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Post by whipple on Apr 20, 2011 22:45:33 GMT -5
I am beginning to breed mice and african soft furred rats for my ferrets. This will be my little journal of sorts. Feel free to ask any quesions, give any advice, ect.
I have the mice in 68L totes. The sides are high enough they cannot jump out, and there are no corners for them to chew. They have water dishes I change every day or two. I feed them rodent blocks, but will be switching everyone to hog grower. They also have dog bones and tunnels. I have 3 groups. Groups A and B are 1:3 (male:female) and the second is a group I bought recently. I'm sure two are pregnant and I am not sure of the sex of the younger ones, who seem to be roughly 3 weeks.
The asf are in a 10 gallon tank with a mesh lid. There are 3 females and 1 male. The guy I bought them from has many asf and the bin my group is from has pregnant and nursing females, so I'm hoping these ones start soon.
So nothing exciting yet. I am planning on building a rack. But funds are low atm, so it's going to have to wait.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 22, 2011 14:58:23 GMT -5
Got any pics of your asfs? I don't even know what colors they come in. Have you tried handling them?
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Post by whipple on Apr 22, 2011 19:26:29 GMT -5
I haven't bothered trying to handle them. And atm I don't have pictures, I'll get some. Sometime today one of the asf females got killed and partially eaten.  I don't know what happened. But I took her out, so hopefully they don't do it again. I had the same issues with gerbils. I've texted the guy I got them from seeing if he has any idea why. I think it might have to do with stress. Everyone else is doing fine though. |
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Post by whipple on Apr 27, 2011 19:43:52 GMT -5
So I texted my snake/rat dude. He tells me it is either lack of water or food. Well I bought them a water bottle and cat food. I would change water daily but they usually had it filled up with shavings rather quickly. It looks like one of my female mice is pregnant. She's getting quite big all of a sudden. So I'm hoping for babies this week.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2011 19:51:54 GMT -5
Yay! Good luck - hope she has lots of babies  |
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Post by whipple on Apr 29, 2011 21:18:51 GMT -5
She had babies yesterday! I counted them twice, the first time I counted 9, and the second time I counted 10! They're all happy, and everyone in the group is taking care of them. The asf are doing great now that they have a water bottle. And thats about all I have for updates atm.  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 21:21:08 GMT -5
Babies!!
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Post by Sherry on Apr 29, 2011 23:39:29 GMT -5
Congrats!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2011 0:05:18 GMT -5
Congrats on afs math |
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Post by whipple on May 14, 2011 12:26:49 GMT -5
Babies are now 2 weeks old. I am considering culling the males. I want to keep as many females as I can since nobody else is breeding. I am also switching around the groups to see if something else will work better. The asf still have not bred, and they do not seem pregnant.  But the male had escaped, thankfully I found him before I moved. |
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Post by Sherry on May 23, 2011 9:36:14 GMT -5
How did he wind up escaping, any idea?
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Post by eschimpf on May 23, 2011 11:07:51 GMT -5
My mom bred ASF for her snakes, word of advice, if you don't have them in a tank yet, move them into one. They chew through almost anything. I had two males in one cage as pets, the one male killed the other. I dunno if its because of territory or not but they can be nasty to each other.
Can't wait for photos when you get them up.
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Post by whipple on May 23, 2011 21:45:43 GMT -5
They've been in a tank. Many reptile people have told me they had success with them in racks, but I only need one group so they can stay in the tank. Anyhow, the asf had babies, 2, a couple days ago! But I sneaked a peek today and there was only one left  The mice are doing good. I built a rack so they are now all in tubs. I'm switching the water bottles 3 times a day cuz walmart only had 3, lol. But they are doing fine, settling in and seem happy. Now hopefully they get very happy |
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Post by whipple on Jun 9, 2011 22:41:06 GMT -5
Alright, so update on the rodents The asf killed the second baby shortly after the first one. Well today they had another litter, but only 2 again What's going on here? They do seem a bit better about these ones, and I'm gonna do my best to leave them in peace as much as possible. None of the mice have reproduced yet. I suspect at least 3 are pregnant. I do have one tub that mice seem to be getting eaten in alot. First a female got eaten. And now today I found the male with his faced chewed off He was cute too! So I'm considering just feeding both of them off. I don't wanna chance having cannibals in my groups. So thats it. Nothing interesting. I just need a little rodent love luck |
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Post by eschimpf on Jun 10, 2011 8:54:49 GMT -5
Hmm how odd.
Okay this is what I did when I bred mice for my mom's snakes years ago.
I had 3 cages.
One for the male mouse.
One for the females, pregnant or other wise.
One for the boys after they wean.
The only time my male daddy mouse met with his ladies was to breed. I would put him in, watch him do the "deed" a few times and take him out. I don't know if that was why I was so successful or not but it worked. Maybe its worth a try?
As for the ASF, they are nasty creatures. Try covering the cages with a towel or something, maybe that might help.
Also are any of them near the ferrets? Even during outside cage time? That could be why they are eating them, the smell of danger?
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