bigger monsters than i thought

[matt71915]

So i get home from school and i start cleaning the rat rack. I get the my colony of asfs. I pull out the tub and i see a dead bloody rat. Its the male. his back end it bloody and bitten. They have been together for over for 2 months now and all was well until now.
It seems like im having the worst start possible in starting to breed the asfs

Also do you think i will be able to reintro a new male with out the same result. Would you recommend trying it and watching them for a while or start all over with a new trio

[mainbutter]

I have never heard of anyone successfully introducing a new ASF to an established colony. If any of the females are preggo you can hold back a male though.

[matt71915]

i think i have 2 preggos but im not sure yet, i have seen him doing in the act with 1 so far which was with the 2nd biggest female. so im figuring that if shes already trying to be bred then the biggest one should be too

would it be any different if i got a male weaner and put it in with the group and have him grow up with them?

it looks like ill just get a trio or 2 and start over
thanks!
Matt

[mainbutter]

no one was answering right away so i just wanted to give you some second hand knowledge and warn about introducing a new ASF that would likely end up killed as well.

I don't breed ASFs myself though so I can't give definitive answers, but i wouldn't be surprised if introducing a weaner is just as likely to result in a kill as introducing an adult.

[matt71915]

yeah your probably right
im bummed ive spent 3 months on these guys to get this and now have to start over
oh well

I wanna see what other have to say or suggest other options for what i should do

feeders
add a weaner
add a small/ medium male

If they are to be feeders i will wait and see if one may be preggo first

Matt

[matt71915]

so i decided to get a male and try and intro him into the group. I decided to put them into a glass tank so i can keep a good eye on them. when i put them in there they all faught and did their little ninja kicks and all. We all know that asfs love wheels right. So i put there wheel back in and gave them a paper towel tube... NO more fighting! they are all just trying to run on the wheel. The male is already starting to get busy too i hope it just stays this way!

Matt

[matt71915]

i just realized that if the females are preggo from the other male the new male will kill the litters right away wont he?

Matt

[littleindiangirl]

i just realized that if the females are preggo from the other male the new male will kill the litters right away wont he?

Matt

No, because you can't introduce a new male to an already established colony. So there wont be any male around to kill any babies.

[matt71915]

i have the new male in there because i wanted to see if it can be done. And so far its working

So if the females give birth to the previous males babies wont the new male kill them?

[mainbutter]

i've always wanted to know if anyone has ever REALLY tried to find ways to introduce new males to an established colony.

What if pull one of the females and introduce the male? One female isn't exactly a "colony" anymore