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Imported balls

Once established, you can often get imports started on ordinary rats or mice. ASFs are 'African Soft-Furred Rats'. They're actually not rats, but are related to mice and rats. They're also called natal rats, and multi-mammate mice, because they have a tremendous number of teats--they can have up to 18 of them, but individuals may have more or less than that, and often have an odd number. These rodents are native to Africa, so would occasionally show up on the menu for wild ball pythons. As a result, wild-caught ball pythons may be more inclined to eat them.
They occasionally encourage fussy eaters to start eating again too, but then, mice and gerbils also sometimes accomplish that. Some folks swear by ASFs for ball pythons.

Imported hatchling balls should be started on fuzzy rats or mice just like CBB balls, because it's unlikely they were even fed before they were shipped to the US.

The good news on ASFs--they're extremely prolific, though a bit slow-growing, and they're halfway between the size of a mouse and a rat, making adult ASFs a good size for ball pythons. They purportedly don't have as bad of an odor as mice.

The bad news on ASFs--they're wild animals. They're not domesticated. Thus, without careful attention to taming, they will bite the bejesus out of you. They will also chew industriously through plastic bins, so it's recommended to keep them in metal. Strong metal.

I think ASFs are still pretty expensive. 30 bucks apiece? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, been a while since I checked.
 
WingedWolf said:
I think ASFs are still pretty expensive. 30 bucks apiece? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, been a while since I checked.
Click to expand...

Not Very Expensive...nice c&p tho....I get mine about the same price as a small rat in a pet store....I buy a lot so they are about a buck more to the general public....certainly NOT 30 dollars....they may have been that price for colonies years ago.....but not now....

I swear by ASF for ESTABLISHED eaters.....but i seriously would NOT offer asf as the sole food.............all of my snakes will eat anything i throw at them.....even my wildcaught male (my baby)......i have a VERY picky female het albino that would rather eat bark then be offered anything but asf...........
don't get stuck on asf...they are not offered everywhere

picky eater....asf is a good thing...
 
good posts ^

Just to add,

last year I picked up a mixed age breeding group of ASFs for $35 or 40. which was really a great price (a couple got a few ASFs as pets, and let them reproduce, till they got out of hand) There were about 10 adults, and about 30 pinkies to weanlings.
not to mention they are mean, as mentioned above... not good pets..


now and then ill see a trio of adults at the reptile shows for $15-30.

Seems like the last show had a few adults for $3 or $4 each.
 
ONE ASF around here is $29.99, IF you are lucky enough to get them to special order it for you.
WAY overpriced but then again it's $9.99 for a large rat and $4.99 for an adult mouse.
 
:censored:

holy cow...where do you live?

"$9.99 for a large rat and $4.99 for an adult mouse "
is that at least petshop pricing?
 
That's petshop pricing.
The sad part is if you want frozen, it's a dollar more fro each rodent.
Those prices were for live.
Not many places carry feeders. They usually take the "pet" ones out of the display tanks and charge you the same price.
I asked about rabbits one time and was told $39.99 for one. Crazy!

The only other place to get frozen feeders is Petco and they are small, freezer burned and also ridiculously overpriced.

That is why I only keep animals that take f/t so I can place a large order online. Much cheaper. If I had to feed live, I would end up having to sell a lot of my animals. It would just cost too much.
 
Almost forgot. Only one place can get live hoppers in for me during hatching season. They clip me $2.99 each for a SMALL hopper. Thankfully the babies usually get started on f/t relatively fast.
 
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127202

This is the thread I started when I had no clue what they were. Got a variety of varying answers, all informative.
I bought my first trio of breeders at a Tampa show recently. One of the females just had a litter of 4. I'm guessing it was so small because it was her first litter. I'm hoping the litter size will grow as she matures a little more.
 
Don't know where you live,but if i had to spend that kind of money, for rats and mice i'd either breed my own, or bye bye snakes!
 
I refuse to buy my snakes food at petsmart or petco....at petsmart...all the frozen feeders they had come in small containers and cost $10...thats for 3-4 large mice or 2 small rats! that just isnt gonna do when i have 10 snakes to feed

there is a reptile store downtown in my area (long drive but worth it for me) where i can get large mice (just about the same size as a small rat) for 99 cents each....and as i dont like to feed live...but hate dealing with a feeder thats been sitting in a freezer for to long...i actually get to go in the back room and pick out all the largest mice i can get my hands on and the store owner CO2's them for me...i normally get about 25 mice every week or two weeks

they are nice and freshly dead when i get them home so i can feed right away to anyone thats hungry...then pop the rest in the freezer and know exactly how long they been in there

I would love to try out a ASF sometime just to see if it excites my ball pythons at all, i think their sizes are perfect...but for now.....mice work out pretty well...compaired to my rat snakes and boa...my ball pythons are always a bit more picky...just something you gotta expect from them...they cant all be neverending trash cans like my boa =D
 
ASF were $30 each at one point early(a couple years ago?).
Now it's dependant on your area. Here they are fairly cheap, near the price of regular rats.
Get the imports started on rats to begin with, if at all possible. Then you won't have to worry about the availability of ASF.
 
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