ASF feeding

When I had ASF in my ARS rat breeder bins it didn't work so well, I think the food hoppers on top were a bit too high for them. I actually used a couple 6 inch pieces of 2x4 lumber with a rubber band to hold them together, it gave them a step up to the food and I used another one for the water. I finally put them in ARS mouse bins that worked much better because the bins were not as deep. My wooden blocks would get solid after awhile so I started wrapping them in newspaper which worked pretty good until I got my mouse rack. If the food is too high above the ASF they won't get to it as well as rats and mice. My baby mice will jump up and hang from the mesh above and eat upside down, the ASF won't do that. For my ASF I always but a few Mazuri blocks directly in the tub for the little ones so they could eat until they were tall enough to get to the food above.

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

I use 40 gal Breeders for all my ASF's with Screened tops. They chew through anything else ive tried. They won't necessarily get through a tub but I've had them literally naw a hole right in the flat plastic floor of one. My feeder bins are inside the enclosure and are 1/2" hardcloth. They have a lid on them made out of the hard cloth that I flip open to add more food..just use a little wire to make a hinge. I also made holders for my water bottles with the hardcloth however after a few months they found out how to get to a little piece of the plastic water bottle even through the hard cloth so I now i use all glass bottles.
As far as breeding I don't care what anybody tells you on the Internet you'll only get 3 to 4 good litters (12-24) out of them & after that they drop to 5-6 or they just kill/eat them. I don't know why but I've tried it different ways over and over and the best way is to use a female to get 3-4 litters then keep a couple of her pups from the second litter to replace her after.
I feed lab block too. I use Pine Pellets for bedding with a handful of shredded newspaper for them to build a nest. They wont breed until 2.5 months and pups are weaned at 3 weeks. If you dont get the pups out at 3 weeks they will crush the pinkies for that week as the cycle is about every 24 days. Ive never been able to have for than 3 females to a enclosure as pups are born at different times so the younger ones always get smooshed and suffocated from the bigger ones. The best breeding that I've ever had is one male to 2 females in each enclosure and it works perfect without losing a bunch of pinkies each month and feeding another female for no reason.
If you need any info you can PM me. Ive got hundreds.


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Do you have any pictures of the size your pups are at the three week mark? One of the colonies I purchased had pinkies included so I am not exactly sure how old they are. I am enjoying them so far. They are interesting to watch.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

When I had ASF in my ARS rat breeder bins it didn't work so well, I think the food hoppers on top were a bit too high for them. I actually used a couple 6 inch pieces of 2x4 lumber with a rubber band to hold them together, it gave them a step up to the food and I used another one for the water. I finally put them in ARS mouse bins that worked much better because the bins were not as deep. My wooden blocks would get solid after awhile so I started wrapping them in newspaper which worked pretty good until I got my mouse rack. If the food is too high above the ASF they won't get to it as well as rats and mice. My baby mice will jump up and hang from the mesh above and eat upside down, the ASF won't do that. For my ASF I always but a few Mazuri blocks directly in the tub for the little ones so they could eat until they were tall enough to get to the food above.

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I am positioning the roof of my hides under a portion of the top screen to help with the height issue. I picked up some cheap flower pots at the dollar store and made them into hides. They seem to like them.

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Their really cool to watch. I call the weaned pups popcorn chicken lol. They pop right off the ground & i cant help but laugh. I'll look and see if i have. Pick of three weeks otherwise in 10 days i have about 80 that will be weaned at 3 weeks.
Also If your mom has another litter you will know your pups are about 3.5-4 weeks. Not a difference in size from 3-4 weeks, they are slow to grow. Once they are 6 weeks they are the size of a small adult mouse. 2 months a full grown mouse. Males are noticeably bigger than females once they're over 4 weeks too.


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Here is one of the food hoppers that I built out of 1/2". I removed them for now to see if they would eat ok through the 1/4" mesh. I will put them back in if I think they are having problems. I plan to put them in my growouts, but if my breeders can eat through the 1/4" ok that is my preference.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f94497a2cc.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...efff639bb1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...379ecc0e7f.jpg

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PS- if they are covered in sparing fuzzy hair without skin they are a week. If they are totally covered in hair they are over a week
The 1st pic is 4 days old.
The 2nd3rd pic is 11 days.
Once they get a pointed rodent head/nose they are going on 3 weeks. Under that age they look like rounded puppy dogs faces.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8e19cfbd54.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ae59b56f44.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b3db84c0ef.jpg



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Originally Posted by Cornfed_Constrictors

Here is one of the food hoppers that I built out of 1/2". I removed them for now to see if they would eat ok through the 1/4" mesh. I will put them back in if I think they are having problems. I plan to put them in my growouts, but if my breeders can eat through the 1/4" ok that is my preference.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f94497a2cc.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...efff639bb1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...379ecc0e7f.jpg

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You would have to hang those feeders. once they eat around the sides and top they won't be able to get any food unless the ffoods able to fall so they can eat from the bottom.
The one thing you never want to do is have breeders that struggle to get food. Asf's will eat all the babies within a hour up to a week old if food is hard for them to get too. As cute as they are they are spawns of evil lol. They will bite the hell out of you and kill there pups or any ASF you try to put in their enclosure. Im sure you have already heard this. I tried it as most of what i read ws wrong but that was not. They will kill and eat a asf that isnt theirs or that isn't a part of their colony. You must raise a pup with the mother to introduce another breeder or you can start a new colony from adding 3-4 week old pups together in a new enclosure


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

PS- if they are covered in sparing fuzzy hair without skin they are a week. If they are totally covered in hair they are over a week
The 1st pic is 4 days old.
The 2nd3rd pic is 11 days.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8e19cfbd54.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ae59b56f44.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b3db84c0ef.jpg



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That helps, thank you[emoji16].

How many pups do you typically notice from your first time females? I have 10 babies right now in my "DeKalb" colony, both females are supposed to be first time mothers and each had a 5 pup litter at what appears to be about a week apart judging by your photos.

My colonies are in trios right now. You are saying your best results have been from 1.2. From my first generation of babies I was planning on growing out 2 females for a 1.4 within the "DeKalb" colony. Then I was going to take the other brothers and sisters and grow them out separate as a new colony at 1.4 but sound like maybe I should start the new colony as a trio? The rest I plan to grow out as feeders.

How does my plan sound, would you do anything different? My goal is to have 4 breeder colonies and one grow out for males and one for females in my current rack system.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

You would have to hang those feeders. once they eat around the sides and top they won't be able to get any food unless the ffoods able to fall so they can eat from the bottom.
The one thing you never want to do is have breeders that struggle to get food. Asf's will eat all the babies within a hour up to a week old if food is hard for them to get too. As cute as they are they are spawns of evil lol. They will bite the hell out of you and kill there pups or any ASF you try to put in their enclosure. Im sure you have already heard this. I tried it as most of what i read ws wrong but that was not. They will kill and eat a asf that isnt theirs or that isn't a part of their colony. You must raise a pup with the mother to introduce another breeder or you can start a new colony from adding 3-4 week old pups together in a new enclosure


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I had them hanging but they are kind of a pain because they get in the way when sliding the tubs out of the rack so then I put them on the floor and that's when they started messing in their own food. Gross.

I think I might design one that is smaller and fits over the front lip of the tub and hangs down. Kind of like the tank ones in the sticky.

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Originally Posted by Scherf

i had no idea that ASF's could get through holes that small. thats wild lol

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Babies ASF are as small as baby mice so 1/2 inch hardware cloth means they can escape just like mice can ;)