Great feed. Definitely helpful. I just started with asfs in July. Picked up 2.4 at a show. Split them into 2 colonies of 1.2. They couldn’t be more different in behavior. Colony 1 has been a failure. Only one litter so far and it was cannibalized by the 2 females. The male is ultra aggressive. Prowls the front of the enclosure when I approach. Tries to escape immediately upon opening. Will bite and attack anything from metal tongs to hands. Thinking of turning all 3 to feeders because…
Colony 2 has been amazing. Third litter just dropped. One female gave me litters of 22 & 13. The other female gave me a litter of 18. The male is very shy, hides with the pups while the females will try and chase me off. I’ve been saving the fastest growing 1.2 from each litter to hold back until I have 4.8 breeders. Hopefully I can get a nice colony established over the next few months.
I would save the two females and feed off the male from colony one. Then move a male from colony 2 into it (weaned size and age preferably) and see what happens within two months. @nolagregg
I just had a litter of 16…. All of them got eaten or died of natural causes within 72 hours. That sucked to witness. I have hoppers as well and separated them with a nursing female from the male and 3 other females. Once another female gives birth I’m going to put her into my new maternity tub. Hopefully that solves the eating issue.
From my understanding, you shouldn’t have to do a maternity tub like you would for regular rats. But I guess it would be a way to figure out which one is the eating the babies and feed them off. I would imagine though if you do press forward with the maternity tubs, you will have to start new colonies as you can not reintroduce once separated.
How much protein are you giving them? My understanding is that they need a much higher content than typical for rats and mice, like 20+%.
Most of the breeders seem to be suggesting supplementing with insects. I know ours love to chase crickets and love hard boiled egg. They also get pieces of a suet mealworm sunflower seed block for birds and they seem to like it. But we just started with our colonies and they haven’t bred for us yet so we’ll see.
The only time I’ve ever had issues with them eating the pups is when the tubs have been over crowded. They seem to do really well with harem breeding (one male, multiple females) and I’ve noticed they all kind of take turns sitting with/on the babies, but once they’res just too many in the tub, especially if there’s ones around weaning age, that’s when I noticed babies go missing
Is that why I see all these breeders in videos pulling the weanlings off to community tubs? To keep the population down in the breeding tubs and reduce pressure over food?
Honestly I’m not sure how the big breeders do it because I just have a super small colony (1.3) and am just kind of making it up as I go, but I’ve found pulling out the weanlings helps a lot. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re competing for resources or if the moms can’t handle new babies plus not quite weaned older babies
They can be aggressive if you reintroduce them. I decided not to do the maternity tubs and just separate the weenlings. I think the issue was the weenlings we’re still fighting for milk and left the pinkies nippleless then they died so the adults ate them. I just had another litter with no weenlings in the same tub and they all seem to be healthy.
This thread has been super informative 
Thank you to everyone who has offered help, I know it’s not my thread, but I’ve been following.
I just found my first two little colonies of asf and the breeder even sent me home with an extra feeder, just to see if my non eating girl would finally eat. That little rodent broke an 8 month hunger strike.
It’s a three hour drive, but looks like we’ll be going back for more until our colonies start breeding.
I just had a litter of 27. I think that’s a record.
Out of 24 originally born, 23 survived. I generally go with the attitude of, don’t count your feeders before they hop, since there’s always a chance of SOMETHING. Definitely the largest litter so far from this group, though.
I like the white faces. Very cool.
We use the spin discs for ours. They’re constantly piling on and tossing each other off it, fun to watch!
I just had a litter of 31. 2 died so far. A personal record for me.
Good grief that’s a lot of babies! We just started so we only have 2 colonies. I think we have had like 19 babies? I’m not sure, my wife manages the small furry creatures, I’m not really a fan of rodents. But our asf are kinda cute and friendly. We lost several babies from “stress eating” recently, the cats have discovered the tubs and like to sit on them and stare…
Here’s a happy pic from one of our colonies on cleaning day.
That was supposed to be a food dish, they turned it into a bassinet, in both tubs!
Do they have a cooling down period?
Ours seem to have stopped breeding for about a month and thought it might be due to cooler weather?