ASFs - a few questions

[carnivorouszoo]

Ok those of you with ASFs. Help if you can.

1. Do you visibly notice that your girls are expecting?

2. how many females to a male?

3. Any foods they LOVE?

4. Accessories I can not do without other than food dish and water bottle?

5. what age do they wean at?

That's all I really need to know! I luckedo ut my local shop had ASFs in their rodent room and called them fancy fur rats. So I have 2 girls and a male. I think one female might be the other two's mom. Do you think this will be a problem?

I have them in a well secured 10 gal with lid. How many can be comphortable in this size setup? I can easily switch to a bin style cage.

 

[paulc]

1. yup you will deffinatley see when one is expecting as they look almost round (size and shape of an apple)

2. I do 1:3 ratio you could do more but you have to think about space with babies in box too later.

3. I feed pig feed and rabit gain mixed as a basic food, but they like veg as well. Oh and as a treat i will give them the occassional feast on meal worms.

4. pieces of wood are a good thing to have in with them, gives them some thing to play with and chew on.

5. I wean mine off at about 6-8 weeks.

Shouldnt be a problem with the trio you have its only one generation of inbreeding.
I havent a clue what a 10 gal is so cant coment
What ever the enclosure be sure they have no where to chew as they will chew there way out.

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

A 10-gal is a 10-gallon aquarium, often used for keeping smaller reptiles or rodents.

And to add to question #4: I give mine wheels to run on. Make sure they're metal and not plastic because they will chew them up in no time. Also, if you DO give them a wheel be prepared: they will run on it NON-STOP, then sleep on it, then get up and run again. Metal wheels squeek after a bit of this abuse and I've been testing out a ton of methods to get this to stop (PM me if you need help), but if you keep them out of your earshot I wouldn't even worry about it (like outside in a shed or something). I keep mine in my bedroom and occasionally I have to get up in the middle of the night to implement one of my "quiet the stupid wheel" strategies so I can sleep.

I must advise though: If you give them a wheel, be prepared to ALWAYS have them supplied with one. Once they've had one at some point I've heard that they will have major issues if you take it away. I know that when I take the lid off to take the wheel out and work on it they won't leave it. I have to PRY them out of it and when I am halfway to putting it back in they do this giant LEAP and hop back into it and start running before it's even in there all the way.

I have my wheels zip-tied to the top of a metal screen lid because if you just have them sitting in the bottom of the tank they'll keep rearranging it and then get it stuck on something. You'll know this happens because they'll use teamwork to get it loose and I've been woken up before to the giant THUD THUD THUD of them figuring it out. This will happen especially around birthing time because they do housekeeping and reorganizing like crazy before they pop them out.

Even with all the possible cons of a wheel, I wouldn't have it any other way. They seem to enjoy it SO much that I wouldn't dream of not giving them one. Plus it keeps them in shape. No fatty ratties in my house! lol

 

[ZoologyGirl]

I have my wheels zip-tied to the top of a metal screen lid

do you have a pic of this...I'm having a hard time figuring this out.

 

[ghosthousecorns]

LOL I feel your pain Jeannie, those wheels are so noisy and they tip them over daily. Have you had one chew through a water bottle and flood the tank yet?
I can't imagine having them in the room where I sleep, I would probably get mad and feed the noisemaker to my Honduran milksnake so I could sleep! Thankfully I have a spare snake/rat room

 

[ghosthousecorns]

To the OP. I keep a couple of 1.2 trios in 10 gallons, I wouldn't want to keep more than that in one though. You can do 1.3 or 1.4 if you have a bigger setup.
They do get obvious when they are about to pop, see pic 2 days before having the litter.
They love carrots, broccoli, cauliflower
Wean at 4 to 6 weeks

 

[ZoologyGirl]

Here's my question...

I hear they 'stink' less than mice. What is it about mice that stinks that these guys have less of? Natural smell? poop/pee? etc...

Also, I hear these guys are bigger than mice. would a pinkie ASF be ok for a hatchling corn?

 

[ghosthousecorns]

You would have to get it right on the day it was born, they grow so fast, but I think a newborn ASF would be OK for an average hatchling.
They do stink less, I am not sure why. I think it's because male mice like to "mark their territory" or something.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Here's my question...

I hear they 'stink' less than mice. What is it about mice that stinks that these guys have less of? Natural smell? poop/pee? etc...

Also, I hear these guys are bigger than mice. would a pinkie ASF be ok for a hatchling corn?

Male mice are constantly peeing to mark everything as theirs. Females also pee a lot but no where near as much. Its a big part of why males are so quick to dehydrate if there is no water, and mice dehydrate faster than most rodents in general. They really aren't made for dry conditions the way hamsters, gerbils and degus are and regular rats are well capable of adapting to any region. At least that is what I have read. There is so little information about these ASFs.

Does anyone have pics of the same female NOT pregnant then another with them obviously preggers? I just wonder how different it is. My big girl, well she's not round like the picture show above but she's not trim like I would expect. Plus I have heard that ASFs are supposed to be the size of a serian hamster? My big girl is the size of an average, not bred for show gerbil. (show gerbils are WAY bigger than pet shop gerbils) My male is about the size of an adult mouse but has "dropped" so I am sure he is "mature", the other girl is just slightly smaller than the male.

Mine have never had a wheel but I plan to get them one. I am also designing a bin style setup so I can keep some females to breed and will look for another place to get an unrelated male. Or would it be easier to just use a son? I'm not sure how intros are done for these rodents.

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

do you have a pic of this...I'm having a hard time figuring this out.

Sure, I'll try to get one tonight. I have to clean everyone's tanks tonight anyway so I'll try to get some good shots. Oh, and Jen!: You'll get to see how the babies I got from you are doing ^_^.

 

[Drewby07]

I have a few observations I've made over the past two weeks or so since I got my ASF's.

- they DO love the wheel. So much so that I put another in there so they could have two. I often find a pair on each wheel.

- they have almost NO SMELL. I haven't dumped the shavings in 2 weeks and when I stick my face in there all I smell is the food.

- they do reorganize before birthing. Mine built a cantaloupe-sized nest of shredded paper before delivering their first litter...which I found this morning. I think I interrupted her, but it looked like at least 10 babies I could count.

- The pinkies come out roughly the same size as a pinky mouse...I don't think my hatchlings would have a problem eating them as long as they are culled in their first day.

 

[ZoologyGirl]

I have a few observations I've made over the past two weeks or so since I got my ASF's.

- they DO love the wheel. So much so that I put another in there so they could have two. I often find a pair on each wheel.

- they have almost NO SMELL. I haven't dumped the shavings in 2 weeks and when I stick my face in there all I smell is the food.

- they do reorganize before birthing. Mine built a cantaloupe-sized nest of shredded paper before delivering their first litter...which I found this morning. I think I interrupted her, but it looked like at least 10 babies I could count.

- The pinkies come out roughly the same size as a pinky mouse...I don't think my hatchlings would have a problem eating them as long as they are culled in their first day.

Good observations, very encouraging. I'm thinking when I do start a food colony I'll go with the ASF's. But....where do you get these from?

And...if you get a hatchling started on ASF pinkies....would a buyer of said hatchling have a hard time switching them to mice?

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Good observations, very encouraging. I'm thinking when I do start a food colony I'll go with the ASF's. But....where do you get these from?

And...if you get a hatchling started on ASF pinkies....would a buyer of said hatchling have a hard time switching them to mice?

It depends on the hatchling. Most from what I hear will eat whatever is offered once they get eating. I got my ASFs at my local petshop they bought them off someone getting out of them. Hehehe, I got all their girls! Yeah they only had 2 girls but there were like 9 in the tank. Thats 7 males WOW. And they were getting along just fine with each other. My ASFs have had the best transition of any animal I brought home yet. Out and exploring that night! Tomorrow I will start working with them on handling.

 

[Jadie.Glitch]

Here are the images of what I was talking about with my wheels. My harddrive crashed on my main computer or I would have taken these pics into photoshop and really cleaned them up nice for you.... but oh well I guess *sigh*.

I hope you understand what I mean by the pics shown below. I circled where I fastened the zip-ties. Basically I turned the wheels upside down and tied their base to the lid.

Tank 1:

Different angle of Tank 1:

Tank 2:

Different angle (kinda) of Tank 2:

More different angle of Tank 2:

Tank 3, using a wheel that came with hooks already. Only two zips are needed for this kind, not 4:

Different angle fo Tank 3:

Not sure if everyone is familiar with what a zip-tie is itself. It is a little piece of plastic that you loop together around whatever it is you are wanting to tie, and pulling it tight seals it, basically. There is only one way it can be pulled through itself, that is how it holds tight (maybe someone can explain better?):

Hope that helped at bit....

 

[carnivorouszoo]

I used to do that for my gerbils. They'd pile bedding to hold the wheel still so they could climb to the lid if it was on the floor of the cage. Looks good except I think the wheel you are using is a bit small for ASFs. I'll be getting the next size up for mine.