African Soft Fur Rats

They sure do resemble mice quite a bit huh?!?!?


They are VERRRRY cute! :P Thanks for the pix Ed!

They are just babies, will be interesting to see how they develop. :)

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Originally Posted by Laooda

They sure do resemble mice quite a bit huh?!?!?


They are VERRRRY cute! :P Thanks for the pix Ed!

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No "pet" african rats here ;) my balls love em!

I just got a 2.1 group of african rats about 2 weeks ago and the guy I got them from said they were "ferocious". They are really soft though so I reach in an pet them all the time and none of them have bit me yet. I thought he was just messing with me about their temperments.

wow, very cool. are those the rats with the huge pouch, that get pretty big? they also use those for detecting mines in Africa right?

EDIT: nevermind. just googled it and relized i was thinking giant pouched rats.

just curious, have you tried feeding regular rats after they have been eating african rats? I dont want to feed any of these to my snakes, for that reason. :)

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Originally Posted by TekWarren

No "pet" african rats here ;) my balls love em!

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I have used African soft furred rats to get ball pythons back to eating after a "fast" (they don't eat for weeks just to freak us out I think!). It seems, at least with my adult balls, that they switch back to rats after the Africans pretty easily. Hatchlings seem to make the switch even easier - mine don't even notice the difference it seems. Just weened Africans are about the same size as a small adult mouse so I'm hoping to use them instead of mice in the future.


BTW, my second generation of Africans seem to be less nippy than the mamas and papas.


Alice

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Originally Posted by ECLARK

just curious, have you tried feeding regular rats after they have been eating african rats? I dont want to feed any of these to my snakes, for that reason. :)

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I have one female in particular who eats only when the time is right for her, that said she taken a few african rats and then taken a rats after that (separate feedings of course). My youngest/smallest snakes are a pair of yellow bellies who will eat anything that moves. They have no problem taking mice after having african rats either. Another pair of het albinos I've tried the african rats with has also had no problem taking mice after the fact. Now on the flip side I have a "big" female who hasn't eaten in a couple months and even the african rats have not interested her yet.

I just sold off my mouse colony except for a few, and am letting the african rats fill out the colony space. I don't have any plans to sell any of the snakes that are feeding on african rats so I'm not real worried if they don't switch back to common rats or mice.

I'm seeing more and more people get into these rats, I wouldn't be surprised if they turn into a common food item. My experience with them has been great so far.

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Originally Posted by ECLARK

They are just babies, will be interesting to see how they develop. :)

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This is what they look like when fully developed. This is a female that's starting to get a little old.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...1/DSCN0183.jpg

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Originally Posted by TekWarren

I just sold off my mouse colony except for a few, and am letting the african rats fill out the colony space.

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Just curious....why African Rats? are they "better" than rats/mice? larger/smaller?

Is 100 gram the largest? What is the largest for a "normal" rat?