Quote Originally Posted by Lord Sorril View Post
No. Gerbils can definitely be a problem, ASF's not so much.

I used ASFs to supplement my mice/rats and never had any unexpected refusals switching in between (I would cross-scent prey items if I suspected there was a hold-out). Hypothetically if you fed nothing but ASF's to a ball python for months of course it would be reluctant to change food sources, but, this is to be expected of any rodent food item.

I bred ASF's for years before coming to the final conclusion that they are more trouble than they are worth--their proclivity for eating their own offspring makes Syrian hamsters look mild in comparison. My examination of their food consumption vs. viable edible weight production ratio (cannibalism excluded) showed them to be metabolically less efficient than either Norway rats or Domestic mice. Plus given their poor behavior: I would not recommend them as a reliable food source for a collection of any significant size.

If this is all you have available in your area though--it might be worth consideration vs. buying bulk frozen.

Wow, I've been breeding ASFs for a while and I've never had an incident with cannibalism. They do need higher protein than regular rats so maybe that's why? I have 200 of them mostly in two very large aquariums dropping a litter every other week. I feed off the males first to slow down the breeding so there's not many males to females. I put weanlings and juveniles of the same sex in other large aquariums to grow to adult size before c02 at freezing. They get along fine too. I'd hate to see that happen so if you have any insight as to what caused that I'd appreciate the tip. From what I see, the males are affectionate and caring for the babies just as much as the females. This is really surprising to me.
Otherwise, I've had great success feeding and breeding with them. I don't separate nursing moms or try to introduce any older than weaned to another colony.