What kind of gore am i in for?

I acquired a small colony from a friend who got ASF's as pets. He learned his lesson when they wouln't stop biting his kids. I am hoping to get them going as breeders however i currently have what i believe is two males and a female. they seem happy and if it doesn't work, i'll just use them as feeders.

but on to my question. If they breed, and if they eat the babies; what does that exactly mean? am i to expect that there is a bloody carcass or will the dead individual be completly gone? i just want to know what to expect.

Normally if they do eat their babies they will eat everything and you wont even notice. However I have had a few body part around the cage when they had their first litter and killed them all.

Pick your favorite male and feed the other one off. Why not fix the problem BEFORE it happens?!


Mike

Eating offspring is something that happens if you have multiple males in one enclosure right?

First time mothers may eat their first litters. It can happen. They also eat the weak offspring as well sometimes. The reason is its their instinct in the wild to eat the weak so predators wont find them.I would never have more than 1 male in a breeding group...

I have a 1.5 I just purchased. Do you think its safe to house them together or should they be seprate?

You can house them together. I prefer 1.2 or 1.3 groups tho

Lets dispel these rumors that ASF's go into a berserk rage and destroy their young for a thrill.

ASF's make excellent parents, with all members of the colony take part in caring for the young, even older babies that aren't yet weaned will help care for and clean the pinks and fuzzies.

If you lose babies, you lost some, move on. If you continue to lose some from every litter, check your husbandry. If you continue to lose babies, make a new group. If even then that fails, just stop keeping them!

ASF's are incredibly easy to keep. All I do is provide clean enclosures, food and water, something to chew on. Voila! Overrun with babies! :cool:

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

Pick your favorite male and feed the other one off. Why not fix the problem BEFORE it happens?!


Mike

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1st off, i am not 100% sure on the sex. I think, and i read the sexing guide, that i have 2 males and 1 female. Originally my friend was sold two males and two females and they killed one of them. I would assume that they killed one of the males, but i think i see boy bits on two of the three that are left. (let me interject that my friend got totally screwed when he bought these) so, one dead leaves what appears to be 2m & 1f. i am scared to feed off one of the potential males cause i might be wrong about the sex. they are currently living quite happily together, so i dont want to act to quickly. they are around 30 grams each and the possible boy bits barely are noticable.

at what point should i see some serious testicular dropping so that i am more confident of my assesment?

btw, only one of you answered my original question. When they eat each other, is it a bloody mess?

edited: nevermind