Quite often, mice, rabbits and other small rodents are given birth to a child. Parents need to be prepared for the fact that the female of such an animal can eat the offspring. You should try to avoid this situation so as not to upset your son or daughter.
Cannibalism, or eating weak individuals and cubs, is quite widespread in the animal kingdom and is especially common among rodents. If the owner of a guinea pig, ornamental rat or mouse has never encountered such a thing, then he may be shocked that the female, barely relieved of the burden, eats her cubs. Why could this happen?
Why do mice eat their babies?
Gerbils, chipmunks, rats, mice, guinea pigs, and other small animals can cannibalize their little ones for a number of reasons. The most common of these is stress in the female. It is especially common in females after the first pregnancy. She can be constantly tense even if there is a male in the same cage with her and the baby, constantly bothering them, or if people pay increased attention to her and her babies. You can prevent babies from being eaten by placing the cage with the mother and her offspring in a quiet and secluded place; in this case, the male is best temporarily resettled in another cage or aquarium.
Other reasons why a mouse eats offspring is inappropriate litter for the nest, constant noise, a new cage, or the inability to hide from prying eyes. If a person picks up tiny mice, especially at the age of up to 10 days, then the mother ceases to perceive them as her cubs and is likely to eat them. Eliminate all these risk factors, and then the offspring will most likely be saved.
What to do if the mice ate the offspring, despite all the precautions
Sometimes a female can eat her offspring without any apparent reason for such aggression. The mouse owner should be aware that sometimes rodents can indeed carry out an act of cannibalism for no reason. In fact, there is always a reason, but not in all cases it may be obvious to a person.
For example, nature has programmed a mechanism for the mother to eat "extra" babies in the event that there are too many of them, and she does not have enough strength to feed all the newborns. In addition, some of the little mice may be weak and unviable. Instinctively feeling this, the female eats such offspring in order not to let the frail and sickly individual into the world. That is, nature itself can regulate the number and qualitative composition of the families of these rodents. Surely the next litter of mice will be healthier, and they will be saved.
