# Rat killed another rat!?



## Amelia (May 3, 2013)

This didn't happen to me, thank Goodness, but a friend of mine who has rats. She has had 2 female rats, apparently sisters, for about 3 months when this morning she woke up to find that one of the rats had had it's throat torn out by the other. Understandably she is absolutely beside herself upset, and now doesn't want the murderer rat at all.

I have told her to contact her breeder, but has this ever happened to anyone? Anyone know any reason why this could have happened? She said she had a big cage with plenty of food, water and toys.


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Her rat might not have killed her other one at all. It's possible the one that past had past before and the rats natural instincts kicked in. In the wild if a rat passes the others will or may eat it to hide their tracks. 

Many people here have experienced this and thought the same thing. Not all rats do this though but I have read at lest 3 stories about this sense I joined in April. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Yes, rats eat their deceased to stay safe. This is the theory behind rats biting sleeping people as well, or so I read. 
If she is concerned, have an autopsy preformed by the vet. If the female did suddenly turn violent a brain tumor pt is likely. 


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

Amelia said:


> This didn't happen to me, thank Goodness, but a friend of mine who has rats. She has had 2 female rats, apparently sisters, for about 3 months when this morning she woke up to find that one of the rats had had it's throat torn out by the other. Understandably she is absolutely beside herself upset, and now doesn't want the murderer rat at all.
> 
> I have told her to contact her breeder, but has this ever happened to anyone? Anyone know any reason why this could have happened? She said she had a big cage with plenty of food, water and toys.


If she wants she can keep her last rat as a lone rat. Rats don't "need" to have another rat around. Most "prefer" to have company, since they're generally social creatures. Then you have those that will "kill" their cage mate. 

I have a rat that's a lone rat. She killed two rats, her sisters and cage mates, and seriously injured two others, before I got her. Her previous owners were scared of her, because of her violent behavior towards other rats. 

I'll never have her in with another rat. I don't want to risk another rat's life. My rat is happy and healthy. She's also the friendliest and most intelligent rat I've ever seen.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I had girls who fought, one was part wild... we woke up one morning to find puncture wounds around the other rat's trachea... needless to say the fighting ended permanently that day. The wounds were deep and took a while to heal, but my wild child didn't bite down to finish the job... but I can clearly see where an angry rat might get carried away.


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

One of my friends recently had the same problem. She had a rescue who was sweet as can be, loved all the other rats, and never got into a fight with a cage mate. Then, overnight this rat literally snapped. She woke up to find to find one of her females dead with the rescue next to her all puffed up. The other rats were cowering in the corner of the cage. There was nothing wrong with the rat that had died, she was always in perfect health and less than a year old. The rescue was aggressive towards everything, including humans, afterwards. It was as if something really had snapped in that rat.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Phantom said:


> One of my friends recently had the same problem. She had a rescue who was sweet as can be, loved all the other rats, and never got into a fight with a cage mate. Then, overnight this rat literally snapped. She woke up to find to find one of her females dead with the rescue next to her all puffed up. The other rats were cowering in the corner of the cage. There was nothing wrong with the rat that had died, she was always in perfect health and less than a year old. The rescue was aggressive towards everything, including humans, afterwards. It was as if something really had snapped in that rat.


The rescue rat likely has a pt, those are usually the reason for "snapping".


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Some rats do have serious behavioural issues causing them to kill or seriously injure there cage mates, these are very rare though. The cases I have come across like this have almost always either had a seriously traumatic earlier life, or some neurological issue. To be honest in many cases I believe these rats are better put to sleep, most seem distressed by everything, and cant truelly settle or be happy, and thats no life to lead.

You can also get rats who make mistakes or over react, not meaning to injure badly, just warn or tell off. This is typically those who have had sudden hormone surges, changing there balance signifcantly, or have an illness affecting them like polycystic ovaries, neuro issues can also fall into this catagory, as can normallydominance battles where a rat moves the wrong way as the other rat trys to hold them in place. Often time, a check up at the vets, working with them and sometimes a neuter to can help rats like this if it was them that initialted the struggle.

The final cause which is horrible but does hap p en from time to time is an animal eating a dead cagemate, particularly one who has died suddenly of no apparent cause (tyoically heart failure or a stroke). Its an instinctive reaction to hide the body from preditors and is very common in nursing mums in particular, a rotting dead baby would attract preditors to the rest of the litter, and mum needs all the nutrition she can get to give her surviving babies the best chance. It seems abhorant to us, but to them its common sense.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Rats brains are actually remarkably sophisticated given their small size. And sometimes things do go wrong mechanically. Tumors, chemical imbalances etc. I try to discount third or fourth hand stories because by the time you hear them, the facts are all mashed up. But I have heard one first hand story of a rat that killed it's roommate then attacked it's owner and then died within two weeks of the sudden onset of the behavior. Sadly the young lady that told me her story said she could never trust another rat and she was an assistant manager at a big box pet shop. Her bad experience was likely to translate into lots of rats getting inferior care. I introduced her to Fuzzy Rat who she seemed to like and did what damage control I could, but getting attacked by her furry friend gone bazerk really took it's toll on her psyche. But these kinds of incidents are really rare. They are so tragic the stories tend to be retold over and over so always try to be wary of how distant they are to the folks retelling them. Someone else might be familiar with the same case I am relaying and if we relate our second hand experiences together it would look like these things happen twice as often as they really do. So we should never to discount what really happened, but also keep in mind that rare events have a way of sounding more common when more and more people re-tell the same story over time. 

As to moms eating their babies, a friend's rat had large litter, all of the babies appeared healthy, but a couple "disappeared" until the litter reached a size the mom could nurse and manage. Anecdotally, I suppose there is evidence to suggest that moms might even cull and eat superfluous babies they feel might put their whole litter at risk. I don't know if wild rats would do this as I've heard of people finding wild rat pups that have been ejected from their nests. In the wild, rat moms might be more prone to simply evict superfluous pups than eat them, whereas in a cage the mom's options are more limited. A friend who is a retired long term breeder claims she always bred her rats in pairs so there were always two moms to share the nursing and care-taking responsibilities.

If, in the current matter being discussed the offending rat is suffering from a brain tumor or other illness, chances are that it will go down hill faster than slower. It would be best to give it some time and observe the animal before giving it another rat friend. These things are rare but they do happen.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Of my 3 litters I've had 1 mum dispose of one stillborn baby, and ignore another baby who was very runty and died within 24hours. My second litter had all babies survive and my most recent litter lost 2 of 13 in 48 hours but mum didnt eat them, then again i didnt leave them in there long after i found them. They both clearly had something up with them, mum singled them out and pushed them out of the nest 4 times, i put them back 3 times but realised that she was trying to tell me something and left her to it last. Rats have amazing instincts, and the mum of that litter was the best i've had. With the other litters in our family it has been similar, most large litters loose one or two at birth or soon after and sometimes mum disposes of them, and sometimes the human does first.

I do agree that if its a serious issue and she did attack then it is likley that something neurological is going on and it will be obvious soon, as i'm sure you know her background well.


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