I guess I'm an ASF breeder now. Tips?

I picked up 5 ASFs at an exotic animal action but of course all of them were males :rolleyes: I was bummed because the closest breeder was 2 hours from me. Well, my mommy surprised me with an early birthday present....48 ASFs!!! :banana:

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/ASFs/005.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/ASFs/006.jpg

I took the bread out, the lady who sold them had the bread in there for them. Her husband died suddenly and had retics. She already sold the snakes, but still had most of the ASFs. I'm not sure if it was a good deal, but my mom got them all for $50 plus a 50 pound bag of ground corn cob, and 5lbs of food.

I do have to say that those are the ugliest babies I've ever seen. Rat babies are WAY cute, these things are all gross and scraggly... The adults are cute...except for the bugged-out eyes part.

Well, around here no pet store carries them. However, when I do see them on Craigslist, or when the family owned store around us gets them in, they are usually four to five dollars a piece. If you were local to me, I would say it was a damn good deal.

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Originally Posted by bsash

Well, around here no pet store carries them. However, when I do see them on Craigslist, or when the family owned store around us gets them in, they are usually four to five dollars a piece. If you were local to me, I would say it was a damn good deal.

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Ok awesome! That's good to hear. We found a few for $6 a piece and one lady several hours from us who wanted $20 a piece! :rolleye2:

Do you keep them just like rats? My rack system is set up for one mom per tub-the tub they are in right now. I forgot to say those tubs are temporary, for a day or two till I get more racks/tubs built. Do the females do good when kept together when they have babies or are they like rats and possibly fight over the babies?

From what I have seen, yes, but much tighter on escape proofing. I personally have no experience with them, so I would suggest asking someone who is. I just wanted to say that it seemed like you got a good deal, congratulations!

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Originally Posted by bsash

From what I have seen, yes, but much tighter on escape proofing. I personally have no experience with them, so I would suggest asking someone who is. I just wanted to say that it seemed like you got a good deal, congratulations!

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Oh ok :P Well I'm happy to hear your opinion on their price! It makes me feel better about my mom spending that all that money on them. I'm really hoping to start breeding them to sell since there aren't any ASF breeders anywhere close to here. Even our pet stores don't carry them. I have plenty of rats to feed my snakes. My sister just text me to ask how many rats I have now, I just realized I'm only a few shy of 100 including the new ASFs!!!! *faints*

No problem, I like to try and help when I can. I am not allowed to breed anything here, just because if something were to escape, my mom would have my head. Good luck with your breeding, you should have plenty to go around, and I'm sure you will have enough buyers for them.

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Originally Posted by bsash

No problem, I like to try and help when I can. I am not allowed to breed anything here, just because if something were to escape, my mom would have my head. Good luck with your breeding, you should have plenty to go around, and I'm sure you will have enough buyers for them.

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Lol yeah, my fiance and I own a house. He can complain, but that's about it :rofl: My snake room doubles as my rat room so if they get loose they don't go far. I've only had one get loose in the year and a half I've had them here, and that was because I was keeping them in tanks. Now it's purely tubs and racks, no escapees!

Good to hear. Yeah, the guy I used to buy from built his own racks for them.

Lets see what I can add. We have raised ASF for some time. First do a search for Mike Cavenaugh's threads. I think he raises them exclusively. They are more bitey than rats,but if you are just smooth and easy they react well to calm handling.You need to go to 1/4" mesh on the top of your rack because the hoppers can get out. Except for the feed area which should stay 1/2" mesh. Also they never get bigger than a Ball Python can eat but they take longer to grow to maturity. There are some issues with males in with females. The Matriarch of the group sometimes will kill the male breeder. We have found that this does not happen as often when you put them in a clean tub, by putting him in first. Also do not swap rats from colony to colony. The tend to fight and sometimes kill the new arrival. Hope this helps.
Good Luck.

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Originally Posted by tonkatoyman

Lets see what I can add. We have raised ASF for some time. First do a search for Mike Cavenaugh's threads. I think he raises them exclusively. They are more bitey than rats,but if you are just smooth and easy they react well to calm handling.You need to go to 1/4" mesh on the top of your rack because the hoppers can get out. Except for the feed area which should stay 1/2" mesh. Also they never get bigger than a Ball Python can eat but they take longer to grow to maturity. There are some issues with males in with females. The Matriarch of the group sometimes will kill the male breeder. We have found that this does not happen as often when you put them in a clean tub, by putting him in first. Also do not swap rats from colony to colony. The tend to fight and sometimes kill the new arrival. Hope this helps.
Good Luck.

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Unless you're feeding hog feed, then youre gonna need that 1/4" still.



Put 1 male to 2 females. They will live and breed in that trio for the rest of their life. If the male dies, you can then take the females and add one to one established colony, and the other to another colony. NEVER remove the male and replace him with another, or sometimes even with himself.
Remember always...you can move females around how you like, but never males.

Babies are fine being left with the colony until theyre ready to be weaned.
Weaning is best a couple days after they open their eyes.
Your first litter will probably be eaten.
They eat babies sometimes, it is not a cause for concern.
Every 26-28 days you should have a litter, unless youre using more than just a 1.2 colony.

Anything else, PM Mike, he's the go to guy.
You can PM me as well, Ive been learning a lot about these guys since I got into them and have a fairly decent knowledge base about em.

Enjoy them though.

OH and...as for being aggressive...they're not really aggressive until they're in an established trio and have bred. Other than that they're little pushovers, timid yet curious.