I breed asf's by the hundreds and i still feed my snakes regular rats along with the soft furs every month my colony produces and average of 300 babies, and what i do is buy small domestic rats and throw them in one week and next i use asf's and keep rotating them. so this way they eat both, my asf rats to me are like a nice little vitamin rich capsule filled with fiber, fat, calcium, and protein, do to the diets of my rats. And as long as you mix it up a little then you should be ok. and as for baby balls when they hatch feed them domestic rat pup and a couple days later a asf rat hopper and if they take both your in the clear.. then try domestic rat again and like i said mix it up... but i have info that many pet stores are becoming interested in the asf for the reason of smell i have 2 pet stores im may be selling to in the near future that asked me about them and i explained that they are odorless and that made them want to buy them and sell them in their stores as a substitute for domestic rats.. so i explained that that would be a bad idea but i would still sell him the rats but we will see..