African Rat husbandry

Well, I checked out TekWarrens afro-rat forum but I couldn't post on it (technical difficulties) so I thought I would ramble about my rats here :)

I am just getting started with these rats but hope to expand them later down the road. I will be putting my colony in a 20 long soon and using my crittertrail (which SUCKS to clean) as a maternity or hospital tank..whatever I need it for. I use pine as bedding but may switch to aspen.
For food I actually do use dog food....ok, hear me out. I bought a large bag of senior wellness (senior by mistake) and my dogs looked at me and laughed. I didn't want to waste it so I gave a few pieces to my rats. They flipped out over it. It has lower levels of protein (can't really remember off hand how much) and a lot of good stuff in it such as peas, etc. I tried lab block but all they seemed to do with it is throw it all over and pee on it...so much for that idea. I mix the dog food with high quality parrot mix and assorted lafaber products that my parrot doesn't want. I also feed Exact rodent food. They seem to like the fruity stuff. I also give them low fat, low sugar cereal as a treat from time to time and unsalted nuts. They get the odd piece of fruit (dried and fresh, I am big on fruit, as is the parrot) and the odd table scrap that is low fat/salt/sugar. They seem to be thriving on this mix. I also give them hard pasta pieces to chew on. They are growing and breeding and I coulnd't be happier.

So any other african soft furred rat owners want to share? My breeding is purely hobby and for my one snake so I don't have rack systems or anything big and fancy. They are my part time pets and Stryker's full time menu.

I just read Becky's mix and a lot of what I feed my guys was covered there! COol....Although she was talking for regular rats but I guess an asf rat would need similar nutritional needs...

Right now I have mine in tanks. I feed exclusively mazuri diet(in an attempt to raise litter size). I have been told by someone who bred spiny mice that a bird mix was totally the way to go. The particular one she likes in particular is for game chickens(since it censored what I called them the first time) and has things like chickpeas in it. I haven't yet gone out to get that, but once I do, I'll have a 1.1 set up in a 10G that eat JUST that.
When I was feeding lab block/dog food/fruits/pasta etc mixed up, I got LOUSY results as far as breeding. I've also got them in various combos of 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, and a subadult(becoming adults) of 7 in a big 40 breeder tank. I also have some young weanlings in another 10 g. I'll be using those weanlings as food.
I'm over on that site too, but it's not really active yet. I expect it'll continue to grow however!
Wolfy

Well, so far my litter sizes are not impressive. First litter was twelve, second litter was 8. Both litters came from same female and original male (whom I fed off). All the remaining rats live together for right now and I want to see how that goes. If there are problems I will seperate but the original litter only has 2 males and the rest are all female. There "shouldn't" be any problems but I will see. Like I said, I want to expand but right now space is an issue. PLus I only have one snake and since these guys don't make great pets (as far as handling anyways) I don't think anyone around me wants to buy any.

Your account was not activated over at the asfats.info...you should have gotten an email when you registered but I went ahead and activate you :)

Regarding food I will be doing some changes also I am finishing off a cheaper brand block food that I think is to high in protein. I also toss in a seed mix or just plain sunflower seed and they love that stuff but I keep it down to just a couple days a week.

I just sold a starter group of 2.4 yesterday so the fire spreads! Feel free to post your questions and experiences at the other site we are building up a wealth of info.