Yes!!! Local Pet Shop had ASF'S!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Very happy. My local pet shop had some ASF's today, so I picked up a trio... two females and a male.

The biggest reason I got them is the idea of less stink, and full grown adults that my balls can eat. I plan to use these three to build a colony to feed my entire snake collection.

So, I kicked two of my breeder rats out of their tank, (a 20 Long)
and set up the ASF's in them.

Quesitons.

1. I have been feeding my mice and rats Beckys rat mix from this web site. Can I continue to feed the ASF's the same mix? I saw things about carrots and spinage and millet... Can I use the rat mix as my basic food, then just throw in daily treats of carrots and spinage and millet?

2. what is millet?

3. Do all of you knock out the ASF's prior to feeding, or do you feed live? I can already tell, they are WAY more agressive then the rats.

4. I have been putting vanilla in my water for the rats and mice... I assume that is not necessary with the ASF'S? and i should just use plain water?

5. Last question... temperatures. being that these things origionate from africa, are their tempertature needs / allowances different then rats and mice?


Thank you for your help! I am so excited!!!!

[Dcommander]

All I can tell u is that becky's food will work great and that it is much better to feed dead. Better if u can feed f/t, freeze dçthem for some 3-4 days though

[littleindiangirl]

Mcavana, I hope by knock out you don't mean stun? I think stunning is cruel and unneeded. Use Co2 when putting down animals.

[TheMissingLink]

Very happy. My local pet shop had some ASF's today, so I picked up a trio... two females and a male.

The biggest reason I got them is the idea of less stink, and full grown adults that my balls can eat. I plan to use these three to build a colony to feed my entire snake collection.

So, I kicked two of my breeder rats out of their tank, (a 20 Long)
and set up the ASF's in them.

Quesitons.

1. I have been feeding my mice and rats Beckys rat mix from this web site. Can I continue to feed the ASF's the same mix? I saw things about carrots and spinage and millet... Can I use the rat mix as my basic food, then just throw in daily treats of carrots and spinage and millet?

2. what is millet?

3. Do all of you knock out the ASF's prior to feeding, or do you feed live? I can already tell, they are WAY more agressive then the rats.

4. I have been putting vanilla in my water for the rats and mice... I assume that is not necessary with the ASF'S? and i should just use plain water?

5. Last question... temperatures. being that these things origionate from africa, are their tempertature needs / allowances different then rats and mice?


Thank you for your help! I am so excited!!!!

1- It seems to work. But i use wild bird seed, Oats, K-Flakes Fruits and veggies everyday and they love leaf lettuce.

2- Its a small seed. You can buy it in strips.

3- Co2

4- Just water is fine

5- Watch your room temps if it gets to cold you will see them start to spin and die.

Good Luck

[Mike Cavanaugh]

yes I meant Co2!!!!! sorry i didn't clarify!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

1- It seems to work. But i use wild bird seed, Oats, K-Flakes Fruits and veggies everyday and they love leaf lettuce.

2- Its a small seed. You can buy it in strips.

3- Co2

4- Just water is fine

5- Watch your room temps if it gets to cold you will see them start to spin and die.

Good Luck

Not worried about too cold. My question is, what is the max temp without stalling breeding.

Thanks for the replies!

mike

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I noticed in all the pictures I can find on this site that there aren't many albinos... (red eyes)

My 3 are all albinos. they look like everyone elses, but the eyes are pink / red. Is this a problem???

[frankykeno]

I just raise our ASF's at the same room temps as the regular rats and they do fine. They do really like a wire exercise wheel so one of those often keeps them occupied. I also provide hides for them, tubes to run through and a good deep bedding to dig around in. They seem to choose a "potty" corner so are really easy to clean up after.

For food I use a basic dry mix of small kibble, wild bird seed and nut mix, some small dry cereals, etc. I don't offer a lot of fresh foods to them but they do seem to enjoy fresh greens occasionally.

I feed them live to a select number of our snakes who easily handle live ASF as prey.

I don't add vanilla to their water. They are major chewers so watch them for chewing at their water bottles. After going through a few of those I went with used glass soda bottles which fit the original spigot from a larger rodent bottle.

They are major chewers. Make sure that the mesh on their tank is good quality metal mesh, anything less and they will chew out in a flat second and you do NOT want loose ASF's running around.

[takagari]

the ASF's seem tempting


How small are the new borns? Right now my Kenyan is eating f/t fuzzy mice. rat babys are to big. wondering if the ASF's will be small enough to c02 young and feed. i REALLY don't want to keep mice..

[JeffFlanagan]

I noticed in all the pictures I can find on this site that there aren't many albinos... (red eyes)

My 3 are all albinos. they look like everyone elses, but the eyes are pink / red. Is this a problem???

Why would it be a problem? I've been putting my albinos and known het females in their own tank to help produce more of them. All characteristics other than physical appearance appear to be exactly the same.

The only negatives I've encountered with ASFRs is that they're more aggressive against both humans and snakes, and if I drop them in a bin rather than closing the drawer as I lower them by the tail, they bounce right back out like a super-ball. It's pretty impressive.

If you use a plastic water bottle, get one with a curved top, or construct a metal guard to cover the top of the bottle or this will happen.

The rodents were damp, but healthy.