ASF Questions

[rascal_rascal_99]

What your asking about I think is something that you may have to just take everything you hear and then figure out what actually works best for you, but here are some things I see in my colonies...fyi, I keep about 12-15 colonies, plus one weaned out tub.

First, I was told that grown asf's will fight, and I don't doubt at all that many people do have this problem. I don't, I do not know what is different and why I don't have fighting problems, but I never have trouble with adults fighting. I keep colonies usually at 2.6(or 7) per tub and don't have trouble with adults not getting along. I've had a male die and replaced it with another grown one out of my weaned out tub and still not had trouble.

I mentioned having one tub for weaned out asf's, it's the black concrete mixing tub which at any given time probably has anywhere from 20-50 of them in it. When I clean cages and have anything to wean, I just toss them into this tub, same tub, all the time...no problems.

I do not give mine any kind of hide boxes, my breeder tubs are about 9x12x7 and they do seem to do better in smaller caging than larger more roomy caging. I've tried using the concrete mixing tubs to breed in and for whatever reason, I get much better production out of the smaller dish pan tubs instead.

I do suggest using food hoppers, I think you'll save wasted food because of it just getting dirty in the bedding.

I also believe trying to put in a water dish is just going to be a waste of more time than it's worth, if you have a water bottle or water nozzle for them, if they're thirsty, they'll find a way to get to it. A water dish is just going to get bedding kicked into it and stay dirty as fast as you can change it and keep it clean. I know in my cages the hopper sized rodents (asf's and mice both) have to jump up and hang onto the hardware cloth that is the top to their cages to be able to eat the food on top and also to get to the water nozzles that just stick through the wire a little...this is not a problem for them.

turning my rodent lab blocks into dust/small crumbs

This is a lot of times a sign of nervousness or basically going stir crazy if you want to think of it that way. Giving them a block of wood or stick or something to chew on instead of destroying their food will often solve this problem.


Charlie