Feeder ID please - rats, mice and asfs!!

[Wapadi]

Cleaning day so everone is nuts and will not stand still! So I was hoping someone could ID my colors.

Mouse mommy! Really really shiney...Bought prego so no idea what the little ones are. Only mouse I have.

Two different ASF colonies one colony is orange ish and the others are what I have always called normal ASF.



And my rats!! And I never knew they would freak out so much with the flash! SO these are not the best pictures but I still hope you can see the colors!
Mommies - very dark with white bellies and feet!

Big mommy - red eyes, cream colored and dark nose. Little female I am growing up cause she is cute - red eyes, beige hood? and beige spots on her back.



Thanks Guys!! I am trying to learn the different ratty colors and that mouse just completely stumps me...lol.

[snakesRkewl]

The black rat is a black Berkshire, the white rat on left is a pink eyed Siamese and the other looks like a pink eyed champagne possible "baldie" pattern caused by the high white gene.

Mice I have no clue, the asf's look like piebald pattern, I'm not sure on the color designation on asf's either.

[Andybill]

So are ASFs better than the regular old rat? I want to start a rat colony but I think I would like to do ASFs however I dont have a clue where to get them....

[snakesRkewl]

Asf's are not "better" than rats, in fact if you make babies that you want to sell feeding strictly asf's will make the baby snakes difficult to sell.
Asf's are great for wild caught ball pythons and for finicky eaters, otherwise I stay away from them if possible.

Asf's take longer to mature than regular rats and are biting little "bleep bleeps"...at least most are...

[Andybill]

Asf's are not "better" than rats, in fact if you make babies that you want to sell feeding strictly asf's will make the baby snakes difficult to sell.
Asf's are great for wild caught ball pythons and for finicky eaters, otherwise I stay away from them if possible.

Asf's take longer to mature than regular rats and are biting little "bleep bleeps"...at least most are...

Hmm didnt consider that. Thanks

[satomi325]

The mouse looks like a Recessive Yellow. I can't tell from the photo, but if she has a really prominent shine, she could be a "Satin" fur type mouse.

I agree with SnakesRkewl on the rats.

I don't do ASFs, so I can't help you there. Sorry.

So are ASFs better than the regular old rat? I want to start a rat colony but I think I would like to do ASFs however I dont have a clue where to get them....

I think it depends on your situation.
I personally prefer regular Norway Rats. They produce at a much more steady rate for me.
ASFs take forever to grow, but once they start breeding, the babies just start exploding everywhere.
An adult ASF is about the same size as a small rat. But since they're so slow to grow up, I just prefer to feed Norway rats. It takes only a few weeks to grow up to the same size.

Also, Norway rats are very docile and friendly animals. ASFs are known to be a more aggressive species. There are people who have selectively bred for good temperament in ASFs, but the general consensus is that they are aggressive.

If you have picky eaters, an ASF colony may benefit in that regard. But other than that, I would just stick to Norways. Although I have to admit, ASFs don't smell as strongly as rats or mice. They don't pee as much because as a desert species, they have to conserve as much water as possible. And it's the urine that really makes feeder enclosures smell.



There are pros and cons to both.

[Rhasputin]

Your first mouse is a fawn. Fawn is the name for a mouse which is any type of red (in your case, e/e recessive yellow) mixed with the pink eye gene (p/p).
She does not look satin.

Your first ASFs, the 'orangey' ones, are cinnamons (A/- b/b), the darker ones are agouti (A/-).
All of your ASFs appear to have saddle variegation, the name for the 'super' form of the variegation gene in ASFs (W/W).

[Wapadi]

Thanks guys!!

So for the record I cold turkey switched ALL 27 of my balls from asfs to rats last fall when I had to move across country for the navy. Nobody had any problems! I am on the other side of the fence entirely from satomi325 and snakesRKewl. Currently I fed rats and asfs.