grr face ripped off :(((

[rebeccabecca]

yesterday when I was cleaning my feeder rom I noticed that 2 ASF's were ripped apart. One's face was actually dangling( should have taken pics but I do have the frozen asf. I have no idea who attacked who but they have been together for a few months and didn't even give me any babies. I think I might be don with ASF as they don't seem like large producer's like I wanted.

[sweety314]

I've found that when they've killed and taken the heads (the brain being the highest protein) the tank was crowded (which doesn't make sense to me, as there were only 10 babies) and/or the adults needed more protein. Giving them a little kitten food along w/their "Becky's mix" kibble and the rodent blocks seems to have helped.

Maybe their getting too old??? I lost 6/10 getting brained, and another litter was born right after that happened, but it's only five babies.

I'm not an ASF guru by any means, but maybe those brainstorming ideas will help you. Good luck!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

could be a number of things. I used to see this occasionally when I fed Mazuri 6f. it haven't seen it happen a single time since I started feeding the hog feed though.... So that leads me to believe that is somehow directly related to the food.

Mike

[jglass38]

ASFs are savages..That's my explanation after breeding tons of them.

[tnelsonfla]

I too have had this but, only like three out of 300 born. I also feed Mazuri 6F. All groups1:2.

[SilverWolf]

Sorry to hear that. I've had the half eaten female. Not a pretty site. I was about to feed the rest off but waited and haven't had any problems since. I had 1.3 so maybe they only wanted 1.2 in the tub. Who knows.

[wolfy-hound]

I had mice/asf/rats do this, usually when they ran out of water. Once I started double-bottling the cages, they quit.

[chromeitout]

I had mice/asf/rats do this, usually when they ran out of water. Once I started double-bottling the cages, they quit.

My mice used to get vicious when I let them run out of water as well. Edstrom fixed that problem, though.

[rebeccabecca]

I fed them a mix of seeds, rat chow and some veggies. The cages are quite large they are the same size as a 20 tall. They all have a tube so that they can feel safe in. Can you feed normal rats hog feed? Because if so I'll switch.

[sweety314]

This 6/10 has been the only time I've lost so many being brained, and my ASFs (and pet/food rats) are on the Mazuri, Becky's mix and occas the generic version of Iam's Kitten kibble. For me and our small collection of ASFs, it doesn't make sense for me to buy 50# of hog feed. (Plus I don't have room to store it.)

I just recently bought some babies, and since at that time, my litter was approx. the same size, I have two 10 gal tanks that are 1.4 in QT. 1.3 from the other breeder w/the males being a diff line, and then I added one of my girls to the mix. Hopefully this will help with some outcrossing and make my population healthier/bigger litters....& b/c I was feeding 'em off faster than then were birthing and weaning them. *fingers crossed*