Yep - mixing groups of mice or pulling out and re-introducing males almost always causes fights. Not worth it.

My experience with ASFs is a little different.
The good: I've found many of them to be relatively intelligent compared to mice. They always pee in the same corner, so I leave a plastic "litter box" there which makes clean up easy. I've had breeders since early spring and have not seen any evidence of canibalism at all. No blood or pinky parts, ever. They have a 0% infant mortality rate so far, which I can't say for my mice. They have been perfect parents. Also, individuals can be moved from cage to cage without fighting. I know not all strains are the same, and mine might just be particularly docile that way. I guess I just got lucky.

The bad: I know what you mean about standing on a pile of food, waiting to be fed. Some of mine also do that every morning when I come down to feed them. I have some that hate lab block and will only eat it if there is absolutely nothing else to eat. Others eat it like candy. I leave lab block in a hopper at all times, and feed vegetables, seeds, and table scraps in a dish. In some cages, they pull the lab block out and scatter it uneaten around the cage (a wheel usually reduces this type of delinquent behavior). Some of them throw all of the food out of their dish and then pee in the dish or use it for a nest. Some are absolutely mean as hell from day one, and others are as docile as domestic mice. Go figure.

I've been trying to selectively breed the "knuckle-head" gene out of my colony, but so far it hasn't proven to be a simple recessive trait.
MZ

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