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.