Finnnally got my collony started!! have a few questions

[TheShortBus]

so have had my 1.2 set for over 5 months now, and they finnnnaly produced some good litters!! first one only had 4 in it and they were all males... so i just raised them up and fed them off. then oddly they just didnt have anymore for awhile.. but in the last week ive got 17 new babies .

anyway, 6 of them are from the earlier set and are about 2 weeks old, and the other 11 were just born yesterday. so i was wondering if any ones ever had the older ones suffocate the little pinkies when they pile up? just was a concern cuz they are pretty much double there size.

[llovelace]

In my one tank 1 have 9-9day olds, 9-6 day olds, 8-1 day olds =26 babies! lost a newborn at birth, then a 9 day old today go figure, they just like to pile them all up, I guess it will be survival of the strongest. In my other tank there is just 1 litter of 9, they are bigger, I guess cause they don't have to share lol

[frankykeno]

They seem to do okay. I've occasionally lost a little one like that but it's not all that common, at least in my ASF colonies (or if it is, they are "cleaning" up the evidence so I never notice the occasional missing pink).

[Kysenia]

The only problem I have had is them acutally killing them off. I quickly learned it was more then likely from lack of protein in their diet so I have been including dog food and since then no issues.

I am not trying to hijack this post but I really stuggle with odor. I am having to change and clean storage every 3-4 days or so. Since I keep them in the house and have no other place to raise I have come up with a tub system but the odor just kills me "ammonia" .

I know the smell will be part of it..but any tips? Again I can do another post since this is off topic from the original post.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

The babies will be fine, just make sure you wein the older ones as soon as their eyes are all the way open.

On a side note, make sure you keep your favorite babies to hold back and replace the parents. The age of your breeders is likely the reason you arent getting big litters every 21 - 23 days.