Where are the giant ASF's?

[Wiggles92]

Hmm... Now that you mention the giant ASF thing, my one female is probably 1.5 to 2 times the size of the other two, and they're all the same age and were raised together. I really need to get a scale to weigh her...

[Mike Cavanaugh]

What is the max size for ASF's? Don't know. I can tell you that I have a whole bunch of them. I just went in my racks and found the very biggest, very fattest (about to have a bunch of babies) asf I could find. She is just about to be retired. Here are the results.

Keep in mind, I am using a properly calibrated, high dollar digital scale.






By the way....

EDIT: For reference, this is the 'large' ASF on the ASF size chart, which weighs 52 grams. The female in my photo, is much larger than this rat. And Beefcake could probably cover that whole dollar bill no problem. lol

The size chart refered to is one that I posted for when I was selling frozen feeder rats. 50+ grams is considered a large ASF for snake food purposes. In my experience, x breeders max out around 95 to 105 grams... Another thing to consider, as a snake breeder I don't keep rats till they are a year old. As soon as they have passed their peak production period, they are gone.

[Rhasputin]

Mike I wasn't jocking on your photo, just using it for size reference.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Here is the original post for those that missed it... Be sure to pay attention to the opening paragraph where I talk about breeders and x breeders.

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.



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



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



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



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



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

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Mike I wasn't jocking on your photo, just using it for size reference.

I know... Just clarifying.

[Rhasputin]

Yeah I think the misunderstanding that started this whole thread, was that people thought 120 was being achieved on a feeder scale, at feeder ages.

But no, it would be nearly impossible, and pretty useless to do that for large scale feeder operations since it takes a looong time to get that big.

[panthercz]

Yeah I think the misunderstanding that started this whole thread, was that people thought 120 was being achieved on a feeder scale, at feeder ages.

But no, it would be nearly impossible, and pretty useless to do that for large scale feeder operations since it takes a looong time to get that big.

^^This^^

*Most* of my retired breeders are all over 120 grams. My feeders however are NOT near this size.

I don't think anyone has 120g feeders that are just a couple months old and if they do, they need to start spreading that gene around to the rest of us.

Here is are what I get from retired breeders. This is a male and the cup was zeroed to the scale before putting the male in, so the cups weight is not reflected.