I am having terrible luck with ASF

Two groups:
10 gal tanks, 1.2 each.

My females dont seem to be taking good care of their babies. Usually they will have about ten and within a week or so all the babies will be gone. One of my girls had ten babies late October, they were all doing well and growing. The other day I came home from school and they are all gone!
I have had two littlers that grew old enough to separate from the mothers, Only about 5 from each lasted. I put the weaners into a 20 gallon tank, they did ok for a while, but then they started being killed off by siblings. I would find just hides of baby rats. Today I check on the four that were left, two are dead on the ground with just their skulls and brains removed! It was awful.
I use dishes for their water, and feed mazuri rat food. I give them honey nut cheerios on occasion as a treat. I keep them on pine bedding.

Does anyone see what could be going wrong? Im so frustrated. All my girls have given birth at least twice and nothing changes. Do they just need a bit more time?

Thanks for your time, please let me know if you have any tips!
Sam

dont give them cerel gave some cerel to mine once & they all died younger ones did,maybe you can swap out the groups sometimes you get a killer i nthe group & they keep killing young.

Bring in a group from another source when I started 2 yrs ago I had tumor problems and production issues with my original trios. I mixed them up a little and all the problems are gone there awesome now no complaints here.

ive been keeping 2.4 in 10g and they seem to be doing quite well, about to wean off my 2nd round of babies. i feed em lab blocks and mainly hamster/gerbil food since they do better on lower protein than the rats. seems to be working a lot better than jsut straight lab blocks. unlike the rats, they also dont get table scraps or anything like that either. just lab block and the gerbil seed/froot loops looking mix

Mine will kill eachother when there is no water, check to see if your water bottles are working properly.

Edit: must have missed the dishes part...maybe you should think about getting water bottles? it is cleaner and could help

I would suggest getting rid of the bowls for water. Thats a problem in its self which could be a reason for most of if not all your problems. Rodents need Fresh water not exposed to the elements in a open bowl.

water dishes could be the problem. if not i would try separating the mother once you know she pregnant and figuring out whos doing the killing and why. sounds to me like their not getting water by what you described

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

water dishes could be the problem. if not i would try separating the mother once you know she pregnant and figuring out whos doing the killing and why. sounds to me like their not getting water by what you described

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With ASF once you get a group started, its very hard to separate females/males and reintroduce them without major fighting and or death.

forgot to comment before on that as well, ditch the bowls asap

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

With ASF once you get a group started, its very hard to separate females/males and reintroduce them without major fighting and or death.

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I've noticed that also, i just resorted to inbreeding the crap outta them, no bad results so far and im about 5 or so generations in, but im sure its gonna catch up to me. got any tips?

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

I've noticed that also, i just resorted to inbreeding the crap outta them, no bad results so far and im about 5 or so generations in, but im sure its gonna catch up to me. got any tips?

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Most ASF are inbred to hell. Hard to get new blood lines unless you travel out of state.

I when females are worn out will feed them off and keep 3-4 females from the last litter and raise them up. Will also hold 2 males as well. When doing this i can then mix them up within all the groups so help with production.

Mice i cant keep track of at all. Mine are about 200 generations deep by now with no new blood in 2 years. Im afraid to add new blood into it and then they stop.

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Originally Posted by marwari31

Mine will kill eachother when there is no water, check to see if your water bottles are working properly.

Edit: must have missed the dishes part...maybe you should think about getting water bottles? it is cleaner and could help

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This HAS to be it. I definitely need a better way to hydrate them. Their dishes get dirty so fast.

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Originally Posted by SK_Exotics

This HAS to be it. I definitely need a better way to hydrate them. Their dishes get dirty so fast.

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Yes get the glass water bottles this might be the major issue. I didn't notice you were useing bowls they get filthy in a matter of minutes.