Just caught my Male ASF eating a baby! Help!

[HethaToxic]

I'm new at this ASF feeding (and new to the forum as well so sorry if I posted this in the wrong place) I have a 1 male 2 females ratio. What's wierd is I just discovered them around 4 today, and I counted 7 when the mother left them. I just walked by (it's now 10) and I saw him eating one! But when I counted again, there was still 7. So I removed him and put him in a different tank, but I was wondering if he ate it because she had one that was just born and its still birth. Should I keep him removed ? I read that you can keep the males with the females, so I'm not sure if i should put him back or leave him out. The other females also pregnant and she's helping the one that gave birth with the babies. I have blocks, and I took the hide out but I read to keep a hide so I'm now going to put that back. Theres always food and water, but it wasn't the females eating them, the females are actually being really good mothers. I breed rats as well and thought it'd be the same, but I guess it's different ahahah, my rats are easier to breed then the ASF's.

[GONESNAKEE]

Well they will eat still borns or any that are smothered etc. as part of their natural instincts.
With ASFs or most rodents you do not want to be removing males & then reintroducing them.
The colonies will quite often treat them as an outside threat after & when reintroduced they get treated as such & are attacked etc.
Best to keep established groups & not add new males or females as they are super protective ASFs I hear being moreso than mice etc.

As for breeding regular rats you are obviously not living in AB then as they are illegal here if alive & warrant huge fines etc. if caught with live rats, ASFs of course NOT being rats are A-OK Cheers Mark

[archea]

Up the protein content. Dont remove the male. If you remove and reintroduce males you might have the females kill him. Make sure lots of food and bottles of water are avaliable for the colony. If they have tons of food, water and extra protein....its nature. Best get used to this because it happens alot. It might happen again when the other female has her offspring too.

[tegu_man]

your going to have to now wait untill you wean the babies and seperate them from their mothers before you can safely reintroduce the male back to the females. it's perfectly normal for them to eat the odd baby. chances are it was dead, this is their instinct to prevent the smell of death attracting predators to their nest. I have found that offering a house of some sort helps a ton with numbers. I've probably doubled my production by adding houses on top of the wheels and blocks to chew on.

the houses I offer are simple wood box's made from scrap wood I have lying around. one is just a long house made from 2 boards to make a tent shape. doesn't need to be fancy, and it gives them something to chew as well

[GONESNAKEE]

The more secure they feel the better they will produce & the better chances for the offspring as well.
More hides etc. as suggested above will make them more secure & should help.
The odd time you will get a male or female with a taste for babies that need to be culled or have them eat them all.
First time mothers will sometimes eat their first batches too, but if its repeated its cull time for them, Mark

[HethaToxic]

Really, I never knew that about AB .. but no I live in Ontario. I didn't realize this was an AB forum until after I posted. Thanks for all the info. I had a hide in with the rats but the females keep taking the hide putting it on top of the babies and then the both of them would sit in the hide. I thought they were going to crush them! lol But if I have to scrap this colony if they wont take back the male when the babies are weaned then I'll just scrap it, and get a new one. I know now though to leave them in haha. Thanks for all the info really appreciate it.