine her there, everyday. 

In some answers to my replies:

TO AUSTINXAPMA3S REPLY:
Thank you for your messge.

TO TWICHES REPLY:
I mainly gave my rats a diet of mutligrane bread, rat mixture, dry noodles, tomato and vegetables with fresh water. sometimes i would mix in a bit of cordial with their water because they liked fruit. And my female rat was only six months old, if that so It didnt strike me as odd that she wasnt prengnant sooner because she may have not reached maturity. Should I have been concerned? Also, their cage was big enough it is roughly 80cm by 50cm and we always keep it clean and with fresh newspaper and bedding. Please let me know if I may have done anything wrong so I can correct it. 

TO lilspaz68s REPLY:
It could have been a pregnancy gone wrong. I didnt really think of that. She was about 6 months with no litters. And no I am not getting another female. Thank you for telling me that my other rat didnt kill her. it is a releif. although i found him eating her it was probably because you mentioned that he was trying not to attract preditors. 

TO RAT_RATSCALs REPLY:
Thank you got your sympahy. The reason i put the male and female together was to keep each other company. but now i know never to put male and females together. i keep forgetting sometimes that rats are not like humans. My female rat never had a litter.

TO BLUESKYS REPLY:
Dont worry, I know she was a female. First of all, she had NO testicles. Second of all, i noticed when she was on heat, because she would suddenly dart from one end of the cage to the other. And third of all, i have seen her mate with my male. Yes it is possible to missex rats but considering the size of my males testicles, she cannot be mistaken!

TO FORENSICS REPLY:
Yes next time no female. I had no idea that things could go wrong with pregnancies because everyone told me that rats breed really easy. And people have told me that the male can eat the babies thats why I thought that the male killed the mother to eat the babies inside her. would that be likely, or maybe she died from the pregnancy like you said.

TO BANDITS REPLY:
Yes I know that he was probably trying to get rid of the body now. 

TO reachthestars REPLY:
It didnt come across that my rat may have died of natural causes until now. and yes i had a seperate cage to put the baby rats in. And also we have an older male rat to keep him company but i wanted a female for breeding. But I will not get another female now after I have seen what i saw, and because i didnt know their could have been pregnancy complications. By the way, your rats are sooo cute! Maddie is my favourite. 

TO TEALS REPLY: 
What happened to the gerble that was natural? maybe the same thing happened to my rat. 

TO CAPTIN FLOWS REPLY:
Yes it crossed my mind that she may have been in labour and he was trying to help her.... or he could have possible eaten them when they were still coming out of her and he accidently killed her. I am starting to think she had a prengnacy problem and she died, leaving blood which caused him to eat her so she would not attract a preditor.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

a female rat is sexually mature by 5-6 weeks of age. which means even at that young she COULD get pregnant. being with your male all that time and not having a litter is very odd. gestation is only21-24 days too so even given that she should of had had a litter before. 

i can't comment on the cage with those measurements. i work better with inches and i need height, width and depth in order to tell the size of the cage and its suitability. 

the food sounds fine. perhaps a bit fatty but fine. you may want to cut on the seeds and add more fresh fruits and vegatables. 

newpaper lined litter is ok but i find a better one to be yesterdays news. its a pelleted litter marketed for cats but is HIGHLY absorant and a wonder for odor control. it is also relatively inexpensive and easily come by in pet stores and some retail stores that sell pet supplies (i've seen it in walmart).


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

male rats do not eat the babies

In fact, they really don't give toot about them so long as there is no cage crowding & there is no shortage on food. 

It is rare but there are known cases of intersexed rats, rare, but documented postmortem.

More common is the case where a male's testes did not drop. Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle) 

In these cases it is often fatal because tumors can develop &/or other health concerns because of the growth of those man-bits pushing into the body cavity thus pushing everything else out of whack.


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

well the female rat could have died due to complications and the father could have just eaten her as a snack im sorry if that is funny


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## yonksgirl (Apr 23, 2007)

I am sorry to hear of your loss,but I am glad you learned a lesson from all of this! Maybe you could try introducing your older boy to your younger one. They would be alot better off together then alone, just make sure you intro them slowly. There is a thread on intros, I suggest you start there! Good luck!


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

ratrover said:


> well the female rat could have died due to complications and the father could have just eaten her as a snack im sorry if that is funny


Completely inappropriate. :|


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

mothers wil eat there baby making equipment and if there baby is dead they will eat that to


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

Sparker said:


> ratrover said:
> 
> 
> > well the female rat could have died due to complications and the father could have just eaten her as a snack im sorry if that is funny
> ...


I was wondering how long it was going to take before others starting catching on


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

lol


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

I said it was inappropriate because I don't think that it is funny.

Jokes like that are out of place here.


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

Sparker said:


> I said it was inappropriate because I don't think that it is funny.
> 
> Jokes like that are out of place here.


soryy i didnt realize i crossed the line


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## Sparker (Jun 17, 2007)

It's okay.


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

thanks


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## JoshDeMott2010 (Aug 25, 2007)

I think putting a female and male together isnt the best of ideas. Breeding is naturally okay but dont intentionally breed rats ignorantly because stuff like death's and bad lifes can occur due to complications of the young pregnancy. I do agree with most of the ppl on here that the reason this occured was because the Doe did die due to complications with her situation. I strongly dont beleive the male killed her but i do beleive he ate her. This seems like a very rare event and i hope u have learned that putting rats in that situation can result in death and unhealthy relations.


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## ratrover (Nov 17, 2007)

i still feel sorry for the babies and the rat


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## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

Ok, the issue has been resolved. There was no reason to bring this topic back up, and CERTAINLY no reason for any 'jokes' regarding someone's pet being eaten. I'm locking this topic, as there's nothing else to be gained from continuing it. As always, if you take issue with this feel free to send me a PM.


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