Just my two cents... from my own experience.

the rats produce a lot more poop and pee then ASF's... There are some that will disagree completely, because they are used to it... But the bottom line is, even with the correct substrate and ventilation... Unless you are willing to change the cage out every 3 or 4 days, they STINK.

If you are talking about Ball Pythons... the mom and dad rats get to big to feed off. Bottom line is, unless you want to keep them as pets when they are done breeding and still have another year to live... or have a really big snake (not ball python) to eat them at 500+ grams... you will get stuck with big rats that you can't use / dont want.

I am in no way an expert. I am pretty new to the breeding rodents thing. These are just the reasons I have gone with ASF's over rats... after trying both.

mike