Food Wasting Question

[Jimi_Reptile]

I've had my colony of ASF for about three months now. I have cement-mixing bins in a rack system I built, and have a gravity fed water system. The food is a floor to ceiling hopper mounted to the side of each bin filled with Kent block. It is made of half inch wire screen. I have figuered that the grow outs and even a breeder bin have decided to use right next to the hopper as a bathroom spot. This ruins the food and wastes a lot of it. I was thinking, "could I use the top of the enclosure as a food hopper?"

The rack has 1/4inch wire screen on top of it. I experimented with a bin and took the hopper out and put a little bit of food on top. BY the next morning, the blocks were reduced to little balls. Does this mean that they can eat through it, or did they just try and have all the little pieces that fell off get lost in the bedding?

Thanks!

[Mike Schultz]

They wont lose the pieces in the bedding. Rats are quite efficient at scavenging

[Jimi_Reptile]

Allright, I was just making sure, because Ive read that if thier food gets all soiled in the bedding, they won't eat it, and with no way of knowing, they could begin to eat babies/ younger grow-ups within 6 hours.

[tnelsonflorida]

I started with the hoppers to hold the food and have since switched to just measuring said amount of food,and placing on the bedding every three days. I add a 1/4 cup of "Purina Gamebird blend" weekly and come clean days I have very little or no left over food to clean out.

[don15681]

I use 1/2 inch hardware cloth screening and I have it off the floor of the tubs so nothing soaks into the food. it doesn't even touch the bedding. I did have one soft fur that would empty the food bin. the rest will eat what they remove from the bin. she became snake food.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

No matter what you do they will waste food. The most efficient way to feed them is to learn how much they actually consume in a period of time, and then start measuring their food, only giving that amount.

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