anyone have success actually handling asf

[mechnut450]

My fiance wants to know if it possible to handle their asf as a pet with out getting blood spilled. she been trying for the last 7 months and always been getting bitten. So she wants to know if there a trick or somthing she missing to tame them down.
I know they treated better than I do the rats and I can handle them some lol

[Don]

I don't handle them as pets, but can handle mine. I do occasionally get bit by an aggressive one, but it isn't a bad bite. Several years ago, I had them and those were Satan's spawn and would bite anything that moved near them. A member here Rasputin, raises them as pets. I'm sure she can give you some advice.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I can pet and scratch mine in their tubs with no bites. My colonies have always been tame. I purchased some new blood a couple years ago and they were mean as could be. Always charging me and trying to bite. After talking to a couple other ASF breeders, I found out the aggression can eventually be bred out by only breeding tame ones and feeding off the mean ones. I didn't do this, I only fed off the aggressive colony.

I can't exactly hold mine because they will jump or quickly try to leave my hand. They are unsure about being held but they are not mean.

I don't think they can be pets like a Norway rat or hamster simply because they are so naturally skittish.










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[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

"Rhasputin" (member) has ASF that she can handle. I've seen pics and read her posts on some that were actually pets and would ride on her shoulder. It is possible with an already tame bloodline, though I haven't encountered any that were so relaxed they didn't try to jump down.


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[rabernet]

They are sold as pets in some parts of Europe but there are definitely some more aggressive bloodlines floating around here in the states.

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[suzuki4life]

"Rhasputin" (member) has ASF that she can handle. I've seen pics and read her posts on some that were actually pets and would ride on her shoulder. It is possible with an already tame bloodline, though I haven't encountered any that were so relaxed they didn't try to jump down.


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I've seen her grab them out of tubs at the shows and handle them without even the thought of a nip.

[OhhWatALoser]

My older asf are aggressive but the new group I got are skittish but dont bite, just need to hold on to them or they jump.

[Rhasputin]

Suzuki did see it in person, so I'm not just making this up!

90% of my ASFs are completely handle-able and rarely jump from your hands. I specifically breed them for pet quality tameness, and cannot even remember the last time I was REALLY bitten. I have a few ASFs that I would consider completely pet-safe and even child friendly. The only thing I still have to work on, is most of them prefer to not be picked up from above, but are fine being picked up by the tail.

The way I handle my ASFs, is that I pick them up by the tail, and lightly set them down on the BACK of my opposite hand. For some reason they always seemed uncomfortable sitting in my palm, and much prefer the back of your hand. Usually I'll keep my fingers on their tail -lightly- just in case, but if they do well enough, I'll release it. The real trick to it, is NOT trying to control them. This is the same way that works for my savanna monitor, interestingly enough. If you try to control her, and hold her tightly, she senses it, and will have no part of it. If you pick her up and hold her lightly, and let her move around a bit, she'll be exceptionally tame.

People generally purchase my ASFs as pets, or as companion animals for buck fancy mice, because bucks cannot live with other bucks. This is another reason to select for tameness. My buck ASFs have no issues going into colonies with female house mice, and my female ASFs almost never have a problem being housed with male house mice.

I am going to be regularly hosting shows on the east coast, and live in Rochester NY. So if you'd ever like to pick some up OP, then I can probably help you out.

[RobNJ]

My original group of ASF's were nippy, but generations down the line, the ones I'm breeding now are handleable. They are skittish, but I haven't been bitten in a long time, and I handle them quite regularly.

[mechnut450]

oh I know she like to get some but we only get to the hamburg show ( right now when we are lucky ) I know my colony ( which she got her start group from ) were given to me by a guy that had to gotten out of balls. and they were inbreed befoer i got them lol. I know she just got 4 though someone at a show ( one of her co workers was going ) and picked them up for her. they a lot tamer but are also older asf not sure if they will have many more litters .


I know the asf we have are so inbreed we are waiting for some 3 eye four tailed asf to show up lol.