1.2 ASF colony one momma eating babies

[Kaorte]

yeah its rather disturbing because the ALWAYS start with the head. once the other one drops her litter and you have some extra food you shouldn'r lose any. If you do, just hang in there, they will get their fill and on the next litters yo uwill have more survivors. on my first litter where they ate all but one, we named the survivor Lucky and kept him to start his own colony. I figured he deserved it.

you may see the male try to eat one. if he does, it is because he wants to breed again and the two prgo females will ignore him to care for the new ones. The females may even beat him up a little out of frustration. it almost they are saying "I am a little busy raising your babies, you can wait" they will get into their cycle and produce well. it's just adjusting to a first time parenting thing for them.

It was so funny/sad. At first, all three of them were cleaning the babies (aww), then all the sudden the one female just starts chowing down. Asfs are so cute when they eat! but this was so frightening watching her rip pieces of its head off with this cute little look on her face!

I've read that it is pretty common for them to eat their first litter. I even expected it to happen, I guess what was different was that it was the other momma that was eating them! Snatching them out of the pile and eating them out in the open. Gross!

Thank you for sharing your experience. It makes me feel a little better that I am doing the right thing leaving them together. So far they seem to be at peace, fingers crossed I have babies left in the morning! If not, there is always the next litter! I am just so happy to see babies finally!

[Kaorte]

It might be too early to tell, but it looks like she isn't interested in eating the pinks anymore. She is taking turns with the other momma sitting on the pile and cleaning them up. Hooray!

[wolfy-hound]

Mine did that too, it is disturbing when a baby is still squeeking with half it's face gone. Twitch-inducing indeed.

[Kaorte]

Just wanted to give a little update.

All is well! They are loving the spinach and sunflower seeds. Both females and the male are actively parenting and the preggo cannibal female just had her first litter. I can't get a good count of the pinks when them all squirming around but it looks like she alone had more than 10! I woke up to quite the pile of pinkies today.

They are just too cute!! And so fun to watch! I'm so glad I decided to start breeding my own feeders. As much as I hate to feed these little guys off, at least I know the exact nutrition that my snake is getting and if I get a refusal I don't have to send it to the garbage!

Thanks everyone for your help regarding the baby eating girl. I'm relieved I didn't have to watch her eat the whole batch of babies...That would just be depressing!

Cleaning day tomorrow should be interesting. I picked up a scoop, as per the recommendation of Metal Monkey Exotics, for scooping up the babies so it should be much easier.