A few ASF breeding ???'s

[88Snakes]

So, I have been breeding ASF's for about 3 years in 10 gal and 20 long tanks with fairly good success but I do have a few issues that hopefully someone can help with. 1) The little bastards keep eating my water bottles 2) Why do I continue to experience such extremes in breeding periods? Basically they ALL breed like rabbits for a month or so then STOP entirely for a few months and then they ALL start again. It appears that they are all on the same cycle but I can't really figure out their timing. It does not appear to be seasonal or temp related. Is this normal ? 3) Can they be safely breed breed in a rack system using litter pans? This would eliminate my issue with them eating all of my bottles but I am afraid that they will simply chew through the litter pans. My hope is that they currently focus on the bottles since there is a edge to chew on and that they may not destroy the bins as there is no edge protruding to chew on. So...any thoughts?

[Ashleigh91]

I can't help with the breeding cycles, but what kind of water bottles are you using? I'm assuming plastic since they're eating them. Have you considered just using glass ones?

[satomi325]

Well. ASFs grow very very slowly. It's possible that the babies are still nursing for awhile, which is prolonging breeding.

But keep plastic bottles on the outside of the enclosure. If you need to have bottles in the closure, use glass.
Put in wood chews or running wheels to keep them busy from chewing unwanted items.

[BoostedMX3]

I don't breed them but I do feed them. Picked up 4 from kaorte on the 7th the heaviest one was 23g I have one left and he was like 20g it's now the 24th an just weighed him while cleaning the tank and he was 55g

Seems to me like he ballooned up pretty quick so to say they grow slow I can't really agree.. Unless I just have a super rat..

[Wapadi]

I have breed them in a regular rat rack for years. I had one little colony chew out of the black cement tub and when they started on a second one I fed off the colony. I typically keep 1.3 or 1.4 in a tub and they breed constantly!! Where are your tanks located? My rack is in the house so temps are really stable. I also found that you need to wean these guys or the moms wont exactly have more babies for a while. So as soon as I see them eating on the bird seed or fruit/ veggies I pull them and almost always have new babies in a day or two.

[Wapadi]

Forgot....I put wood on top of the rack with the food and they chew pretty heavily on them. And sometimes I throw papertowel tubes in or wadded up paper.

[Johnmb]

I have breed them in a regular rat rack for years. I had one little colony chew out of the black cement tub and when they started on a second one I fed off the colony. I typically keep 1.3 or 1.4 in a tub and they breed constantly!! Where are your tanks located? My rack is in the house so temps are really stable. I also found that you need to wean these guys or the moms wont exactly have more babies for a while. So as soon as I see them eating on the bird seed or fruit/ veggies I pull them and almost always have new babies in a day or two.

Ditto. I had the same problem as the OP untill i started pulling the babies away quicker and putting them in a grow tub. I get many more litters now by a wide margin. Wapadi hit the nail on the head.

[elduki]

If the enclosure gets over populated, they will stop breeding

[I-KandyReptiles]

Haha this thread is 3 months old.