Yea the grow out period is definitely longer, so thats the major drawback. What made me want to chase em down was the fact that starting out the breeding Ill be using a spare room in my house. ASF smell is way less to deal with than normal rats which for me is a major plus. I can deal with slower grow through smarter planning and colony control. They also eat and drink less aggressively than normal rats which could lend to a cheaper food bill.
As for the size comparisons,regular rats do have that in their favor. However, the protein transfer is much higher with asf,making it nonessential to rely on bodily size for feeders since theyre more nutritious. Add in that the ASF is the natural prey for BP and will more likely encourage reliable feeding, and for me it was definitely the way I wanted to lean.
So once you get your colony numbers established and planned youre breeding rats that stink less, mess less, eat/drink less while being better food all around and reduce the chance for going off feed. Ill have to do some restructuring if I cant find em, but man I hope I do.
I use to feed a few of my bp asf and it seemed feeding response was the same as rats with my other bp