My very first batch of baby ASFs!

[Fraido]

...The same goes for mothering instincts - if you end up with a momma rat that just really sucks at it or has issues nursing her babies I wouldn't recommend keeping her girls as breeders...

Some people also suggest culling mothers with maternal aggression, I'm not sure I totally agree with it myself, she is only protecting her babies after all. However, I have seen maternal aggression develop into just plain old aggression once, so I guess it is probably best to have no maternal aggression. Makes it easier to take babies, too.

[PetraccoJ]

Where did you order your colony from??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[stickyalvinroll]

That's a professional set up right there

[cchardwick]

Yea, I'm trying to go pro right from the start so I don't get a bunch of equipment and then have to upgrade down the road, starting small and high end. Also working with some pretty high end snakes in the $1200 plus range. I actually searched all over for ASFs and there was only one pet shop in all of Colorado that had them. I think I paid about $7 each, it was a little pet shop that just opened up in downtown Denver. Found a few ASF breeders online but they all got rid of them. Now that they are on the Lacey act you can't transport across state lines so I may keep a few long term just so they don't go extinct in Colorado LOL.

I pet my ASFs a little bit when I feed them, trying to not take any babies until they are weaned so they know I'm not the bad guy that they need to bite HA. I think the glass aquariums are a bonus too since they see me working in the snake room all the time. Sometimes they just sit and stare at me LOL.

By the way, I've been doing much better with my mice. I've been breeding them in a colony and when one is big enough that she looks like she will have babies I move her to a separate tank. No cannibalism at all with that method.

[cchardwick]

Well my colony of ASFs isn't doing very well. Out of that first batch of babies I only have five left, was ready to leave for work and saw a dead baby on the bottom of the cage half eaten. So I moved the female and the last of her babies to their own 10 gallon glass critter cage. She seemed pretty beat up, her tail was pretty beat up too, probably trying to protect the babies. On the plus side I had a female Arizona mountain king snake that has not eaten in months. She actually ate the dead half eaten baby ASF within about 30 seconds LOL! Looks like ASFs are the trick for picky eaters. It was actually a bigger meal than she has ever eaten too. From now on I'm going to move all my female mice, rats, and ASF to a separate cage for having young and raising them. The whole colony breeding thing just isn't working for me, it may work to house males and several females but it doesn't seem to work with babies in the mix.

[Fraido]

I definitely would separate pregnant females into their own bins for giving birth and raising the babies. Especially with ASFs and mice, to be honest. I don't find it to be much of an issue with rats, but I still think it's best to separate.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk