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Multimammates

Dakafall

Dakafall

New member
I was browsing some other reptile forums, and found a reference to something called a "Natal multimammate rat" as a new food source for snakes. From what I've seen they seem to only be available in the UK. Anyone have any more info about these guys or know where I might be able to find some in the US?

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Yup, just looked it up. Multimammate is another name for an ASF or African Soft Furred Rat. I have 12 of them :D They are pretty neat, but are REALLY good jumpers and can be nippy if not handled enough.
 
Ahh, thought it was different for some reason lol, there wasn't much available searching that name lol, my bad
 
They do also make great food, especially for BPs. I breed them exclusively for my BPs. They breed readily as well, although should be kept in small colonies (1.3 or so) and cant be switched around like rats. They are very picky about cage mates and can gang up and canabalize newly introduced adults.

They are pretty readily available in most states with private breeders, just try searching for ASFs or african soft furred rat instead. :D
 
heatwave said:
They do also make great food, especially for BPs. I breed them exclusively for my BPs. They breed readily as well, although should be kept in small colonies (1.3 or so) and cant be switched around like rats. They are very picky about cage mates and can gang up and canabalize newly introduced adults.

They are pretty readily available in most states with private breeders, just try searching for ASFs or african soft furred rat instead. :D
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maybe you can help with my asf rats then. i have mine in a tub of 1-5 and every time they have babie they will keep them for like 1 or 2 days and then kill them. got any ideals
 
The two biggest reasons for infanticide with ASFs is stress in the colony and diet issues. What are you feeding? Your colony is also a little big. I know people that keep them that large but I prefer not to go over 1:3. I would probably split the colony and get another male. Also how big are your tubs?
 
im using the black small tubs you can buy from lows. im feeding them swine food with 16 percent protien. i got to tell you this tho. i bought them from my suppiler and the females were prego already and i got one male. i put all 9 in one tub. they all had there babies and all live. after that they didnt have any babies for like 2 months. they just started having babies again like 2-3 weeks ago and they killed every one that had.
 
For a colony that size those tubs are probably too small. The mothers could decide to kill the babies they have on the ground once they become pregnant again because they don't think there's enough resources for two litters. (enough space). I'd also recomend switching their food. If you want cheap and easy feed them "doggy bag" dog food. This despicable (for dogs) food is available at tractor supplies and other farm stores. It's $12 for a 50 lbs bag and best of all it has the perfect protein fat ratio for asf colonies. So in short: I would remove two pregnant female from your colony and put them in a different tub. Once they have their litters keep one of their male pups to grow up and be the male of the group. Make sure each group of 1:3 has at LEAST a 10 gallon tank size tub. Try new food- see if that helps.

Good luck!
 
As Heatwave said diet is super important but "sometimes" the male will kill the babies to bring mom back into season(which can be every 5 days or so). Smaller colonies like heatwave mentioned often do better. If you find the male killing the offspring then seperate the female before birth. I actually keep 1.1 on my ASFs then I seperate them before the female gives birth.. cull what I need and if I need to raise them, allow the mother to do so. Re-introducing the mother back to the same male after all is said and done. So far I haven't had any issue doing it this way.... I use to keep small colonies like Heatwave mentioned but was getting a lot of pinkies eatten. This method is slower but with 3 pair and only needing a handful pinkies a season is seems to work for us...

I use ASF pinkies (day old) for non-feeders, and have had really great success.
 
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