ASF Food Hoppers

[oOo2-FrEsH-oOo]

Someone is about to give me about a dozen ASF's, and I was wandering if they could eat through 1/4in. Hardware cloth? I've seen the DIY's on the hoppers but didn't see what sizedv they used for them. Thanks in advance!

[RichsBallPythons]

I used hoppers and it does help keep them busy from chewing on the cage, But after few months food was being wasted. So i would daily toss in food to get them though each day.

[Rhasputin]

Yep, save your time and money, and just throw the food on the litter every 2-3 days.

[oOo2-FrEsH-oOo]

Yeah. After I posted this thread I started reading about that. Thanks!

[SquamishSerpents]

i haven't had any problems whatsoever with them chewing through, or wasting food. are you talking about having the hoppers dangling down inside of a rat container? or do you have racks?

we have 2 racks and have zero problems.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

i haven't had any problems whatsoever with them chewing through, or wasting food. are you talking about having the hoppers dangling down inside of a rat container? or do you have racks?

we have 2 racks and have zero problems.

It does not matter if it is a food hopper or a rack where u just put food on top screen. Either way you will waste a lot of food (unless you are measuring exactly how much u are putting on the hopper or top screen and waiting till all crumbs are gone before providing more.

The problem is that asf's are the biggest chewers in the world. Any time you give them food... In a hopper, on a top screen, or dumping it on substrate they will chew the food up. When they are full and can't eat any more they will still chew the food up and just spit it out.

Most people using either the top screen or hopper will just keep putting food into it so it never runs out. When you do this the rats never go back and eat the crumbs on the ground.

This leads to:

1.) huge amounts of wasted food. Often times people don't even understand how much is wasted because the crumbs are very fine and mix with the substrate.
2.) it makes them stink! By cleaning day there is a bunch of wasted food on the bottom that gets moldy and urine soaked and nasty. It stinks! In fact I have found that 9 times out of 10 when someone complains that asf's stink, it is from over feeding.

[bivman]

I was going to make a hopper for my 1.3 but I guess I'll just keep feeding daily. How much Mazuri per ASF? I've been giving them about 6 pieces a day. Do they need anything else or is just Mazuri ok??

Thanks
Biv

[jasbus]

I use a hopper, but I only feed them every other day.... even then they still waste too much food in my opinion.

[Rhasputin]

6 pieces a day seems like a bit much to me, but it's also possible that i'm thinking of larger pieces.

[SquamishSerpents]

It does not matter if it is a food hopper or a rack where u just put food on top screen. Either way you will waste a lot of food (unless you are measuring exactly how much u are putting on the hopper or top screen and waiting till all crumbs are gone before providing more.

The problem is that asf's are the biggest chewers in the world. Any time you give them food... In a hopper, on a top screen, or dumping it on substrate they will chew the food up. When they are full and can't eat any more they will still chew the food up and just spit it out.

Most people using either the top screen or hopper will just keep putting food into it so it never runs out. When you do this the rats never go back and eat the crumbs on the ground.

This leads to:

1.) huge amounts of wasted food. Often times people don't even understand how much is wasted because the crumbs are very fine and mix with the substrate.
2.) it makes them stink! By cleaning day there is a bunch of wasted food on the bottom that gets moldy and urine soaked and nasty. It stinks! In fact I have found that 9 times out of 10 when someone complains that asf's stink, it is from over feeding.

my ASF's don't stink, but now that it's getting colder here, i want to leave the office/rat room door open so it can (hopefully) be heated by the gas fireplace. i can't leave the office door open with the hoppers full because my damn dog clears them everytime!

i know, i know, don't use dog food if you don't want the dog eating it. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! he's a black lab and he will literally consume anything. i use Step 2 extruded horse feed and he gobbles it right up.

because of this, i'm interested in not using the food hoppers.

so how many kibbles do you recommend i put in each tub, per day? like you said i don't want to over-feed them so they just crush it up, but i don't want them to starve or fight over it and attack each other.

the pieces i have are about the size of a regular dog kibble, a dime or so around.