Ah well, too late for the old girl!Originally Posted by frankykeno
Robin, I firmly believe there is a dominancy hierarchy within the females in any ASF group. As they begin their breeding cycles at maturity I've seen them start to fuss (even sisters raised together) at each other. When I see it I let it go on as long as nobody's getting chewed up badly because I think they need to sort it out for the good of the colony structure. If it starts to get too much I give the bully a strong squirt of cold water in the face. From what I've seen so far, ASF's simply HATE being wet. Anytime I want to back an ASF off me or another rat or whatever, my misting bottle flipped over to from mist to blast works real well.
As long as they have a hide and numerous tubes to run into the less dominant females can generally get away from the dominant female. I've seen one of our dominant females, when her sisters all dove for cover, go over and smack around the poor male who was just minding his own business and eating quietly. We now refer to her as Big "B" (words rhymes with witch LOL). Since that colony is in full production now she's much less pushy with the other females but will still have her days when she has to run around and remind everyone she is boss lady of the colony.
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