New ASF Colonies

[jsmorphs2]

After buying some ASFs locally that were EVIL I decided to get some from Carl Vail (where my original animals came from) when we went to the Wheaton show. His have always been docile and great breeders AND he had some neat ones.

Group 1 - 1.1 - I'll add a few females from the other colony when they produce some.

The male is behind the female.



Group 2 - 1.2 - They aren't liking this male so much so I pulled him out and will just introduce a male from group 1 when they produce one.

Female 1



Female 2 - She might be pregnant already and that could be why she's pushing this new male out of the hide box. We'll see .

[Rhasputin]

Is Carl Vail on this forum? Those ASFs look so familiar!
Although, they have much thinner faces than mine, maybe they're not from the same person.

I'm loving all these ASF photos, I'm getting my new ones on JUNE FOURTH! After waiting months and having my friend in Ohio hold them for me. . .

[spitzu]

CREEPY red eyes!

[jasbus]

You keep ASF's in 1/2" wire? Man, mine escape like crazy in 1/2".

[jsmorphs2]

Yep . I haven't had a chew out where there is wire. It took a few escapes for me to find all the weak spots in the plastic tubs though. And on a side note, I double up and over lapped the wire for the top. A few tiny babies would figure out how to climb up and squeze out of the 1/2" wire.

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[Simple Man]

First, Cool looking little animals

Second, this is purely for my own curiousity! I don't mean to come across wrong so bear with me.

I'm just curious because I see lots of posts about ASF colonies. Do you keep ASF to feed your BPs? If you do, do you sell BPs? And do you tell people that they are ASF only eaters? I know for some people ASFs are really hard to find and that noticeably depreciates the price of an animal, excluding it from consideration by many. Especially when it can be hard to convert ASF feeders back to rats and mice. Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Regards,

B

[jsmorphs2]

First, Cool looking little animals

Second, this is purely for my own curiousity! I don't mean to come across wrong so bear with me.

I'm just curious because I see lots of posts about ASF colonies. Do you keep ASF to feed your BPs? If you do, do you sell BPs? And do you tell people that they are ASF only eaters? I know for some people ASFs are really hard to find and that noticeably depreciates the price of an animal, excluding it from consideration by many. Especially when it can be hard to convert ASF feeders back to rats and mice. Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Regards,

B

Good questions and valid points. I breed ASFs to feed to 4 of our breeders who are stinkers. I have also started some babies on ASF hoppers too but they always switch to rats with no problem. I haven't sold any babies that weren't eating well on rats and I always include feed/shed/genetics records with the ones I've sold. Generally I start babies on hopper mice then switch to rats asap. If I ever sell the breeders that eat ASFs I will absolutely disclose that they are ASF eaters. I feel any and all responsible breeders will disclose that to possible buyers. While some people shy away from ASF eaters, I actually shy away from mouse eaters personally. As a breeder I don't want the hassle of feeding 2,500g female multiple mice and I don't want to breed mice either. The smell permeates our house even when we only have a few in the basement. So it all comes down to preference and availability.

[Simple Man]

Good questions and valid points. I breed ASFs to feed to 4 of our breeders who are stinkers. I have also started some babies on ASF hoppers too but they always switch to rats with no problem. I haven't sold any babies that weren't eating well on rats and I always include feed/shed/genetics records with the ones I've sold. Generally I start babies on hopper mice then switch to rats asap. If I ever sell the breeders that eat ASFs I will absolutely disclose that they are ASF eaters. I feel any and all responsible breeders will disclose that to possible buyers. While some people shy away from ASF eaters, I actually shy away from mouse eaters personally. As a breeder I don't want the hassle of feeding 2,500g female multiple mice and I don't want to breed mice either. The smell permeates our house even when we only have a few in the basement. So it all comes down to preference and availability.

Thanks a lot! I've been curious for awhile but didn't want to get reamed by someone taking it the wrong way. Good info, good luck, and thank you again!

Regards,

B

[jasbus]

Yep . I haven't had a chew out where there is wire. It took a few escapes for me to find all the weak spots in the plastic tubs though. And on a side note, I double up and over lapped the wire for the top. A few tiny babies would figure out how to climb up and squeze out of the 1/2" wire.

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I put some overflow weaner ASF's in a rat rack with 1/2" wire about 6 months ago. I'm still catching them in traps, they're all over the place. Luckily, they were all males, but man, I bet 1/3-1/2 of them escaped on the first night. They weren't small either, more than half grown. They squeezed right through.
Lesson learned, only 3/8" wire for me from now on!

Good luck.

[spitzu]

I'm just curious because I see lots of posts about ASF colonies. Do you keep ASF to feed your BPs? If you do, do you sell BPs? And do you tell people that they are ASF only eaters? I know for some people ASFs are really hard to find and that noticeably depreciates the price of an animal, excluding it from consideration by many. Especially when it can be hard to convert ASF feeders back to rats and mice. Your thoughts would be appreciated!

I don't want to breed rats/mice so all of my breeders will be on ASFs. When the time comes that I want to sell a breeder I plan on trying to convert it to rats as soon as possible. Failing that I will absolutely disclose that its an ASF eater. As Jess said, it would be highly irresponsible to sell an animal like that without informing the buyer.

I plan on buying rat pinks/pups for any babies that I plan on selling and just won't introduce them to the ASFs.