Losing babies for one reason or another...

[Mitch21]

So I've had about 6 or 7 litters now from my ASFs... My first time weaning, I thought I had to wean them all at the same time, which lead one or two to die because those two must have not been ready because they were the runts.

I thought I learned my lesson that day, so I decided that I would only wean the babies who's eyes were open. So my next couple litters I would pull out about 80% and leave the remaining 20%(who's eyes were still closed) to stay with the moms for a bit longer. This then resulted in the mothers killing the left over babies within a couple days.

And now most recently, this last week I have suffered deaths from 2 of my weaners. I found them laying in a corner panting heavily in my weaner tub.

So with my litters being 7-10 babies, I'm losing about 1.5 per litter either because they can't quite figure out how to eat/drink on their own or because their mother has killed them.


Just to clarify before the questions come in... I have the standard tub setup... 55qt tall tub; water bottle mounted from the outside; food hopper mounted from the ceiling; mazuri 6f, wheel mounted from the ceiling; adequately sized hides; equine fresh bedding

I'd love to know if I'm doing something wrong or just EXACTLY what everyone's routines are...



THANKS!!

[Beardedragon]

I keep mine in for a week after they open their eyes, and then wean them.

[anatess]

I leave the babies in there until mom drops another litter, then the previous litter gets separated by sex and put in the other tanks. I've only had 4 litters though, so I'm not even sure I'm doing this right. But, so far, I have had 0 offspring deaths. All 3 weaned litters are sharing the same tank which didn't incite any wars everytime the new litter gets mixed in with the older set. They are all from the same parents (I only have one trio - with one female died a mysterious death 2 weeks after she delivered her first litter - so only a duo right now until the new female breeder comes of age). I even added an ex-breeder in the male tank (I bought a trio of ex-breeders to feed my older snake while waiting for the weanlings to grow up to a large size) - I separated the male ex-breeder from the females just to make sure they don't have menopause babies. I didn't want him to be lonely, so I mixed him in with the male weanlings and observed them the entire day... they all piled up on top of each other sleeping, so it was good. It's been over a week and they're still in there happily living together. So, I think I'm a little lucky with my well-behaved ASF's.

[hoax]

I wait until they all have their eyes open and I see them eating and drinking on their own. I have this luxury because I only have 50 right now.

You will also see the mother not letting them nurse. This may very with other peoples litters but this is how mine work.

Hope this helps some.