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Would you buy a snake feeding on ASFR?

About temperament, to be completely honest my Asf’s are as mean as they come. I’m talking unprovoked come after you mean, which leads me to a little experience I’ve had.

On two separate occasions I was forced to foster out large litters of baby Asf’s to mommy rats due to their original moms dying shortly after birth. On both occasions the mommy rats took them right in and raised them to weanling size like they were their own. Both litters of Asf’s that were raised by rats are as nice as kittens. Gib can even contest because he has some of the offspring and they’re as tame as any rat I’ve ever come across.

My point is maybe there is hope for the temperament of these Asf’s. I haven’t done any type of selective breeding beyond that but if I were to start I’d start with babies raised by rats.
 
Larry Suttles said:
On two separate occasions I was forced to foster out large litters of baby Asf’s to mommy rats due to their original moms dying shortly after birth. On both occasions the mommy rats took them right in and raised them to weanling size like they were their own. Both litters of Asf’s that were raised by rats are as nice as kittens. Gib can even contest because he has some of the offspring and they’re as tame as any rat I’ve ever come across.
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Wow Larry!! Thanks for sharing that little nugget of information. When I first started my rat colony a few years ago I had many many really mean rats. Completely unprovoked attacks were common from some of them. Needless to say those rats were culled from the colony and for the last couple of years now I have rarely seen any aggression in my rat colony.

I just got started with my ASF colony a few months ago. I have 5.15 breeding adults kept in groups of 1.3. I have already started the process of culling the aggressive ones just like I did with my rat colony. But that little nugget of information that you shared just might save me a year or more of selective breeding to get the aggression out of my colony.

As it stands right now 8 of my 20 adult ASFs are as tame as my rats. They could not care less about me being in their tub for any reason. Another 8 are not very aggressive, but I dont trust them. They just have that aggressive posture and look even though they have never acted on it. The other 4 are just plain nuts and their time on this earth is short lived.

Now with the info you just shared I plan to take some ASF pinks from my tame groups and put them with a lactating rat and start up some test bins.

Thanks again for that information, Larry!
 
For me. As long as the seller is honest. THAT seems to be the difficult issue. Too many people these days feel content telling a buyer what they want to hear, to sell their product.

If I were interested in a snake, and it is fed the ASF, fine, as long as I know. I would want to know why.. if it is picky, or just convenience.

In my situation, I do not do live or asf. so I would at least ask if it was an option for the seller to try something else.

If they are.. great.. if not.. I understand.

I really don't think that it would affect my decision to purchase the animal. since I do f/t anyhow, chances are I would have to make it change its food anyhow, since most breeders do live.

so again, my opinion, is as long as the seller is open and honest about it.. then yes. I would purchase still purchase a snake feeding on the asf.
 
I hadn’t thought about the aggression being learned or environmental. Which do you suppose it was? Do they normally learn aggression from ASF parents or is there something in ASF milk? They seamed healthy otherwise (i.e. they weren’t too week to be aggressive from something missing in Norway rat milk)?

If the aggression doesn't have a strong genetic component as I expected it might be hard to get rid of for good. When the fostered ASF produce and raise their own offspring will they be aggressive?

Anyway, sounds like a discussion I should take up on an ASF rat forum.
 
I just don't see the aggressiveness in my ASF at all. They are definitely more "fearless" than the rats or mice are, but I have only been bitten by one.....and that was a hopper-sized baby that I was picking up to feed off anyway, lol.

Sammy, I do not feed f/t or mice to my Ball Pythons either, but I keep f/t mice on hand for my corns, and can always throw a few rat pups in the freezer to use for trying to switch over if the customer requests.

My rats have been in a bit of a "dry spell", and I was running kind of short on pups (I actually had enough, but if I fed them all off, I would have been short on larger sizes the next week), so I decided to try out f/t mice that I had on hand for my corns on about 20 of my hatchling BPs, just to see how it would go....I figured I'd rather try mice than ASF for the reasons previously mentioned. 19 out of 20 ate the f/t almost without hesitation, but one held out for his live rat pup.

Been thinking about experimenting..... I may just throw a few f/t pups in the freezer as soon as I have enough to keep back extra, and kind of keep switching them between the live and f/t. Hoping that maybe that way, they will remain used to whichever is offered in the future by the new owners....and it won't just confuse them.
 
Cat_72 said:
Been thinking about experimenting..... I may just throw a few f/t pups in the freezer as soon as I have enough to keep back extra, and kind of keep switching them between the live and f/t. Hoping that maybe that way, they will remain used to whichever is offered in the future by the new owners....and it won't just confuse them.
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I switch back and forth with mine. I do have a few who only eat live and 2 who won't eat live, but the majority will eat either one. It's nice because I can freeze rats when I have extras, and then use them when I run low. I think I get by with fewer breeders this way.

Shelly
 
I have 24 ASFs that I purchased a couple of months ago - they are all tame & I would even call them friendly. The closest thing to a bite I have received was when I used my finger to separate the bars on the top of their tub to insert the water bottle, and one of the thirsties tried to get a drink. No it wasn't a bite, didn't even qualify as a nip...MAYBE I could call it a nibble.

I do have a few who only eat live and 2 who won't eat live
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I've had a few things that wouldn't eat live..makes you wonder about the idea of natural selection, doesn't it?
 
hhmoore said:
I've had a few things that wouldn't eat live..makes you wonder about the idea of natural selection, doesn't it?
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Yeah, it does. I thought it was really weird. Every time I've offered live prey, regardless of what it is, they just ball up and hiss until I take it away. It's actually kind of funny. It took me a while to get them feeding because I couldn't figure out what the problem was:shrug01: . It's good to know I'm not the only one with weird snakes, though.

Shelly
 
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