ASF Size Chart

I have fielded numerous questions lately about ASF sizes. I figured I would post these pics just to help others decide if ASF's are right for them. These are the diffferent size classifications I use when selling frozen ASF's. It goes from pinky to fuzy to just weined to small to medium to large. Only sizes not pictured are the breeder and X breeder (Sorry, I don't sell those, so I don't have dead ones to take a picture of!). They are a little longer then the large but a lot thicker.

Please do not use these pictures anywhere. They are NOT for others to use when trying to sell ASF's.

Enjoy.

Pinky: (3-4 grams) One pictured is 3 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ana/1pinky.jpg

Fuzzy (5-6 grams) One pictured is 6 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ana/2fuzzy.jpg

Just Weined (7-9 grams) One pictured is 8 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...Justweined.jpg

Small (10 - 20 grams) One picutred is 17 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ana/4small.jpg

Medium (25-35 grams) One pictured is 33 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...na/5Medium.jpg

Large (45-55 grams) One pictured is 52 grams.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ana/6Large.jpg

Hey Mike can you post the ages of them too? that would help a noob asf breeder like my self to see if Im getting good growth.

Righto on the ages, it'd be mighty helpful I think. The only sort of record I have in reference to age and weight was from my first litter at 4 weeks of age... I wrote 20 grams as the weight.

This thread is sticky worthy if my thoughts count...

!!!!!!!!

Sticky:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by greghall

Hey Mike can you post the ages of them too? that would help a noob asf breeder like my self to see if Im getting good growth.

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IMHO, that would be hard if not impossible to do because I have found that growth rate varies greatly depending on a few key things:

1.) litter size. When a female has really big litters, it takes a longer period of time before the babies mature enough to be weined. I am guessing the bigger the litter, the less milk mom has to offer to each kid... Make sense?

2.) Number of litters in the tank. Often times if there are two different litters in the same tank, one of the moms will get lazy, and let the other mom do most or all of the feeding for both litters. Once again, that means less milk per baby so it takes longer to grow and develop.

3.) The mom and dad themselves... Some parents simply take better care of the babies then other moms resulting in different rates of growth.

4.) Once a baby is weined and thrown into the grow up tubs joining older same sex generations, some catch on faster then others. Some will immediately eat and drink and grow quickly... Others are shy and timid and take a little longer to get the hang of things without mom. Obviously they grow at a slower rate then the confident siblings that eat and drink and play with the others immediately.

5.) Genetic differences. Just like people there are some ASF's that just don't get as big as other ASF's even when comparing siblings. I have 4 unrelated lines right now. Some seem to grow faster then others, but the others that grow slower seem to get to a bigger size then the ones that grow quickly.

6.) Sex. Females take twice as long to grow to large size as males do. I have found that a female simply stops growing right around the medium / large size until she gets pregnant. Then she gets much bigger. I have older females in the grow up tub right now that have never been introduced to a male since being weined, and they litterally stopped growing right around the medium / large size.

7.) Diet! of course what you feed them has all kinds of impacts on sex ratios of the babies and growth rates. Connie is much more knowledgable in this area then I am so hopefully she can chime in.

Having said all that, now I will guess on the averages. Again, these are ROUGH guesses because of all the factors listed above.

pinky - just born
fuzzy - 1-2 weeks old
weinling -3 weeks old
small - 4 weeks old
Medium - males about 5-7 weeks old /// females about 5-10 weeks old.
Large - Males about 2-3 months old /// females if not bred may not even get this big.


Hope this helps. Not trying to make it look overly complicated... but bottom line, when trying to figure out age to size ratios, it is that complicated!

that great comparsion chart and i like . t I just starting out with asf and the droppnig the first littlers onw. and i knwo what you mean about the lazyness issue . I seen 2 females tryigno t nurse like 20 baby pups I have 2 tanks only right now and I got about 40 asf from a person I purcashed my balls from and I split them inot 2 tanks that i gotten so far and I like the adults they tame and will let me pet them (even with the babies) and ther far less stink than with rats or mice. .. but those babies are so ugly when they start to get the fuzz on them.. ( looks like a lint ball that moves )..

This really needs to get stickied. It took me a little while to find it when I was trying to figure out how many more large rats to buy for my 900g bp before my litter gets big enough...

So, dunno who does stickies but I think this one definitely needs to be up there. If I say sticky enough times, will that work?

sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky sticky

:)

By the way Mike, the ex-breeder I got is much bigger than that large one in the pic, I believe. It would be awesome if you can post a pic of that too with the rest of the other pics. You're the man!

Wow...this still isnt stickied?

You should add a watermark to each of the images......