Hey y’all!
I’m looking into breeding ASFs for my collection of snoots and have been looking at my options for enclosures.
I’m only going to have a max of two colonies at a time, plus a grow-out tub and with the room I have access to in my apartment, I’m not looking to do a rack system.
I’d like to switch over to lab style caging at some point, though I’ve been having a difficult time sourcing rat-sized breeding cages.
As I plan on getting young, recently weaned ASFs to try hand-taming and then selecting the friendliest to form my first colony, my thought was to prepare a bin with 1/4" hardware cloth to start and then use it as a grow-out bin after I’ve weaned my first litter with the individuals that make it past the first culling.
All that to say- I know that these buggers chew like crazy. What should I be looking for in a plastic bin that I intend to turn into an ASF enclosure?
I plan on creating double layered mesh windows on the sides for ventilation and to feed water bottles through, as well as a mesh top with a feeding hopper. These will be secured with metal washers, bolts and nuts so that they can’t be chewed out of.
I house my ASF and mouse colonies in I believe 60qt sterilite bins, and I have slightly larger bins for my female rats to nurse and raise their babies in (the breeding males/females have large wire enclosures they are seperated into when I’m not keeping them in the breeding cycle). The bins have been cut on the upper part of the sides and layered with screen and 1/4 inch hardware cloth for ventilation.
I’ve never had any chewing issues from them (outside of one female rat that was problematic), but I also give them old Jenga blocks and other cheap wooden knicknacks to chew on or play with for enrichment. As long as they are well fed, undercrowded and have constant access to fresh drinking water they don’t really try to find ways to escape in my experience.
But again like in my experience there can be problematic individuals so I’d just make sure to put them in a secure area where hypothetically if they do escape they will still be in the confinement of that area and you can easily capture them. A good precaution is to have non-lethal rodent traps (the plastic ones that just shut and capture rodents. You can find them for a pretty decentcost on Amazon) in the room if you do end up with escapees, luckily ASFs are still small enough to fit in them. I have them set on standby if I get mice or ASFs that escape from handling or transporting for cleaning purposes.
Be careful when handling ASFs as they can be very flighty and can jump very far if they really wanted to, that has been the biggest cause for escapees in the time I’ve kept them.
Oh and when you do buy bins, buy them in person so you can check for manufacturing flaws that may allow the rodents to chew through the olastic.
Thank you so much for the advice!
I plan on heading to Home Depot this evening (killing two birds with one stone in that I’m bringing my puppy to ride in the basket for socialization) so I will definitely be checking them out in person.
Awwww that’s so sweet! I have been taking boy everywhere that he is allowed because he loves everyone! But he’s 9 years old and already super socialized.