(mice vs asf rats) who's a better feeder??

[FINGAZZ]

Oh, and it also depends on where you live. African Soft Fur rats are illegal here in California and several other states. I've heard of some stores selling frozen ASFs here, probably shipped in from other states or possibly some nearly impossible license they've obtained.

i herd that too i live in florida so i asked a fwc officer about it and he called his superviser and as of right now they are legal plus all they realy go after here are the fishermen and the burms holders.but i breed them for me not for resale so if they were what they dont know wont hurt me.lol

[RichsBallPythons]

Im currently working on proving rats are better than mice overall for breeding females..

I had a mouse eating female this year lay 6 eggs. One egg was slug and other 5 candled great. Every 5 days into incubation one of her eggs would sweat, then die. Only one egg is left and will hatch.

I have since finally gotten her to move to rats only after 5 years. She will have 1 more year at breeding before i retire her as bad breeder or not. If rats allow for better eggs next season, thats enough Proof IMO that rats are superior to mice..

[Kymberli]

i herd that too i live in florida so i asked a fwc officer about it and he called his superviser and as of right now they are legal plus all they realy go after here are the fishermen and the burms holders.but i breed them for me not for resale so if they were what they dont know wont hurt me.lol

Ah, you're lucky they're legal in your state! Us Californians are pretty much out of luck if we obtain a snake that refuses to eat anything but ASFs. It's my understanding that certain states have outlawed this species in hopes of preventing another invasive species from damaging our native population.

[FINGAZZ]

Im currently working on proving rats are better than mice overall for breeding females..

I had a mouse eating female this year lay 6 eggs. One egg was slug and other 5 candled great. Every 5 days into incubation one of her eggs would sweat, then die. Only one egg is left and will hatch.

I have since finally gotten her to move to rats only after 5 years. She will have 1 more year at breeding before i retire her as bad breeder or not. If rats allow for better eggs next season, thats enough Proof IMO that rats are superior to mice..

im leaning that way too now.deff let us know if rats makes the eggs better or not.

[RichsBallPythons]

This is her second year where her eggs did this, so only one more year till we know ..

[nachash]

Im currently working on proving rats are better than mice overall for breeding females...thats enough Proof IMO that rats are superior to mice..

While I agree with you about rats being healthier, I don't thank that's conclusive proof. You would need to be testing this out on multiple females, and then also on males. You would need ball pythons of all life stages. One group would be on mice, and another on rats, and maybe even a third that was split. If you don't set up these kind of variables, it is impossible to know if you have causation or correlation... the mice might be causing the breeding problems, or might just be incidental and correlate to the problems

[RichsBallPythons]

While I agree with you about rats being healthier, I don't thank that's conclusive proof. You would need to be testing this out on multiple females, and then also on males. You would need ball pythons of all life stages. One group would be on mice, and another on rats, and maybe even a third that was split. If you don't set up these kind of variables, it is impossible to know if you have causation or correlation... the mice might be causing the breeding problems, or might just be incidental and correlate to the problems

No need to ever do a mice vs rats for males as it wont make or break their fertility. The females is what causes this and with 30 eggs in incubator from all rat eaters and their just fine.

Her being only mouser has 2 years in a row where her eggs go down hill..

Thats plenty proof right there if i can get a good clutch on her 3rd time while being a rat eater.

[FINGAZZ]

Ah, you're lucky they're legal in your state! Us Californians are pretty much out of luck if we obtain a snake that refuses to eat anything but ASFs. It's my understanding that certain states have outlawed this species in hopes of preventing another invasive species from damaging our native population.

i make sure all mine are accounted for plus if any got out it wouldnt make it where i live.too many cats around.lol.but like i said im very carfull not to let any get out.there are a few states that outlaw them.ill try to find a list and post it if i do find one.i dont blame them for outlawing them because they get pregnant have a huge litter of babbies and 3 weeks later there already showing to be pregnant again.there asf baby factories.trust me i see atleast 2 new batches every month in each bin and i have four.thank the lord i have plenty hungry snakes to keep it under control.lol

[Kymberli]

i make sure all mine are accounted for plus if any got out it wouldnt make it where i live.too many cats around.lol.but like i said im very carfull not to let any get out.there are a few states that outlaw them.ill try to find a list and post it if i do find one.i dont blame them for outlawing them because they get pregnant have a huge litter of babbies and 3 weeks later there already showing to be pregnant again.there asf baby factories.trust me i see atleast 2 new batches every month in each bin and i have four.thank the lord i have plenty hungry snakes to keep it under control.lol

Exactly! The site I had found that said they were illegal here stated the reason being our average weather is sufficient in supporting ASF life. They would be capable of overpopulating a small area in just a few years.
I was also reading a website with information on keeping/breeding them (CLICK HERE) that has a list of breeders and lists several states in which they are illegal.

[nachash]

Thats plenty proof right there if i can get a good clutch on her 3rd time while being a rat eater.

It might be proof. And it is indeed necessary to use males. A more scientific experiment would be to have 3 populations of snakes, each of a 1:1 gender ratio. Using younger snakes, you'd track their growth rates over an extended period of time. You can't use one snake because she might have particular characteristics that skew the results. Snake growth is a better metric than egg laying because so many untestable variables exist with females laying eggs. Also, this way doesn't give any information on males. Most males are smaller, so maybe mice are suitable for them. Now, I'm not saying you need to do that, but it's important to know the limits of any observation