How to Enlarge Litters?

All of my asfs have small litters, i dont think they have ever topped 8 and they seem to dissapear too. Because of that i normally only get 5-4 pinks per litter :rage: . Is there something I can do or feed them to get big litters and no deaths

Same for me, my asf's average 8 to 10 kits and my regular rats average 13 :P
I don't however lose many to cannibalism.

Do you have more than one adult male per group of females? Usually groups of 1.2 to 1.4 (if the enclosure is big enough) is best. If you leave any extra males that are sexually mature in with them, your numbers will decrease.

Age is another factor. If the breeding females are more than 1 year to 1 1/2 years old, the litters will be small.

Take 1 male and 2-3 females from a weaned group and separate them to replace your older breeding group. Do this with all your breeding groups to keep your colonies young.

Keep am eye on food and water. If they run out for a day, they also may fight or eat the young.

You could also try to bring in new blood. Find someone near you that breeds them. Not the same person you got your original group from. Try to find some colors different from your own to be more sure the blood lines are mixed.

Incorporate a new, just weaned male, from a different source, into one of your own groups of young females.

Telling us how you house and what you feed may also help.

I've had several litters in the 20s from my agouti line, but my argentes only produce 4-5 max per litter.

i have 1.3 1.4 and they are in a 15" x 13" x 7 1/2" tall lab bins and produce 30-40 babbies every month.i feed them the regular block food and as a treat every 2 weeks i give them mouse/hamster food.i never had any eat there young.i cought them male even bringing babbies back to the nest.when the babbies start opening ther eyes i always see a new fresh litter mixed in 2 weeks before i pull out the one i see eating and drinking.if you keep it clean every week or two and put a cheap plastic dog bowl as a hide in there they will breed like rabbits.everything i stated in here seems to work perfect for me.hope that might help.

NOTE::supliments dont work.i tested it out on one breeding bin and seen no diffrence from the others.good luck....

We have had some headaches with ASFs so I'll post what works for us and you can take it or leave it I guess ;). Anyway we had a lot of cannibalism and we were feeding TSC doggy bag. We switched to mazuri and we have increased our litter size from 7-10 to more like 18-22 with 18 being very common and very little to no cannibalism. We have around 100 ASFs and we lose about 2-4 a month to cannibalism. We run 2.5 in a 27.5" x 19.75" x 6" mortar tub and give wood blocks to chew on (don't know if that matters). Don't know of this is right or wrong but it works for us. Have fun and good luck.

Food has a LOT to do with cannibalism, and litter size. If the mother isn't properly fed, then she can re-absorb, or abort fetuses that would have normally (on a good diet) been born.

If the mother births, and is feeling low on any important nutrients, then she may also eat her babies to fulfill needs that her body is telling her are low.

Stress is another factor that can cause cannibalism (food related, is one type of stress), from too many ASFs in a small space, from not liking one of it's cage mates, from not liking the litter, or even not liking the smell of a candle you're burning. LOL!

It's probably something simple like feed though, and nothing finicky like a candle. :P

Im pretty sure its not from housing or stress. Ive had diffrent animals but they all have small litters so im thinking I will probably switch to Mazuri. And Im planning on getting a group from a new line to so that might help. Also, someone told me that they breed better in the heat. Does anybody think thats true?

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Originally Posted by jjsnakedude

Im pretty sure its not from housing or stress. Ive had diffrent animals but they all have small litters so im thinking I will probably switch to Mazuri. And Im planning on getting a group from a new line to so that might help. Also, someone told me that they breed better in the heat. Does anybody think thats true?

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i never seen them breed in the heat.im in florida and my asf's are in the gerage and temps range in the high 80's and low 90's and i have a fan blowing circlating the air for them and all they do is lay out and look for a cool spot.even the moms try to get away from the babbies just to be cool.i belive they do good in low to mid 70's.heres a pic of my hot asf.oh they also eat less to in high heat.

momma with babbies all over the place trying to keep cool
[IMG]http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/6015/1004547x.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6425/1004546e.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5954/1004548o.jpg[/IMG]

I feed Mazuri and rarely see litters larger than 13 and average more like 10 to 11 babies per litter.
I've had a few large ones but not many.
Maybe genetics plays a pretty big part in it like norwegian rats?