PLEASE take a look...

[Mitch21]

I've had my trio of ASFs since the end of October... Everything's been fine and they've been producing extremely well. I just looked into their tub this morning and I noticed that one of my breeder girls is sleeping in a corner by herself. I looked a bit closer and noticed that she had 3 smaller circular clumps of fur missing. The missing clumps are big enough that you can see the skin and there is some dried blood.

My only idea as to how this occurred is from what I noticed while I was inspecting the missing clumps. The male went over to her and mounted her from the side. She simply closed her eyes and sat still. He proceeded to "groom" her. I've seen him do this many times to both girls. They just sit still and he looks like he is cleaning them.

Is he "grooming" them? Or is he hurting her? I noticed a very small amount of fresh blood after he was "grooming" her... so what do you all think???



Ps. I hate my male... He's an aggressive little bugger...

[grammie]

kept waiting on an answer to this one. I wish I could help, did you manage to get any pictures? Is she okay now?

[rabernet]

More than likely, the other female is attacking her. The first female to have a litter generally becomes the dominant one. I'd plan to feed her off and hold back a female or two from this litter to become future moms for you. She's close to the end of her productiveness for you anyway.

[juddb]

I havent seen this in my ASF's hopefully Mike or Connie will chime in with an answer. One question for Robin though, what do you mean she is at the end of her productiveness??? Is it because one of the others is bullying her around or does everyone feed off females after a while and replace them? Just curious... I have had the same females and male producing for me since day one, since like october i think.

[Mitch21]

The female who is missing the clumps of hair is actually the dominant one. She has always been the bigger of the two, she's a bit older, and she dropped her litter first.

How long are they productive breeders for? It's only been 3 months of breeding...

If I chose to hold a female back to replace the one mother I take out (or if I simply hold a female back to make it a 1.3), is there anything special I need to do? I tried to hold a female back during December, but it didn't exactly work out... The original 1.2 was in the tub. I left a female from one of the litters in the tub and took all the siblings out. Once the new female was about 6 weeks old, one of the moms decided it was time to kill her. So one night she ate her alive. Definitely traumatized me for a while.... So what is the proper way to 'hold a female back'???

Thanks!!!

[llovelace]

The female who is missing the clumps of hair is actually the dominant one. She has always been the bigger of the two, she's a bit older, and she dropped her litter first.

How long are they productive breeders for? It's only been 3 months of breeding...

If I chose to hold a female back to replace the one mother I take out (or if I simply hold a female back to make it a 1.3), is there anything special I need to do? I tried to hold a female back during December, but it didn't exactly work out... The original 1.2 was in the tub. I left a female from one of the litters in the tub and took all the siblings out. Once the new female was about 6 weeks old, one of the moms decided it was time to kill her. So one night she ate her alive. Definitely traumatized me for a while.... So what is the proper way to 'hold a female back'???


Very good questions, I hope Mike can fill us in, I'm planning on starting a trio soon, and need to learn all I can
Thanks!!!

[hoax]

The female who is missing the clumps of hair is actually the dominant one. She has always been the bigger of the two, she's a bit older, and she dropped her litter first.

How long are they productive breeders for? It's only been 3 months of breeding...

If I chose to hold a female back to replace the one mother I take out (or if I simply hold a female back to make it a 1.3), is there anything special I need to do? I tried to hold a female back during December, but it didn't exactly work out... The original 1.2 was in the tub. I left a female from one of the litters in the tub and took all the siblings out. Once the new female was about 6 weeks old, one of the moms decided it was time to kill her. So one night she ate her alive. Definitely traumatized me for a while.... So what is the proper way to 'hold a female back'???

Thanks!!!

If you have some that are raising up I would separate out a 1.3 and use that for your next breeding group. I am just very cautious about how I introduce new ASF's together.

I have all my grow outs in one tub until they reach a certain size (determined by how many are in the tub and what size they are) then I separate them by sex. When I am doing this I will separate out my new breeders.

Hope this helps some

Mike

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Where are the clumps of hair missing? Sometimes I have females that loose patches of hair on thier back with some scabs and bleeding. It is from the male grabbing hold of her (with both hands and teeth) when mating.

ASF mating can be very rough. Nothing wrong with it... it is a characteristic of the species.



Mike

[Mitch21]

She's got three clumps missing on her back... If the patches are from their... 'rough endeavors'... that makes me feel a lot better than if she was getting picked on... I won't stand for one of my animals picking on another! Even if they are food for my snakes...

Thanks Mike!

[littleindiangirl]

I have two females (my oldest) that are still producing, but have these losses of hair clumps. The dominant girl is quite checkered, and has small bumps where there is hair missing. It hasn't spread anymore since the first time she lost the patches, she has no parasites that I can tell (lice, mites, fleas, not sure about scabies), no rough handling by the male. I'm at quite a loss about it, but I also attribute it to the spontanuous nature of warts and tumors.

Those two girls are the oldest among a colony of 6 rats total, plus the young. The 3 youngest girls dont show any hairloss, or problems, none of the babies do either. So it's not like it's being transmitted.

I haven't come across any articles about that condition specifically (unless they use a highly technical terminology that I am not educated about). I do plan on taking this girl in when she is done producing to the vet (and put down) for a work up on what the condition is. My vet isn't highly versed in rats, but she is competent and I trust her to be able to figure out if it is viral, parasites, or fungal in nature.