Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious on everyones feelings on african soft furred rats? I have given up on to trying to feed my collection what i want and started feeding them what they want...which is africans.... i have started breeding my own asf's and since i have switched from mice and rats all of my snakes have eaten every week unless in shed, even my 4 year old 700 gram female albino that only ate about 4 rats a year has been eating regularly. but there seems to be alot of controversy over feeding africans people saying they aren't available or the snakes will get stuck on them. Like i said just curious how everyone feels. hope everyones season is going great!

I was breeding and feeding ASFs and did have one snake that wanted nothing else(new owner knows this).
I also heard they were illegal in Mo. and/or required a exotic animale permit and/or legal for personal use but not for sale, So I contacted the Mo dept. of conservation. Following is their response.
Claude

Thank you for contacting us.

The Missouri Wildlife Code lists prohibited species, which may not be imported, exported, transported, sold, purchased or possessed alive in Missouri. On that list are "any species of the multimammate rat or mouse of the genusMastomys." That description includes the African soft-furred rats, so you may not possess them alive in Missouri, much less breed and sell them. We realize that they are a species in the pet trade and are popular as snake food but they are not allowed here.

Tim E. Smith

MDC Ombudsman

I'm also in a state that doesn't allow any usage of ASF's so it's definitely a determining factor if I'm buying something that eats them. I will not knowingly purchase a ball python that is eating them. If others share my practice of not buying balls that eat ASF's you might think that a ball breeder might not want to feed their collection them as to not lose potential customers. Even if they are legal in their state.

...well...you already got yours "hooked " on them
...they are available as long as you breed enough of them...
...problem created and solved?....

...they are cool...and some snakes will eat nothing but them...I had some balls that would not touch gerbils even...but ate ASF .....usually...a ball will eat gerbils and africans plus mice or rats...at least one or the other......good balls eat anything....and everything....

...they are fine and smell different than mice and rats in the house....just make sure you clean enough and feed less ..they are wasteful....

....
-----
........JY

I feed my snakes ASFs. I also feed them mice and rats. Not a one of them is "stuck" on ASFs. If anything, they are an excellent transition species to larger rats.

This has been discussed on this forum several times and the consensus was that BPs generally don't get "stuck" on ASFs. If anything, an ASF or two can jump start the feeding response and get them eating rats again.

Is it a risk? Sure. Similar to getting a hatchling to start eating by giving them a crawler mouse, only I would consider feeding ASFs one step down from there.

I have rehomed a couple of BPs that were eating nothing but ASFs and readily switched to eating rats, one of them eating live, the other eating F/T.
-----
25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I have (as a scientific experiment) fed my whole collection ASF's for one year. It took me one year to switch them back. My mousers ate the ASFs which are bigger meals than mice, so that was actually a nice thing, but still switched back to mice after a couple tries. I would have just kept feeding asfs, but they are a little hard to come by here.

Ball pythons "prefer" asf. But switching them back just takes experimenting. I gave them an asf every 4 feedings, and rats in between. They finally realized that if they didn't eat the rat, then they were going to be waiting for 4 weeks before another food of choice appeared.

I would buy a snake from someone that has been feeding asf in a heart beat! I have an isabel ground boa WC. She nails f/t rats EVERY WEEK! She didn't when I got her. I had a male mojave that I had marked for dead when he had a bad RI. I gave him to a guy for free if he could save his life. The guy saved his life! He also said that he didn't need another mojave male, and gave him back to me, but he said that he couldn't get him to take ANYTHING food wise. I brought him home. Put him in a bin with paper towels water and a HIDE! Two weeks later (water was maintained of course) I put a live mouse in there, and BAM! All i did was leave him alone..so..it's all in how YOU go about it. Confidence in your skills will allow you to not be afraid of buying snakes with feeding "issues". Good luck.

Had two groups of 1.2.
Group one had babies, then group 2. Group 2 ate babies. Group 1 waited a few days, then ate their babies.

Fed them all off last night. I'll stick with my rats and mice which don't waste my time and money by eating their offspring.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

www.youtube.com/reptilenexus

The only time I have seen this type of cannibalism has been with rats and mice, and it was a direct result of me not giving them enough food, or enough space. I have since had no problems after getting my rat rack and never having them run out of food. I don't know what your problem was, but that is not typical. I would try again and this time make sure they have adequate real estate and plenty of food at all times....good luck.

My ASFs will rarely even eat the occassional still born baby. If anything, it might be nice if the females would cull a few of the smaller ones so I wouldn't have to pick through them, but those ones make good snacks for the kingsnakes.

I feed my ASFs a higher protein diet than rats though. Pig's ears, dog food, puppy milk bones when they are freshening in the spring time, and higher protein corn snacks I get from my husband's work. Anything less than a 18% maintenance diet with some 21% to 25% protein snacks tossed in and the breeders tend to waste away. Non-breeders (feeders) can be fed on a 16% or less diet, depending on the composition.
-----
25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband