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ASF I got them today

akaangela

akaangela

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I picked up my first trio of asf's today. I am excited. Their cage is a temporary one until I find out how bad they are about trying to ex cape. Right now they are in a 16"x 14" x 7" mesh cage with 1/4" mesh. I was taking no chances that theses guys would ex cape :D. In their enclosure is a feeding rack for the mazuir pellets a hide (just a cardboard box) and a big piece of wood for them to chew on. Am I missing anything? I have the water on the side going through the mesh.
 
Congrats! I've been keeping ASFs for a bit under a year now and have tons of babies. I've never kept them in a mesh cage - only in tubs and glass aquaria but I suppose mesh could work. A couple things I've learned from trial and error:

1. they produce better and are much less likely to eat their babies if given a nesting box/hide spot. They get very freaked out if they have no place to hide and/or have to have their babies in the open.

2. Although I always have lab blocks in their cage as food, they seem to do better and especially, the babies seem to grow better if also given a high quality wild bird mix. The mix I give is primarily millet but does also have a small amount of black sunflower and cracked corn mixed in. They love it and the weaned babies especially thrive on it. They also love bugs as occasional treats.

Enjoy!
 
Thanks, I should have added the mesh cage is actually inside a plastic tub (I think it is an iris?) They spent all night rearranging their cage.

I wanted to put a wheel in it but the cage is just a tiny bit to short :( I am thinking about making them a bigger cage, but working with the 1/4" mesh is such a pain (you should see my hands looks like I got into a cat fight and lost)

If I make the cage out of 1/2 mesh will the babies escape if the first level in inside a tub? Thanks
 
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Now mind you this is just my first attempt at a cage. I have read how bad they are at getting out so I was sure I didn't want to loose them. I am thinking about making a different one with a flip lid like I did for my regular rats but it is so hard working with the 1/4" mesh. I like the bigger, roomer cages. But If they chew through plastic I don't want to loose these little guys. It took me forever to find a trio.

How many of you have had babies get out of 1/2" mesh? I would think they would have to be really small to do that. What age could I put them in a 1/2 mesh cage? I SO much like the bigger mesh it is much easier to work with.
 
Their new digs

Well I didn't like the old cage I had for my asf's so I made a new one. This is the same base size but they have a second story and have a wheel (which they LOVE). and they seem to be enjoying the space. The young female was so funny running around and around. The only question I have is my feeder is made out of 1/4" mesh is that too small for them to eat out of? I did scatter some food around the bottom of the cage so they could have it if they couldn't eat out of the feeder.

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