ASF Rats

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Originally Posted by SnakeKB

I love my ASF's. I have a 1.3 ratio. None have dropped babies yet but i feel there within weeks from doing so. Mine are a little on the nippy side. None have full out bit me though. Ill change out food and they run up and i can feel there teeth touch my skin but not biting down. I havnt had an issue with them chewing out of my tub. I use a big 90 or 100tq sterilite container with the green latch top. They chew on there igloo hide, food bowls, and paper towl rolls. The hide and bowls are thick enough not to care about though. They like to waiste those damn lab blocks. I know that much. I watched one pull 8 of them out of a food bowl just so it could lay in the bowl. Lol. It was cute to watch. They seem to eat just about all there seeds and whatever they spill, they usually end up eating it off the substrate when they run out through the night. They seem to like Purina Cat Food and ground up Pig Feed. Lol.

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I had a male that just nipped at ya but once they started having litters, that little nip turned into a full force BITE. I just give him a good little flick to the dome when he starts wandering towards my hand:gj:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I've gotten two very picky captive bred eaters slamming down food by offering ASF's. Also an adult w/c female that had refused to eat for quite a while is now a healthy and still gaining, 1,600 grams. :)

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My pickiest are the het females. Now that one has been eating ASFs regularly for a while, I'm going to see if I can switch her back to rats, and then eventually back to FT. The other, she kept refusing even the littlest ASFs, but two nights ago, ate 2 live rat (very chubby) fuzzies. So maybe I can get HER back to rats, and then FT. I'm going to start breeding the pets again for foodie babies, since before, the babies were growing faster than the snakes would eat them and I had too many. We'll see how it goes..if I can get her Poopy Highness :mad::rolleyes: to keep eating and start regaining the weight back.

Check out Mike's post about feeding the 16% protein hog feed. I used to feed the lab blocks to the ASFs too, and got tired of the waste and the expense (esp. after losing my job). A 50# bag of the hog feed is $11, and lasts MUCH longer than the $21.99 25# of blocks, even when dumping the hog feed on the substrate. I used to feed in bowls, but they just toss it around, so I now use the crocks for something else, and the blocks are for the pets and foodie fancies.

I feed a local feed stores Ground Pig Feed. Same as the Country Acres hog feed but its made 1st hand by the feed store owner. 100 lb bag is $10. I usually get a 5qt ice cream pale and fill that and they charge me by the lb. 10lb of feed is $1. So so cheap. Im gonna try there bird seed as well. Think its $10 for 25lb bag. They dont make there own bird seed though. The ASF's tear up some parakeet seed i know that much. So does my hamster. Lol. I think im gonna try making some sort of hopper for them so they dont make near the mess.

i feed my ASF's Step 2 Extruded horse feed. it's $14 CAD for a 50lb bag. i've had the same bag since march and i still have about half of it. i wouldn't suggest buying a big bag of this unless you have somewhere to store it (i have ours in a deep freeze) or tons and tons and tons of rats that will go through it quickly. the rats seem to be doing excellent on it, great litter sizes (13+ pups per litter)

here's the link: http://www.purityfeed.com/pop/detail...=BAFHORSTEP2EX

I've never fed an ASF to my snakes but I do have two snakes that have been off feed for 3 months and at this point I am willing to try anything but....are these ASF's dangerous to feed to your snake live - I would hate for the ASF to attack my snake.

Whats the proper way to feed an ASF live to your snake.

Thanks

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Originally Posted by L.West

I've never fed an ASF to my snakes but I do have two snakes that have been off feed for 3 months and at this point I am willing to try anything but....are these ASF's dangerous to feed to your snake live - I would hate for the ASF to attack my snake.

Whats the proper way to feed an ASF live to your snake.

Thanks

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We feed ASFs live. Make sure the ASFs are well fed and watered. I feed on a separate feeding tank because I have this heavily decorated tanks for my bps with lots of nooks and crannies that an ASF can hide in and I don't want rat poop in there either.

So, I put ASF with a lab block (yeah, I feed Mazuri 6F) in there, add the snake, and wait a while with tongs in hand for just in case. They're like "deer caught in headlights" when the snake is put in - they freeze and do not move for a long time...

I currently feed my snake right in his tub. I drop the rat in and close the tub but stay right there to listen for any sort of problem - would this procedure still work with an ASF.

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Originally Posted by L.West

I currently feed my snake right in his tub. I drop the rat in and close the tub but stay right there to listen for any sort of problem - would this procedure still work with an ASF.

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Yep.
Most people do it this way.

Ok, sounds good. I will pick one up at the reptile show this weekend and see what happens. If for some reason my snake refuses to eat the ASF and I am stuck keeping him - can I feed him the regular rat food that I buy when I keep regular rats sometimes.