Rat eating another's body?

[nattykins]

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've been on here, but this morning something happened that I'm confused/concerned about and this is the first place I thought of to ask.

Last night, all my ratties were doing fine (I have 7 in a full ferret nation). This morning, my boyfriend told me not to go near the cage for a bit he had saw that Blue had died. This in itself confused me as Blue had been fine yesterday and has no health issues. Against my boyfriend's warnings, I went to go see and saw that there was really no way to tell it was Blue except for process of elimination. It was literally a carcass of ripped apart rat, down to the bone and one of the others was chewing at her. Now the one that was chewing at her is looking a little fallow and puffed out.

Is that normal for rats to eat their own? And any idea what might have caused a sudden death? Are rats prone to killing eachother during a flight?

Keep in mind, all my rats are at least 1 year old (Blue was about 17 months) and have lived together for as long as I've had them with no concerns except for the occasional expected rat fight. I've owned now rats for 7 years and have never had this happen.

Any ideas? Should I be concerned now for the rest of the ratties?

 

[eagle]

Normal yes, happen often no. Normal behaviour in the wild would be to dispose of the body by eating it. The surviving rats will eat the dead one usually going after the organs first. My understanding is the dead body's organs have more of an odor and will attrack other predators. I wouldn't worry about the other rats. No way of knowing if they killled Blue or if Blue had an illness. Just keep an eye on the other rats and watch the behaviour.

 

[nattykins]

Thank you so much for your reply -

My boyfriend has decided that Tribble killed Blue because they both were a little more agressive when it came to food. I'm thinking more along the lines that she died naturally and was eaten. But what if she was killed? Do you know if that's something that would be likely to happen again if it's happened once?

 

[eagle]

It's possible it could happen again. Just keep a close eye on them.

 

[SQ]

Rats will often bury or eat the body of a dead cagemate. This is instinctive and is done to prevent attracting predators.

Rats do die suddenly with no warning - heart attack, massive stroke, accident etc.
If you have not seen serious aggressive behaviour lately with blood being drawn, it is extremely unlikely that one of your rats killed Blue. As you know, it is normal for rats to challenge one another for dominance and have disagreements . This may look scary to us but the rats don't get hurt.

Rats with neurological problems, such as brain tumours may rarely become very aggressive toward others, injuring or even killing them. If this were the case, you would have been seeing signs of this changed behaviour.

It doesn't hurt to keep an eye on them, but I don't think you need to worry that one of your rats killed Blue.

 

[jorats]

No. No way they've been living together that long together for one of the rats to go psycho and kill another rat. You would have seen signs.
At 17 months, that's usually when a rat starts their issues from PT to heart... I would say that she died naturally and the others were disposing the body which is completely natural.
How are the other girls in the cage? If there would have been an aggressive attack, the other rats would be scared as well.

 

[Godmother]

I'm so sorry that you had to experience that. It is natural, as the others have explained, but it is so gruesome that I have known people to give up having rats after seeing that happen.

 

[Jems71]

WOW...sorry for your loss.
This brings back memories that I had forgotten about the lab rats I worked with years ago...this will definately be something I talk to the kids about just incase it happens here when ours are older and their time comes. Would be a bit of a trauma if they didn't know this was natural if it happens.
Again sorry for your loss. Hope all goes well with your others.