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Will male rats eat baby rats when they are born2007-11-24 22:20:05

I just bought them from the pet store less than a week ago. And I was wondering if I should seperate my male rat from the female and babies she just had yesterday.

Answers:

Where the heck are you guys getting your information from? LOL! :)

No, with very few exceptions, male rats will not eat their young. Rats, both males and females, make awesome parents. Rats **are not** like gerbils, hamsters, or mice, when it comes to parenting, yet, out of ignorance, people still believe that rats are just like these other rodents.

The reason you should remove the male from the female's cage is that within 12 hours of giving birth to her last pup, the male can get her pregnant again.

If you haven't removed him within 24 hours your female may already be pregnant.

Some of what Goddess has said I will have to look into because of all the professional breeders I work with no one has ever mentioned this.

To learn more about rats join Holistarat

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistarat...

spazrats

"my life has gone to the rats"

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Yes you need to take the male away immediately. He will eat the babies. Good luck!

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Yes.

Seperate the male as soon as possible.

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Yes the male would,,,, Its the same with hamsters. So watch out! If yoiu touch the rats before they have fur the mom will eat them too so watch... well be carefull

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yea we had some class rats at school and its best to get another cage for the male becasue if he gets hungry he will eat the little guys

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Yes you should seperate them.

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yes, and the person at the pet store should have told you that

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From the 30+ years I've raised fancy rats, I've only known two males who killed the babies and both of these were most likely my own fault.

If a male rat is placed with an already pregnant female rat whom he did NOT impregnate, he will likely kill the babies and then try to mate with her again. The same thing will happen if he is introduced to a female and her young.

You SHOULD separate out the male, but NOT because he will eat or kill the babies, but because he will try to breed with her again soon after she has given birth. This is very hard and stressful on the female and should NOT be done.

I know this is commonly done by most "feeder breeders" or "rat mills", but it is NOT something that is condoned by the general rat community and definately not something I would recommend doing.