Need help with mice and ASFS.

[satomi325]

Pull the bowls out. That's the problem. And no need to scent the Sippers. They can smell the water. They'll find it.
If you really want something, put a few drops of vanilla extract in the water reservoir. It will encourage them to drink as well as make their urine smell less potent.


Lots of people have asfs and mice in the same colony. They breed, raise their own babies, and do their own things.


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[I-KandyReptiles]

there is contamination from asfs to mice? Where I live we can't have rats it's like a 5000$ fine per rat, the person I bought the asfs off (Bobbafett) had mice and asfs together with no problem. I've also had mine together for a week now and nothing is going bad. If you're meaning Norway rats then I understand but none of them here haha and thanks for the tips everyone!

I dont have mice anymore but I didn't have issues with them being in the same vicinity.

[BulkMice]

there is contamination from asfs to mice? Where I live we can't have rats it's like a 5000$ fine per rat, the person I bought the asfs off (Bobbafett) had mice and asfs together with no problem. I've also had mine together for a week now and nothing is going bad. If you're meaning Norway rats then I understand but none of them here haha and thanks for the tips everyone!

That's the first I've heard of it. From my understanding, both species carry Mycoplasma. I've had them together for almost a year now with no ill effects. But I also quarantine any new animals.

I dont have mice anymore but I didn't have issues with them being in the same vicinity.

Absolutely want to keep them separate, you are only flirting with a dangerous cross contamination scenario by keeping them in close vicinity with each other having contact from your rats to your mice. Rats including ASF species carry much more aggressive mycoplasmas and even viruses that dont effect a rat but will easily kill a mouse. Some of these myco's are generally slow killers in rats but aggressive killers in mice. Ive seen numerous colonies go down for having lazy or relaxed sterilization procedures. This is not just true of lab strain rats like SD, LE, F344, WST, Brown Norways etc. ASF's especially those that have been in non sterilized captivity for many generations are far more likely to spread some bad stuff to your mice compared to sterile kept lab strains... Ive had this talk with Harlan's many times and Im quite certain this is the cause of quite a few colleagues I know of personally that have lost mouse colonies and never were able to recover. Once this sets in on a mouse colony its over. You will probably never be able to keep a live mouse colony from getting contaminated again after this. I know of only one company out of Germany that has the sterilization procedures and equipment to rid a space of this stuff... If you're not a well established mouse breeding business then their beginning rate of 80k USD might be a bit much. Most breeders don't like giving away secrets of the industry so its not an absurd notion that home breeders have never heard of these issues.

I do smoke cigarettes and I have yet to get lung cancer...

[MootWorm]

Very interesting. Thanks for the advice! I've been planning on getting out of mice for awhile now, I guess this seals the deal.

[Skilla6000]

So in other words I should take them out of the same rack? This is bugging me now... Loosing 25+ colonies would be a huge hit... I'm building a rack in a week, would they be ok in the same room?

[BulkMice]

By no mean am I telling anyone how to handle their business. Im merely sharing a tidbit of my experience in this industry which has seen our mice and rat colonies healthy and vibrant for over 20 years. We house our mice colonies in a totally separate building from out rats, we also go to great sterilization lengths to assure no cross contamination between the rat and mice colonies as well as contamination risks from outside pathogens.

[Skilla6000]

By no mean am I telling anyone how to handle their business. Im merely sharing a tidbit of my experience in this industry which has seen our mice and rat colonies healthy and vibrant for over 20 years. We house our mice colonies in a totally separate building from out rats, we also go to great sterilization lengths to assure no cross contamination between the rat and mice colonies as well as contamination risks from outside pathogens.

i know I'm just asking you as you seem to know quite a bit. I do run this out of my house and we do plan to move them down stairs which means uncoils keep the asfs upstairs and the mice down stairs... Thanks for the advice I'm going to keep everything as clean as possible for the next little while.