RCReptiles.com

[RonCrawford]

I've always wondered if rats/mice/etc have any idea that we feed off their babies. I say this because rodents are supposed to have extremely good hearing so is it possible that they can hear the cries of their offspring being coiled & constricted by a ball python nearby?

What do you think?

[NickMyers03]

well if you have your rat room in the same room as your balls them yes i bet they can hear it.

when i bring a tub load of rats home every week i feed all the small balls first. the younger rats tend to scream more that the larger ones but im guessing this is because they dont have the power a larger snake has.

in the wild I THINK that animlas pick of pinkies or crawlers that stray to far from the nest so mom knows but her natural instinct is to continue with the ones she has.

my only thinking on why there are so many produced at one birthing. the risk of them dying is great and if it wasnt they would only have one at a time ( which would suck for our hobby/trade/business)

[Herphero]

I heard something about research done on rabbits. They hooked a "nerve-brainwave thingy" up to the mother rabbit. They then took the babies a good distance and killed them one by one. The mother's brain waves were jumping. I dont know if this is true, but It sounds plausible. I will try to look up more.

[deborahbroadus]

Could this be why my rats have been birthing a larger percentage of Males? *Out of 12 pinkies..maybe ONE is a female. Do they want to give me a steady supply of food/prey and thus save their own hides?
*I tend to feed off the males and keep the females and if there are no males to be fed off then I will use a female.

Interesting supposition....ummm and now that I have the snakes and rats and asfs in close proximity..I wonder what will happen.

[RonCrawford]

[deborahbroadus]

But it is an interesting theory, could be why some stop breeding? Spontaneous abortions, re-absorbation of feotus...oh my...something to think on....may need to sound-proof the rat room?

[arlynos]

Sick and twisted thoughts went through my brain as I read this, I think they do, since when I watched the pet stores feed theirs, all the mice in the mice would go to one side of the cage toward the noise, so maybe.