help with cannibalisum in rats

Question
hello there ive kept rats for years' weve over the past few months brought two female dumbo ear  rats ,to are surprise one was pregnant, she had 7 out of 8 and we removed the dead pup and she has been a excellent mother, now all kits are just over 4 weeks old, one night one of them seemed to have a fit and wasent well so we put him into a clean glass tank with the auntie female  and one of his brothers to help him perk up,and she took care of him cleaning feeding keeping warm so on,all was well,then in the night he must of passed away, to my surprise my husband came and got me and said that the little ill one had died and its insides had been eaten, he  removed the rat and cleaned the tank the other little one was fine and they all have had more than plenty food, can you tell me was this a clean up job or is my female rat a risk to the other little one's. the female that done this is the sister of the mother who gave birth to them over 4 weeks ago?..she is good natured and eats well . she is helping her sister with the female babies girls and there all fine the boys have been seperated.im just worried that she shouldnt be in there with them, thanks lisa .

Answer
As gross as it is to us humans your rats are perfectly normal in their behavior. It doesn't happen very often that you get a rat that will consume the body of a dead cage mate, I've had over 200 rats so far and only one practiced cannibalism.

It has NOTHING to do with how much they are fed. Even well-fed rats will do this. They do this because it is a prey animal instinct. A dead body in the nest decays and attracts predators, in their minds it is best to remove the body as quickly as possible.

This one girl has a very strong instinct to protect the nest and it would be best if she weren't in with the babies right now. She knows better then you do when a baby is sick and/or dying.

spazrats
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