ASF chewing plastic water tubes!

[PsychD_Student]

Hey Guys!

So I have my ASF breeding colony going. I have 3 tubs with 1.5 in each. One of my breeding groups keeps pulling in the darn water tube and chewing on it! I'm afraid to come in one day with ASFs swimming for their lives in a concrete tub full of the reservoir water from the gravity water system!

What do you guys do to prevent this? I'm thinking of shortening all my tubes and stapling them to the rack. I was hoping that I could find some kind of wire mesh that could go over the tubes, but I'm not finding it yet.


Any ideas?

[bobmurffy]

ide put the mech around the tubing so only the metal nipple is exposed! ASF's are chewers and will chew on anything and everything they can get their teeth on! I hope this helps!

[2kdime]

Are you not using the clips?

[PsychD_Student]

No, I didn't use the clips. When I first designed the rack, I didn't even know how useful the clips would be. However, I just talked with my rat guy today, and he gave me a good tip. He takes the valves, and pushes the metal part that goes into the tube through the 1/4 mesh,then puts the tube on. It stays put perfectly. I'm totally going to have to do that tomorrow!

[danrjc]

Are you talking about the flex tubing for something like Edstrom Vari-Flo Valve? We are looking at trying to add this to our asf racks but aren't sure if the newly weaned ones would be able to reach. What size tubs are you using

[mustang91302]

I noticed if you give them something to chew on they will chew that instead i use little bits of wood and toilet paper or paper towel tubes and they quit chewing there tubs

[Chicagoherps]

I use glass water bottles with rubber stoppers. I know they sell some at Petsmart/Petco that are chew proof made by a company called Super Pet, they are terrible I had a lot of problems with no water coming out even when filled completely. Try the ones in the picture below