ASF cannibalism proof.

[Coolbassman]

Ok. So I walked in on this situation, therefore, there are many possibilities as to what transpired before I arrived.

When I went to check on my ASF colonies I saw that my newest breeding group finally had a litter. Upon closer inspection there was one alive and one chewed completely in half. Just in case, I removed the live baby and placed it in another colony. I then snapped this picture to show you all. I know I've been asking if ASF's eat babies for some time now. And here is the proof. The bottom half of the body was completely gone.

[jsmorphs2]

Sorry . Sometimes the first litter gets cannibalized. I usually cull females or groups if it continues after a few litters.

[RichsBallPythons]

Ive never had it happen, But with ASF, if they arent well fed on quality blocks and water, they eat the young

[Jessica Loesch]

New moms sometimes eat the young too. Or bad stock. My head spot cinny had 2 litters before they didn't get eaten, the others had litters where only a few got eaten. Could have just been that they died and then got eaten.

Either way, it's not always because of something missing, sometimes mom just is too young or sucks.

[SquamishSerpents]

i've had that happen a couple of times too. it's not pretty to see, that's for sure. i'm hoping to get them on a better diet soon, though the cannibalism hasn't been a problem lately.

but yuck

[llovelace]

I have not had a problem with my asf's eating their young, even if there are any stillbirths in the litter.

[bsavage]

Today I went into my rat shed to find my entire grow up bin of females dead, except for one, who seemed pretty twitchy and generally just not right(10 dead total, stock is low, thank God it wasn't 30-40 like it is usually).

I think this was due to a lack of water, as they managed to drain their bottle(which is massive, and I just filled it two days ago; wood pellets had all expanded, there was like 4 inches of substrate of mushy substrate), and must've started killing each other in search of hydration. I feel awful as I'm sure this was preventable, and I'll be sure to check the bottles from here on out, but it was like looking at the Valentine's Day massacre.

Brutal, but they will cannibalize if the need to exists. Another reason I think its the water was the second I refilled the bottle(and replaced the cap in case it was that which malfunctioned) she drank from it for at least 10 minutes non-stop.

I feel just awful as that was a weeks supply of food for my younger snakes, and the poor ASF's essentially died for nothing, due mostly to my lack of attention....I'm down in the dumps to say the least....

[grits]

The only time i have had a problem with cannibalism is when we switched from rodent block to hog feed. It didnt take me long at all to switch back

[enchinoman]

I have had the problem before and the way I handle it is the following:
I write a big red "M" for murderers on their tank and give them a second chance, if it continues, they get replaced.

[pitoon]

they'll sometimes eat each other too! ......it happens sometimes!

Pitoon