Are they worth it

[rocko2527]

Is it worth it to breed Soft furs for profit I breed mice and rats and make some good money doing it and I'm thinking about trying some of these.How long does it take for them to become adult size?

[greghall]

they grow about the same rate as mice,not as fast as rats if you make money with what you are doing I think you could make more because they are in demand.

[RandyRemington]

My take so far (have only been working with ASF’s since early August) is that they might grow slower than Norway rats. Seems like it takes 2 months to reach the small adult feeder size I want. But on the plus side they don't eat much so the extra time is just cage space once you get through the startup phase.

I think the main niche is for people who want to raise their own feeders and need to do it in their house and can't tolerate the smell of mice or Norway rats. Even these have a smell it's just not as bad and could be handled by a cleaning schedule that wouldn't be burdensome for a small colony. Another plus for the small snake breeder is that they wouldn't outgrow an adult ball python so if your production got ahead of your feeding needs for a little bit you could just keep adult ASF's in unisex colonies. And the third plus is that many picky balls seem to love them.

Whether they are worth it for someone selling rodents and not necisarily centered on ball pythons I’m not sure. I read a post by a producer that was trying it but haven’t heard how it’s going for him.

Oh, another thing to consider is temperature. These rodents are much more tropical than mice or Norway rats. If your rodent facility is below 70 deg F that would be a good reason not to work with ASF’s but if it has a tendency to be above 80 or even into the 90’s where the Norway’s don’t do so well that would be a good reason to give the ASF’s a try.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Breeding them for profit, probably not... I have seen them offered as FT, but they tend to be much pricier, and if you have snakes on FT, then they are *probably* less likely to be so particular in what they take.

If selling live, then chances are people will buy a trio or two and that is the only sale you will make from them.

I put the odd ad up for ASFs, sell the odd trio, add it to the snake fund, or use it to pay for regular feeders. It helps cut cost *a bit*, but not that much.

Bruce

[littleindiangirl]

Supply and demand. Online or local... You decide.

[AaronP]

Make sure they're legal to breed in your state! They're illegal in a lot of states.