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Post by Desiree on Jul 25, 2015 11:10:31 GMT -5
That makes me feel better about breeding since you are still putting them away with two colonies.
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Post by msav on Jul 25, 2015 11:20:20 GMT -5
They have actually slowed down. I had the most offspring in Oct- Jan. They slowed down from Feb to Jul.
I started with a single 1:3 last July. By December I had 5- 1:4 groups and had Over 300 in the freezer.
I may ramp up and start back up with 4 -1:4 groups and get a good stockpile in the freezer, and perhaps start shipping them since there is not much demand for them here.
I am currently at about 500 in the freezer I could have over 1000 if I go to 4 groups. My ferrets will average 1 Rat per day per ferret. They will not make a dent in the production.
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Post by Desiree on Jul 25, 2015 11:55:57 GMT -5
That's a good amount of ASF's! My guys seemed to really like them too so I doubt they will have any problem putting them away either. Did you pull from the current litters to get more colonies? I know linebreeding/inbreeding isn't as much of worry but I have human social values ingrained in me and it still weirds me out!
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Post by msav on Jul 25, 2015 13:00:26 GMT -5
They are all inbreed. I am thinking of getting a couple of new lines and keeping them separate. just hard to source them around here.
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Post by Desiree on Jul 25, 2015 13:57:33 GMT -5
Here too. I only know of one person who sells them, where I got my guys from but he's a good 2 hour drive one way.
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Post by bitbyter on Jul 25, 2015 21:44:35 GMT -5
I'm about to retire my original colony of breeders. Their production has dropped way down. They are almost a year old by my estimates and that is usually when they pack it in breeding wise.
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Post by Desiree on Jul 25, 2015 22:49:01 GMT -5
Did you pull a colony from the litters as well?
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Post by bitbyter on Jul 26, 2015 7:37:36 GMT -5
Yes, currently I have two colonies producing well, one I just created from youngsters who haven't produced yet and my first original colony that is barely producing.
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Post by msav on Jul 26, 2015 8:59:05 GMT -5
same thing with my original colony. They were also kind of mean. I got bit and pecked at all the time from them. I put together my other groups selecting only the most docile ones. I have not been bit or pecked at since that fist colony, even by nursing and pregnant females. I have one group of young ones that have yet to give birth, even though the other one has given birth twice since I grouped them. I am thinking that this group my need a new male. (perhaps he is defective)
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Post by bitbyter on Jul 26, 2015 9:37:18 GMT -5
Lol, I've got the opposite msav. The second colony I bought had a bitey male and I was hoping that it wouldn't get passed onto his offspring. Unfortunately that is not the case. When his offspring got to maturity (I held them back longer than normal to check) they got nasty. As soon as I have the youngester colony producing that one is getting culled. I don't need that in my lines.
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Post by msav on Jul 26, 2015 10:14:53 GMT -5
I have been handling the wean-lings every time I fill their food dishes. I will reach my hand in and scoupe up a handful then let them scatter from my hands. I figure that would get them used to my hands. Then i would feed them. I have no idea if this helped or not, It is more than likely my selective breeding.
So every single one of his offspring was mean and bitey. Normally you can find a few that are more docile.
I had so many offspring from my initial 1:3 colony That I had over 100 to choose from so it made it easy to select the most docile ones. But my original male was fine, Only the females. I culled the original females and bread father to daughters with the next colonies. I have not had a Bitey male or female since. I have gotten a few males that would start attacking the others in the group, The trouble makers were culled.
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Post by Desiree on Jul 27, 2015 17:10:34 GMT -5
Rat pups opened their eyes yesterday. They are now moving around so much it's crazy. They climb on anything! I cleaned the cages today (took me about an hour to do them all) and put the pups and mom in a cleaned out bin but because their nest wasn't in there, the pups were climbing. Mom was going nuts trying to get everyone back in the "nest." I have now gotten to the point where all the rats let me handle them. At least to move them from bin to bin. Even our hairless ones who I thought were going to be harder to handle. Rats really are sweet. The girls (Flora and Fauna) now come to the little windows in search of treats. I've been doing mealworms since I have them on hand for the hedgies. They love em. Boys do too but they aren't as smart as the girls to come beg for them. LOL Mom and the ASF's got some boiled eggs today. The ASF's, so far, don't seem to care for any other food besides their blocks while mom was munching away as I left. Cleaning today wasn't too bad. bitbyter you are right, mice smell. Even the girls I think smell bad. The ASF's are pretty messy too but don't have a strong odor imo. The boy rats are messy but don't smell to bad and the girl rats are neater than my hedgies! Oh and I got the mice wheels today. So now they have more enrichment than a couple of toilet paper tubes and their hide.
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Post by bitbyter on Jul 27, 2015 19:01:11 GMT -5
Wait until you get a bunch of male mice youngsters. As SOON as they hit sexual maturity they start to mark constantly. One day you'll walk into the room and the smell will have tripled.
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Post by Desiree on Jul 27, 2015 19:23:13 GMT -5
Ugh! I'll probably pull males for our ball python then. LOL
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Post by msav on Jul 27, 2015 21:52:32 GMT -5
I had a little over 50 male ASF's in one bin. I only had to clean it every other week.
I had 15 mice in a cage and they stunk a whole lot more than the 50+ ASF's. I had to clean the mouse age every 3 days.
So glad I ditched them for the ASF rats.
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