Dont really know whats wrong

Question
Hi
I have a 6 month old female who has just had her 3rd litter. She had 17 babies this time round and unfortunately, 4 have died  and she has eaten 12. I have one baby left. They were only 5 days old. Now she seems to have gone quite mad. She has a routine of jumping on the ledge, chasing her tail until she catches it, hanging upside down from the ledge, falling off and running to the nest.. Its as if she thinks her tail is a baby or something. At first i thought she might have been bored (even with the male rat in there) but I've come to the conclusion it goes alot deeper than that... I know this sounds stupid but do rats go through post natal depression???

Any help as to whats going on would be grateful
Thanks

Katie


Answer
Why has she had 3 litters? Females shouldn't be bred, for health reasons, until 4 months of age. I'd suspect she is a little nuts now; I'd be too-- that's the equivilant of a 25 year old woman having 6 kids already! Postpartum depression assumption aside, its a lot for a young animal to go through.

Other than taking her to the vet and having a workup done on her to be sure this bout of anxiety and 'madness' isn't a result of an illness or brain tumor, I can't help other than to say you need to quit breeding her (or allowing her to be bred) if you want her to live much longer.