Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am somewhat new to corns. I've had a couple in the past but got rid of them. I've regretted it ever since. I have been keeping BPs for aobut a year and I'm raising ASFs for the Balls. Last week I got a nice yearling Anery corn. When I was feeding the other night, I thought I'd try a young ASF on her and she went crazy for it. I've never seen a corn go so crazy before. Has anyone else on here fed ASFs to their corns. I know it isn't a natural prey item like for BPs, but my Anery seems to love them.

>>I am somewhat new to corns. I've had a couple in the past but got rid of them. I've regretted it ever since. I have been keeping BPs for aobut a year and I'm raising ASFs for the Balls. Last week I got a nice yearling Anery corn. When I was feeding the other night, I thought I'd try a young ASF on her and she went crazy for it. I've never seen a corn go so crazy before. Has anyone else on here fed ASFs to their corns. I know it isn't a natural prey item like for BPs, but my Anery seems to love them.

call me stupid..........ASF's???
-----
Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

_____

Prolific as heck. Yeah, when I have problematic feeders, they usually snarf 'em. If I can get pinks small enough for neonate corns, that is.

Don
South Mountain Reptiles

Jimmy - I had no idea either.
-----
****Misty****

www.sneakyserpents.com

"Due to intense Mind fog, all thoughts have been grounded."

Yeah, they work pretty well. They're not as easy to come by as laboratory mice and rats. Incidentally, laboratory rats that are fed to snakes are Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus), so they're not exactly natural prey items either.

From a rodent breeder's standpoint, I've found that ASF's seem to eat a lot, which may make them more expensive to breed. I've have pine snakes and king snakes eat them, as well as corns. So if you can get a good price on them, why not?

Tim

Third Eye

I acutally breed them myself so the cost is extremely low. I get huge bales of pine for $5 each and 50lbs of rat food for $17. I'm currently producing 100-120 ASF a month and the food and bedding last about 3-4 months. Thats roughly 300-360 ASF for about $22 every 3-4 months. I find it WAY more cost effective.

Way more cost effective than breeding laboratory mice and rats?
Because that's what I was referring to.

Tim

Way more cost effective than buying live or frozen. Mice are too small for BPs and my wife is DEATHLY allergic to rats. Breeding ASFs is the way to go for me.

Great little guy. They are cute, mine are very tame and true to their name they are very very soft. The odor is no where near that of my "normal" rats and mice. That alone makes them easily my "favorite" rodent to keep for a food source.

Once established, they do breed very prolifically, HOWEVER, their babies are much larger than a standard mouse pink. That alone means I have to breed or purchase mice pinkies for hatchling corns. The ASF pinks are about the size of a week old mouse pink. The other big draw back is that mine shew like crazy. I am trying a new set up so we will see how that oges but until now I have never seen an animal chew so much.

Good luck

dc

To counter the chewing, try offering them a wheel. Mine get obsessed with the wheel and have almost completely stopped chewing.

Problem is mine are in racks so I do not have the room for a wheel. Maybe I can buy tehm a mini treadmill, lol

dc

give them something to do

toilet paper rolls...they'll shred

sweet potatoe....peanuts in shells...food to work for

a chunk of wood....fresh apple would be nice...but if you don't have an apple tree.....

....not sure what else.....
-----
......

..JY

.

I have used the African Soft furs before, more as a trial than anything. I don't find them anything special really....well they are rather cute, rather acrobatic at times and are not difficult to hand tame. They grow a little bigger than mice but not big enough in my view, to make them a good feeder rodent for ball pythons, at least not in the long run. Doesn't help that ball pythons will imprint on these things.

The biggest appeal of these rodents is their low levels of odor. They don't stink as fast as rats nor have the musk male mice urine has. They poop just as much as mice if not more and thrive well enough on regular mice/rat lab chow. Their gestation period is the same as mice and the litters are a little larger..but not really that much.

The drawbacks...they are big chewers and jumpers. If not tamed up a bit they can be real biters. (the ones I bought were handed tamed and no where near as skittish as mice). They also do best in small groups..one male to 2 females. Larger groups and they tend to cannibalize and fight.

I have fed a few to my corn snakes but didn't get any different reaction feeding wise than I would with mice or rats. My corns have always been great eaters and will eat anything and everything I offer...except during shed.

Personally I think these guys are more a 'fad' than any real break through feeder. They can be a fine alternative or used as variety...or helpful with really stubborn feeders. They are not very hard to get, though you may have to check reptile shows and classifies to find a local breeder, if you want live ASF's to breed yourself.
-----
PHLdyPayne

I currently have four 1.3 breeding colonies and are producing 100-120 a month. I got into them because my wife is literally deathly allergic to domestic rats. Just going into a pet shop with rats has sent her to the ER.
As for chewing, I've found if they have a wheel, their chewing almost stops. I even have plastic water bottles in their tanks and they don't touch them except to drink.

Sorry off topic, but this kinda weird, is it the dander from the rats? sorry i hope yall dont get mad for me asking this, kinda odd, never heard of this allergy. my daughter has allergies and we can not pin point where her out burst are coming from but i have suspected maybe our mice but i thought i was dumb for thinking so since i never heard about it.
-----
0.4 Corn Snake
1.1 Apricot Pueblan
0.1 California Kingsnake
1 Albino Nelson
1 Nelson
0.1 Anery Sand Boa
1.0 Orange Sand Boa

It's kinda funny, we used to have pet rats. Then after 6 months, one day one was walking across my wife's arm and it left little red footprints on her skin. If it urinated on her, she'd break out where it touched her. It went down hill from there. it the dust from the cage made her athsma flair up. She couldn't touch them or anything. I was the only one who could touch them and they died a couple years ago. Anytime she goes into a pet store, she starts wheezing. Then a couple months ago, we went into the local one on cleaning day. Just being there 10-15 minutes, she started wheezing and couldn't breath. We left and just a few blocks down she could barely get any air. I had to rush her to the E.R. They said her trachea had almost swollen shut. We haven't had a specific allergy test but we're pretty certain it is the urine. We have mice and African Soft Furs and she doesn't have any problems with them.

I really like the idea of ASF's if its true that the males don't stink as bad as male mice. I just have a few cornsnakes, and buy some of my feeders online. But I also like to raise a few feeders. The problem is that the garage is too cold in the winter. The mice stop breeding and/or get sick if its too cold. But just having one male in the house can get pretty stinky!

Is a 10 gallon tank big enough for a male and two females?
-----
Kent

I have all mine in 10 gallon tanks. Four colonies in all. One male and 3 females in each and they do great. Any more can get a little crowded around weaning time. The nice thing about tanks are that you can put a wheel in. This almost completely stops chewing. They get obsessed with it. The only time they're not on it is early morning when they're going to bed for the day. But after noon, they're back at it. Oh and as far as the smell, I clean once a week. At the end of the week, I can stand over them and not even smell them. Lot's of poop, but little to no smell at all. Over a week, they can get a little odor. But nowhere near as bad as mice after 3-4 days. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the good info. That helps alot.

-----
Kent

Can you construct a "warm box" for one or two tanks? You could frame a small box from 2x4's and plywood and then insulate it and drop a light in there for a heat source in the winter. You would obviously need to be sure the temps didn't get too warm to hurt them or stop breeding, but a 40-60 watt bulb will generate enough heat to keep them warm enough to breed and safe from the outside cold. Made lite enough, you could just lift it off the 1-2 cages and then place it back. I would suggest one small building vent screen like you can buy at Lowes. They are only a few dollars and would allow venting of the amonia smell.

Just a suggestion

dc

Thanks for the suggestion.
-----
Kent