Considering ASFs.. have any advice?

[Ginevive]

Ouch. So it is a bit similar to breeding mice, harem style? I will do it that way then. (:

[monk90222]

I would get 1.5..I hear that ASF's are only good for a limited amount of litters per female per lifetime..(does that make sense?) I don't know a number, but my "sources" told me to always hold back girls for that reason...

[Ginevive]

Hm.. the only blockade will be the hubby bickering about me spending more money.. But Friday's my payday..

[Rapture]

Jo- I'm glad I decided to keep the trio together all the time instead of removing the male once the babies were born like the guy I bought them from told me to do. It just makes more sense to leave everything as constant as possible if they are going to be so sensitive about animals rotating in and out of the group. My second litter was born a few days ago but to be honest I'm not sure if it was from the same mother or not... Things are going really well though. My only two picky eaters have already broken their fasts by taking these when they wouldn't touch my other rats.

[frankykeno]

Sometimes I'm not sure of which babies belong with which mama since they communally nurse and seem to easily nurse litters of different ages. I used to be worried the newborn ASF's would have trouble getting a meal with their bigger sibs around but it never seems to be an issue and everyone seems to get fed.

I do find it hilarious that the mothers consistently use their food bowls as baby rat playpens. I keep 3 to 4 food dishes in there at all times because there are 3 large adults, usually a litter of newborns and then older sibs not yet weaned but also eating dry food. The females will use these dishes to park babies in and even the popcorn bouncing ASF pups will stay in the dish if mama puts them there. Very cute!

I just have to watch the protective adults when I need those dishes for filling and I have to scoot the pile of babies out. Big Daddy, the large male ASF isn't as nippy as he used to be but he doesn't like anyone messing with his family group.

My other male, Psycho, hasn't fathered a litter yet with his two females and he has about 2 more weeks or he's done. No production and a tendency to attack me everytime I feed his group isn't cutting it with me.

I'm with you D, I have a couple of BP's here that would be refusing if not for the ASF's. These rats have a definite place to fill in our snake collection.

[muddoc]

So.. I was thinking of getting some established (one male, harem setup) so that once I have hungry BP hatchlings this year, I will have a lot of food for them.

Jen,
I would post about our experience with ASF's, but I think anything I could say has been covered very well already. However, what I did want to mention is something that I have not seen anyone talk about yet, although Jo touched on it lightly. In my personal opinion, feeding ASF's to hatchlings is not a very good idea, IF you are planning on selling these animals. The reason I say this, is that a large quantity of your potential customers probably will not have access to ASF's, and if they end up getting a hatchling from you that is, as Jo puts it "imprinted", then they may have a hard time getting their new purchase eating mice or rats. We only feed our ASF's to animals that are in our permanent collection. I have often debated feeding them to hatchlings, because we have ASF babies everywhere. Now, if I could be so successful with our mice, we may just breed rodents for a living.

I hope that conveyed the message that I was trying to get across.

[monk90222]

Hm.. the only blockade will be the hubby bickering about me spending more money.. But Friday's my payday..

Tell Marky that you have to spend money to make money...lol

[twh]

i've had my ASFR's about six weeks now (1.4 per tub,9 tubs) and the only problem i have is that a couple of tubs chew up a week 's supply of food overnight.my tubs aren't high enough to accomdate a wheel but i'm told that has helped others.

last bedding change 6 tubs had 109 pinkies with 3 tubs not breeding yet.

my biggest female BP (3600 grams) was off feed since the end of july and recently took 3 asfr's as soon as they hit the floor.since then she has taken reg. rats.do they imprint? jury still out on that one,but my limited experience would seem to say no or rarely.i haven't deceided yet if i will feed them to hatchlings that i plan on selling.

should you get some? of coarse,if you don't like them just feed them off and chalk it off to experience.have fun!

[frankykeno]

Just to follow up on my earlier comment Jen and Tim's post on this issue, to give you an idea of where ASF's fit in our feeding program. We use them more as an option I guess you'd say to our regular rats. Specifically we are using them with the following snakes that are a part of our permanent group and not likely to ever be up for sale.....

- Saoirse and Danu who were adult captives and refuse to eat or are inconsistent eaters on both mice and rats but will consistently take ASF's

- Dacey who was raised on mice but easily switched to ASF's, she is a snake that will refuse rats so the ASF's seem to be a good option for her

- Rionnach who though raised on rats exhibits an extreme pickiness in size of prey offered, with ASF's since they are her preferred size we are seeing far less refusals

- Buddy and Riordan who both seem to have missed the whole BP's are picky and imprint on prey thing - they will hit anything that's fuzzy and has a heartbeat so for these two males whether it's an ASF or a regular rat...it's dinnertime....they are both exceptions to the general rule though I would think

So basically 6 out of 23 ball pythons in our collection regularily utilize the ASF's as a food source. Like Tim we will be starting any hatchlings out on regular rats so that when they go to new owners there won't be a conflict of prey types.

[monk90222]

should you get some? of coarse,if you don't like them just feed them off and chalk it off to experience.have fun!

That is a great idea.