ASF's killing off males

[replvr]

My asf's in 2 different bins have killed off the lone males in the bin. Is there a reason for this. I am just concerned. The latest one happened sometime last night. And like I said, there is only 1 male per bin. I am down to only 2 males (4 bins). I know last night before we went to bed, he was chasing the girls around breeding them in 'flight' as always.

[Custom Exotics]

My asf's in 2 different bins have killed off the lone males in the bin. Is there a reason for this. I am just concerned. The latest one happened sometime last night. And like I said, there is only 1 male per bin. I am down to only 2 males (4 bins). I know last night before we went to bed, he was chasing the girls around breeding them in 'flight' as always.

Im not sure why, but I had the same thing happen in my original group of 3.2, I was thinking it was because there were two males in there, but in your case that doesn't apply. Not sure, maybe Mike Cavanaugh (Mcavana, I think) has some suggestions.

[frankykeno]

In the bins where the males were killed, how long have the groups been housed together? What is the ratio of that male to females? Have they bred and produced young yet?

[Mike Cavanaugh]

In the bins where the males were killed, how long have the groups been housed together? What is the ratio of that male to females? Have they bred and produced young yet?

First thing I thought too Franky.... how long have they been together?

My guess is that the breeder you bought them from pulled older females from one tub, and an older male from another tub, and sold them together as a trio....

Generaly speaking, you can't do that. I have found that I can only put babies from different parents together at a certain age without fighting. That is from just weined (as soon as their eyes are all the way open) to about 10 days after just weined. Any older then that and they will often end up killing each other.

An interesting note... one time when I put a different line older male in with 3 older female siblings, they initially fought, but then appeared to work out their differences. That was until the girls killed him a few weeks later!

[frankykeno]

I agree, Mike. I tried to slip in a fresh female into a colony once back when I didn't know any better. It was a blood bath within seconds. The colony females took after her and even the male joined in. I've never done that again.

I always set up my groups like you do, freshly weaned. That seems to work best and I've not had a male, or female for that matter, killed doing it this way. I figure they will breed when they are ready and while they are still maturing they can work out their social ranking system (and boy do they have one).

[replvr]

I apologize for not responding sooner, I didn't get a notification.

Anyway, I got all of these as babies (around 4 weeks of age). They were from two seperate litters but they were still babies. Nonetheless, I did figure out the problem.

Since they were purchased so young and I had separated them into colonies at that time...The person I purchased the 4.12 from actually gave me 6.10. I lost 3 males because I thought 2 of them were female (their bits weren't showing in the least till a while later). I actually fed on of them off when I discovered their were two males in the bin. I fed off the one that kept getting beat up. The other two were killed by the other males in their bin.

Now they are all set up in racks, producing like crazy (probably 100+ born in the last 4-6 weeks). My rats are now all bitey instead of sweet like they used to be. So apparently they are your typical ASF. I just didn't realize their were extra males before.