Mice breeding update

[Bogertophis]

....Mice on the other hand are usually easy, but I occasionally had problem mothers back when I bred them. When this happened I would feed
off that mother and buy a replacement... once they do it they seem to become prone to it.

I've never worked with ASF's, but have bred rats, mice & Russian dwarf hamsters for several decades...I agree with Alter-Echo, if a mouse kills &/or eats the babies, they generally do it again, so instead of giving "2nd chances" like I have tried in the past, I usually feed them off if they do that. Who knows why some do it? Not a lack of food or over-crowding, just some don't want to be parents. It's most common when mice get a little past their prime & seem to say "enough! I quit!" but sometimes a new "mom" will kill the babies too. It appears to be some confusion...they get carried away eating the afterbirth & just keep going, oops! But if a mouse has messed up instincts, I don't want her offspring in my colony anyways. Rarely, I'll give them a second chance. Another reason I might (give a 2nd chance) is when they have a really huge litter, some seem to sense it's more than they can feed, & they'll kill just a few...that's fairly normal (although gross) & acceptable.

One more thing: I've found the best ratio is 1.2 (one male, 2 females). More females seem to make too much stress & less breeding success. More than one male is a total no-no, as they'll fight to the death to be the only breeding male. The 2 females will help nurse each other's babies, but you have to hope they
have them about the same time, otherwise the older, bigger babies will starve out the newborns. Rarely, 2 females will keep stealing the babies from each other & stress out the babies...if I see them doing that, I try to distract them with treats (like sunflower seeds) & hope they settle down.