New ASF Colony. Got some questions. Pics included

[Driver]

Ok so just picked up a starter colony from my local snake/rodent breeder. He sold me 3 adult females(1 already prego) and 1 male for $10.
Here are some of my questions for now.

1.At the moment i have them in a 10 gallon glass tank. Im looking for a good watering system that I can get them. Right now i have a bowl that i have to refill all the time. I was thinking of something that would have a tube that i could hook up to a large 5 gallon bucket. But i know that they like to chew alot so i would need something that they could not just tear up. Any recommendations?

2. I saw on the size charts in the sticky that they only get to be maybe max 60 grams. I know most adult snakes are over 1500 grams. Which means that the 60 gram ASF would be less than the 10% size recommendation. Should i feed only 1 at a time or 2 at a time with the time comes?

3. How fast should this colony grow? At the moment i have 4 snakes. 3 adults and 1 5 month old. At what point should i have enough to where is should be able to feed them on a normal basis and not worry about killing my supply of ASF?

Here are the pics of my colony. 1 Albino female (the prego one) and 3 brown.

[Driver]

Also is there any food that can be used that is cheaper and still good for them than the standard stuff?

[Jessica Loesch]

I would get some sticky velcro inside the tank on a water bottle maybe, or you can find a way to suspend it from the top.

Food, as per simple man's suggestion, I ordered 40lb Native Earth lab block from national pet pharmacy for 4.99 flat rate shipping. SWEET.

[llovelace]

1. Yes they chew like crazy, after a number of ruined water bottles, I came up with this:

8oz lixzit water bottle mcgyvered




Had this set of bottles almost a year
I just run the wire through the screen top.

2. My older breeders that are fed off, weigh about 78g, but a 60g asf weekly is enough for even the big BP's.

3. It will take them a month or so before you see babies, then 2-3 months for them to reach 30-40g, they are slow growers.

[Jessica Loesch]

Awesome macgyvering!!!!! LOL!!! I knew it was an option, but I'm glad you knew how to display it, the whole hanging from lid thing!

You always compliment anything I post so well

[llovelace]

Thanks Jessica , if you only knew how frustrated those little buggers made me! I started using the lixit bottles so they couldn't climb and chew, WRONG!! They chewed through 5 of the 5 oz bottles, at the top where the wire goes.

[Sama]

For water I use this http://www.petco.com/product/110483/...er-Bottle.aspx and so far it has worked great, because of the design they have not been able to chew it up yet.

For feeding, I am not sure, I am still waiting on my first litter to be decent sized, so I haven't gotten there yet. I actually only have 4 left from that litter, small as they are they are the only thing my picky girl will eat.

Just from my experience, I have had mine since April and they miscarried the first month, but my 2 does raise about 8-15 babies a month, my June keeper girl is a little under half the size of the adults.

http://asfrats.info/
http://asfrats.info/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=646
And of course the ASF Thread that you posted on, the stickys on top are very helpful. Mike Cavanaugh seems to have had a lot of luck with a certain type of hog feed with his.

[llovelace]

Trust me they can and will chew through that bottle, it's modeled after the lixit.
Mike uses Sunny Acres hog feed $10-12/bag a purina product

[Sama]

Hmm, I have been lucky so far then, the brats don't seem interested in trying to clime it so far = D. Which is good, between them and the rats I have lost 5 water bottles recently. I have been trying wet cob, it seems to be working fine, although everyone seems to be craving protein more with it, the dog food I mix in goes faster then the rest. Not sure if I will continue to use it, anyone else tried it?

[Jessica Loesch]

cull chewers and trouble makers!!!

Mine just has the sipper through the hardware cloth. Yay!