They Ate them all!

[greghall]

mine have only ate around three in the past 6 months,mice on the other hand eat them all im done with mice! my female mouse had babies yesterday & there were little pink parts all over the cage 5 survived now they are in with a AFS litter getting taken very good care of by the ASF trio.

[blackcrystal22]

Thats funny, I haven't heard of it happening. I have been breeding them for a while now, and have not experienced this. It seems obvious to me that either something was wrong with the setup, the diet, or that particular line of ASF.

I have to agree with Connie and Mike here. The only time I've had cannibalism problems, is due to dehydration (of course, my stupidity, salt lines on the water bottle tricked me into thinking it was 3/4 full.)
And even then, it was weanlings that were killed. My ASFs now, won't even eat babies that die naturally.

Are you supplementing fruits and vegetables and proteins? I don't know how that food is, but you might want to change over to a good hardy lab block.

[ThyTempest]

He said he was feeding Harlan, so I doubt food is the issue...I dont see any problems, and we are still waiting for our first ASF litter. Sorry for your loss and good luck setting it back up.

[littleindiangirl]

Before this next litter you get, you can give them a 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds a few days before they pop, but only give it once a week. Anymore and their fur will get very greasy and yellow, not to mention sunflower seeds are high in fat.

Give them paper towel tubes to chew on, non treated wood blocks to chew on. Things to hide in....

If they still eat after this second litter, get some new breeders.

[Midwest Morphs]

OK. I will try the sunflower seeds and stuff, do you put it in a bowl or just in the cage? Also i do give them toilet paper rolls already they love to play with them.
On a side note when will the little ones start feeding and drinking on their own? About what week?

[littleindiangirl]

OK. I will try the sunflower seeds and stuff, do you put it in a bowl or just in the cage? Also i do give them toilet paper rolls already they love to play with them.
On a side note when will the little ones start feeding and drinking on their own? About what week?

Once they can run around easily, their eyes will be closed but they'll go to drink and eat what mom has.

I give them a small bowl with the seeds in them.

[Midwest Morphs]

Ok, on my breeder cages the top of the cage that indents down is the hopper, so i guess the babies need something a little lower to get food from

[Midwest Morphs]

Well female #1 had her second litter two nights ago and I have not see any parts around the cage and they seem to be taking care of them better. So hopefully it was just a first time thing. I also gave them some grapes and other stuff to eat, figure maybe eating a grape is better than a baby.

[littleindiangirl]

Congrats! I think she'll be much better this time around. Babies dont always birth easily, and if the birth was traumatic, the mother is more likely to destroy the litter if they weren't already dead. But it sounds like she is doing well this time. Keep it up!