Go for ASF colony?

[eskye]

Hello,

I just started a mouse colony of 1.8 but that will mostly just cover my multitude of other snakes. I have the chance to pick up some ASF and start a colony, since I do not raise my own rats. I have about 30 snakes total and 13 are bps, most not eating much larger than adult mice at the moment.

I'm wondering if I should go ahead an start the ASF colony? Rats would be a bit too overwhelming, but I don't mind mice because they're cute and their stink matches my hedgehogs at the moment. Would ASF rats ruin my snakes on feeding? I like the idea of ASF over Norway rats, but I have heard they're like candy for kids, or waxworms for leopard geckos.

Should I go for it if they're cheap?

[spitzu]

FYI, you might find the answer to your question already on the ASF forum here: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/forum....php?129-ASF-s

[Kaorte]

I think ASFs would be a good choice for you. They have a TON of babies and have no problems with back to back litters. The smell is virtually undetectable. I have 3 colonies of 1.2 and even after a week of no cleaning you can't smell them at all. Their diet also plays a key role in the smell, in my opinion.

As far as snakes getting hooked on ASF, I don't really think this is a huge issue. I feed all 25 of my snakes a variety of F/T mice, rats and live ASFs. They have no problem switching around. Of course you might get a couple picky eaters, but it has less to do with the type of feeder and more to do with the snake.

I hate mice, I would never breed them just because they are so smelly. The ASFs work really well for my ball python dominated collection. They might not work for everyone though.

[eatgoodfood]

I currently have two colonies of ASF a 1.2 and a 1.3. Their ok, wife hates them, dont smell really at all if I clean them twice a week, my issue is that the majority of my balls are adult or sub adult females that eat rats, or if I feed ASFs, full grown ones. So I have about 20 med mouse sized ASFs and a bunch of babies. So I have to wait a few more months till their large enough for my females or feed like 4 of them to my males. But I have had no issues switching between mice, ASFs and rats with any of the BPs. I guess what I was trying to say is when your snakes are larger, ASFs dont make much sense, I will likely start breeding some Rats as well.

[decensored]

Hello,

I just started a mouse colony of 1.8 but that will mostly just cover my multitude of other snakes. I have the chance to pick up some ASF and start a colony, since I do not raise my own rats. I have about 30 snakes total and 13 are bps, most not eating much larger than adult mice at the moment.

I'm wondering if I should go ahead an start the ASF colony? Rats would be a bit too overwhelming, but I don't mind mice because they're cute and their stink matches my hedgehogs at the moment. Would ASF rats ruin my snakes on feeding? I like the idea of ASF over Norway rats, but I have heard they're like candy for kids, or waxworms for leopard geckos.

Should I go for it if they're cheap?

It's really up to you. It's not necessarily true that you wont be able to get them back onto Norway. They do tend to have a hard time switching back but it's not impossible. I breed both ASF and Norway because I can't get some of my BP's to take the Norways. But be prepared to feed off A LOT of full grown adults. My 2000+ gram female eats 4 - 5 full grown adults. Where as a similar sized BP on Norway would take ONE rat that's around the same age.

There are many pros to breeding ASF, but you can expect to have approximately 3 ASF breeding females/ snake to keep up with food demands. If you have 30 snakes, that's 90 females. ASF do best IMO in a 1.3 breeding group. Which means you'd need around 30 colonies.. you could get away with 10 if your BP's are eating adult mice but by the time they are all adults you'll need a huge amount.

[eskye]

I did do searching and researching on asf, but I did not feel any of the topics I went through matched my current situation. I know how to use a search bar.

Thanks for the replies. As for how many I'd need, well, I'm probably only going to use them for my bps. My mice should cover for my corns, as well as the 3+ months stock of frozen feeders in my freezer. I do plan to euthanize and freeze them, so I'll build up a stock from a starter colony a bit before I start feeding off.

I'm going to go ahead and do that, then. I'm going to get two colonies of 1:3 and go from there.

[snakesRkewl]

asf's stink as much as any other rodent if you don't clean them.
I kept asf's on kiln dried pine and cleaned them once a week and trust me at the 7 day mark they stink HORRIBLE.

My experience with asf's

Pro's
Asf's are like crack to many ball pythons

Cons
Asf's are like crack to many ball pythons
Asf's make it very difficult to sell snakes should you want to
Asf's are slow growers
Asf's like to kill their male, making it difficult to keep groups viable
Asf's are not big enough for full sized adult females without offering multiple meals weekly.

In general, rats rule