ASF Tell ALLS... Finally decided to reveal to my BP.net brothers and sisters....

Oooooh spreadsheets..... now that is something I am glad you did and figured out so that I didnt have to......:P

I guess I wont be feeding most of the baby males now; but it makes sense that smaller groups would produce more; I notice my 1.5 groups dont have a great survival rate per litter when there are more than a litter or two already on the ground so to speak. It seems to average a half dozen per litter but early litters are always around 15..... conclusion = Mike is the man!
Anyhow Mike, thanks again!!!!!

I also have regular rats and mice. Would the hog feed be ok for them too? I would rather have everybody on the same food. Also what size hardware cloth did you use on the hoppers? Thanks.

Great post mike!
I'd switch to hogfeed but I'm in love with my hoppers. :P I'm tempted to get a bag and see which lasts longer though, hog feed straight onto substrate or mazuri in a hopper. I know it last longer for you but differences in feeding methods/amounts could make a diff with me, I might be to lazy to pay attention to how much they're using, plus I'm feeding mice not ASF :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by juddb

I loved the wheels when i first got them, but now i totally agree with you they are a pain in the butt! But i knew something would happen if i removed them, so every 3 days or so i take them down, scrub them and oil them (olive oil). Its only two so its not much trouble.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I found mineral oil works better than olive oil, like, where olive oil works for a day or two, mineral oil works for weeks, unless they really wear it out. :P

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I have wheels, I can honestly say that adding wheels cut the amount of food my rodents waste in half. And I highly suggest Vaseline aka petroleum jelly for greasing them up. It lasts for months!!!! I think the main reason it works so well is they don't eat it off.
I was using veg. oil for a while and everytime I'd apply it they were right there licking at it. Looked dangerous for tongues and meant the oil was gone in a few days. Vaseline doesn't taste good and it didn't take them long to figure out it wasn't edible, none of my mice got sick.
If I had a larger colony I'd get rid of the wheels because they're a pain to clean but as it is I can stand to hold 7 wheels under a extremely hot stream of water for a few mins each. The water turns the wheels so they practically clean themselves, only the occasionally extra stubborn poo needs extra soaking. And as long as I keep the spokes themselves out of the water the Vaseline doesn't need to be reapplied.

Don't mean to jack the thread. :oops:
So another round of applause for Mike! :banana::banana: yeah! for the great how too on cheap colony keeping. :D

How do you do your water bottles in the 10 gallons Mike?

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Originally Posted by kristy1277

I also have regular rats and mice. Would the hog feed be ok for them too? I would rather have everybody on the same food. Also what size hardware cloth did you use on the hoppers? Thanks.

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I have no idea how well this food would work for mice or rats... I only breed ASF's... And I know it is perfect for them. Connie is the expert when it comes to feed with normal rats and mice.

For the hardware cloth, it isn't the 1/2 inch, it is the size under that. can't remember what it is.

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Originally Posted by Kevin_Hornby

How do you do your water bottles in the 10 gallons Mike?

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Half have glass bottles, half have plastic egg shaped bottles. I prefer the egg shaped bottles because they hold more water then the glass bottles, but unfortunately they don't last forever like the glass bottles do. Will probably go back to all glass.

I made the switch!
It was perfect timing that you posted this because I needed rat food!
I didn't get the Country cres, but I did get 15% protein.
What about Medicated vs. Not? I got Non-medicated, knowing that it would transfer into my snakes. Does anyone have insight on this?
It'll be interesting to see how they do now that they've switched.
Thanks again for posting this!!

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

I have no idea how well this food would work for mice or rats... I only breed ASF's... And I know it is perfect for them. Connie is the expert when it comes to feed with normal rats and mice.

For the hardware cloth, it isn't the 1/2 inch, it is the size under that. can't remember what it is.

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Originally Posted by Corvid

I made the switch!
It was perfect timing that you posted this because I needed rat food!
I didn't get the Country cres, but I did get 15% protein.
What about Medicated vs. Not? I got Non-medicated, knowing that it would transfer into my snakes. Does anyone have insight on this?
It'll be interesting to see how they do now that they've switched.
Thanks again for posting this!!

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I was feeding a custom mauzuri-copy feed in pellet form when I could get it, but my supplier is about 900miles away. When I ran out of that I switched over to feeding pig pellets to my mice and ASFs (several generations of mice) with no problems.
I switched to horse crunch b/c I wanted less wastage but the first thing you hear after feeding is the "clunk" of the chunk of food hitting the side of the bin as it is ejected from the food dish. I do notice a fair bit of wastage when I clean the bins.

Mike I beleive if it is sold as "standard hardware cloth" it is 1/4" mesh. It is available in 3/8" and 1/2" though so throw a tape measure on it and check for us:D

Corvid dont buy the medicated feed!!! It is intended as a swine specific medication to rid them of internal parasites; there is no telling what effects it will have on your feeders, let alone what it could do to your snakes.
Generally the larger/more complex organisms have a greater tolerance to chemical compounds in their diet. Since pigs are fairly close to humans and snakes are comparatively simple organisms, IMO medicated swine feed should be avoided as a diet for your feeder animals.

I figured as much as far as medicated, which is why I bough the non. Thank you Bluebead.
I wanted to bring in up in the forum, so people didn't just grab the feed they saw first... It doesn't say it in large font or anything, so people want to watch that!!!

What about lithium grease as lubricant? Its considered household grease but I dont know the toxicity of it. The good thing about them is that door hinges or garage door chains, when greased last for years.

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Originally Posted by kristy1277

I also have regular rats and mice. Would the hog feed be ok for them too? I would rather have everybody on the same food. Also what size hardware cloth did you use on the hoppers? Thanks.

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Generic hog feed is often too low in fat content for breeding rats. If you must, look at the product labels from a rat feed like Mazuri 6F or 9F, take it into a feed store, and browse through the brands until you find one that matches up closely in regards to ingredients listed, fat, protein, fiber and minerals. Rats are unable to digest most plant products properly, so look out for roughage and alfalfa, since these are often in a form that is mostly useless to rats.

I hear mice do well on standard hog diets and higher protein (20%), but I do not raise mice, only rats.