I have an asf....

When I went to get a feeder for my hatchling, the guy at the store said that scenting the feeder with an asf might entice the hatchling to eat, so he gave me an asf hopper. Its alive and I'm pretty sure its a male since he said females run $20 in this area.

Is there any way to tame it? I would keep it for a pet because its so darn cute but I don't want to keep it if its going to be aggressive.

It will depend on how aggressive the line it comes from is. They are also very, very social animals so keeping him by himself will probably result in a miserable animal that is even more difficult to tame. Any chance you can get a friend for him?

I have several that I've handled daily since birth and they are about as tame as socialized mice. They'll climb all over me, groom my fingers and ride around on my shoulder but they aren't 'cuddly' like a pet norway rat. They are cute little things though, so good luck.

I've seen youtube videos of someone who trained their ASF to perform various actions, much like some people do with mice or rats.

I will try and find him a friend. If I could find him a female, would it be ok to introduce them this early? I've heard that people tend to introduce breeding groups when the asfs are still young and it reduces the chance of them killing each other. I will try and get a weight on him and take a picture or two for you guys. He's incredibly cute and I would really like to find a female to breed with him. But NOBODY in this area keeps them or breeds them, to my knowledge.

Its definitely different over here, ASFs seem to be readily available here. I got my first few colonies from CL and they were like $1 each. I couldn't imagine $20 for one female. :O

I have upwards of 200 now between colonies and the grow-up tank.

I have 6 colonies.
1.3
1.4
1.5

They all seem very productive, but the 1.5 definitely seems to have tons of babies and they might produce too many for efficient output.

To bad i cant ship them i started with 3 males 10 females and now i cant feed them off fast enough i had to feed off my breeders and start over and still have to many :)

Yea, if I could find someone close by that breeds them, I'd love to get into breeding them. They seem a lot easier than mice or rats. If I get this little guy a buddy (I'm guessing he's male) and its a male, will they be ok since they are so young?

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Yea, if I could find someone close by that breeds them, I'd love to get into breeding them. They seem a lot easier than mice or rats. If I get this little guy a buddy (I'm guessing he's male) and its a male, will they be ok since they are so young?

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Yes they will the only time you will have trouble is if you had both of them with a female !

Thanks. I will be going to the same store tomorrow or Tuesday so I'll find him a friend. :) :D

breeding asf is not that hard ( easier than mice for me lol) I have a bunch but my problem is they take forever to reach adulthood lol.. I got like 2 tanks worth of young asf that I need ot be adult sized for my bps. spiceally with my albino who prefer live to ft pickie littler sucker.. but I find they will adapt pretty well just like their larger cosun the rat in to taking being handle to an extent. just watch for the bitters.