How many ASF colonies should I have for my snakes

[Driver]

So my question is how many colonies should I have for my snakes, and how many grow out tubs will i need?
At the moment I have 6 colonies and 7 snakes. I have plans to acquire at least 2 more snakes in the next 6 months.
4 of my snakes are big enough to eat adult ASF's. My other 3 snakes would take a pre-adult ASF.
I know that ASF's grow slow but have a lot of babies at once. I just dont want to get to the point where I have to many ASF's and wont have anything to do with them.
I guess if I get to that point I could start trying to switch my snakes to frozen/thawed.

[azmodane]

I have always been told/followed the rule of 1 female rat for every snake. ASFs do grow slower but have larger litters but I still think the same rule would follow. Better to have too many and freeze/sell then not have enough.

[varnoid]

noob question but what is a asf?

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

An ASF is an African soft furred rat. A small cute rodent that looks kind of like a super cute mouse. Larger than a mouse. Huge litters. They chew everything. Jump very high. Are very skittish. Many are not tamable. The babies are born with fur and move a lot so they make great starter food for BPs.

Many breeders use them to start hatchlings. Some adult balls can get stuck on ASfs but not all. They are a good food source if you breed your own and can always have them available.

They are not legal in every state..

As for the OPs question. Once yours really start breeding and growing up, you have too many with so few snakes but like you said, you can just freeze them. It does take awhile to get your colonies established and you need to grow up a new male and new females every so many months to keep producing good litters so I think you'll be good with what you have for awhile once they really get going and you have surplus.

[Reakt20]

I was thinking about starting a colony of my own. I have 7 bps and a black blood on its way next week. are asf's too small for blood pythons? all of my bps are 300g or less at the moment. how would you recommend I start out my colony? how long does it take to get a good colony going?

[Reakt20]

I was thinking about starting a colony of my own. I have 7 bps and a black blood on its way next week. are asf's too small for blood pythons? all of my bps are 300g or less at the moment. how would you recommend I start out my colony? how long does it take to get a good colony going?

Sorry, don't mean to hi-jack..just hoping whoever can clear up your question could maybe clear up mine as well.

[mastaxaph]

BTW for Cali people. Asf illegal. Just tossing that out their. Soil wisdom

[Driver]

I was thinking about starting a colony of my own. I have 7 bps and a black blood on its way next week. are asf's too small for blood pythons? all of my bps are 300g or less at the moment. how would you recommend I start out my colony? how long does it take to get a good colony going?

I think that they would be great for your BP's. It appears that blood pythons will eat almost anything you can put in front of it. But you will probably have to feed it 3 or more at a time, ASF's don't get very big.
It does take some time to get them established. I got a starter colony back at the end of July. Once their first litter was old enough to wing, I went and bought a few more the same size to mix in to make up enough for 5 more colonies. And I'm just now getting a litter out of one of those new colonies. My original colony has produced 3 more since their first one for me. But none of those 3 are big enough to feed to my snakes yet.

[Rhasputin]

6 colonies should be plenty to feed your reptile collection right now, and your new comers.
If you can feed some f/t then it would definitely make it easier.

[Michelle.C]

Honestly, any excess African Soft Furs are not hard to sell. Most local pet stores will readily buy them off of you. As well as being able to post ads on craigslist and sell them locally.