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African Soft Fur Rats

T

Twolunger

New member
Well, I decided to try raising ASF's to keep my rodent buying within my limited budget. I couldn't find any advertised anywhere, so I ran a "wanted ad." I found a woman just 10 miles away who gave me 19 young ones for just $20.
I have laboratory breeding cages so put them in one until I can set up more.
The funny thing is I brought the rodent cage into my snake room so I can watch to make sure the rats are able to drink from the rodent bottle. All my corns immediately came to the front of their container with tongues flicking. I can't smell anything, but they sure can.
 
Congrats on picking up some ASF's for a good price. How is their temperament? Mine can be touched or petted without issue but if you try picking them up they will come flying out of your hand like a little kangaroo. Wait till you start feeding off the soft furs, they truly are like crack for snakes. My only complaint about them is that they take a lot longer to grow out compared to a mouse, plus they love to chew on things. Their food and water consumption seems to be less than that of mice.
 
The ASF's I bought are rather small, and so far I have been handling them with no bites. I won't be handling them much anyway, once they are old enough to breed. I'm not able to sex them yet, with no obvious bulges on the males. But my son will come over to sex them, since he raised them in his rodent colonies a few years ago. It was spooky going into his rodent shed back then, with 2,000 eyes staring at you. LOL.

When I went to buy the ASF's I assumed the breeder had a dozen or so to choose from, but she brought out 6 or 8 large containers with 20 or 30 young in each. She said she bought a colony at Repticon about a year or so ago, thinking she would feed the offspring to her ball pythons, but didn't have the heart to do it. So now she is overrun, and was hoping I'd buy all the young. Yikes!
 
After I get moved and settled, I plan on starting a feeding colony, including ASF's.
I had a colony of ASF's a couple years back, for one of my IJ's, and I didn't keep it too long, because I quickly became over run with them, and had to cull the colony.
 
When you get the 19 sorted by sex what is your x.x goal for each colony?

Currently I've got a 2.4, and two 2.3's going. I started with 1.4 in my original colony a few months ago. I had a slight setback when my male had gotten eaten by the females, so I had to wait for another male to grow out. Having 2 males together doesn't seem to be an issue for me and saves from having to try reintroducing a new male into the colony from the grow out tub.
 
ASF's are more community oriented, and if started young, you can have 2-3 males with 5-6 females (In an appropriate sized enclosure).
 
I'll probably keep 2.4 colonies going if I have enough females. I've only found one nipper so far. He won't be here for long. I'm not going to feed any of them to my adults until I have plenty stacked in the freezer.
 
I forgot to mention, forget everything you read that says ASF's don't stink. I'll admit they aren't as bad as mice, but you will be cleaning cages frequently. The breeder told me she changes the aspen bedding every 2nd day. 3 days and I start smelling them, and even aspen is getting expensive.
 
I started an ASF 1.5 Colony in August 2018. I keep them in one of my very large rat breeding tubs. there are currently about 24 Adult ASF's and about 45 babies ranging from pinkies to hoppers in the tub. I plane to make a second breeding colony this coming weekend. Take note, I feed off 4 Medium sized ASF's every weekend to my Corn Snakes. The ASF'S once established breed fast and furious. There also does not seem to be a problem if there are multiple males in the colony, but this may be because they have all come from one father.
 
My son raised the ASF's and said as long as males are reared with each other, or the females, they are accepted, even when reaching maturity. However, if you take the male out and try to re-introduce him to a colony later the others will attack him and try to kill him unless you intervene. Since the ASF's I bought are young I can't even sex them positively yet. I did get 7 that were a little older than the other 12, so looks like I have 2.5 in that container. I bought 5 laboratory rat breeding containers on EBay, so can set up several colonies. I'll be happy if they breed like wildfire, as I'm up to 28 corns now. 5 adults, 15 sub-adults, and 8 young ones.
 
One of my colonies I'm having trouble with. I'm pretty sure they keep killing off other adults that they were raised with. Maybe once a month I'll find the remains of an adult. Typically the pelt is turned inside out with the bones, muscle and organs missing. The remaining adults don't show any visible signs that they have been fighting and babies are left unharmed. It sucks loosing a breeder considering how long they take to grow out.
 
That sounds a bit savage. I am going to take a young male and 5 or 6 young females, and set them up in there own tub.

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I have two colonies set up in laboratory rat breeding containers that have wire tops. The ASF's are cuddled together during the day and don't do much, but when the lights go out they scamper all over the containers. They climb all over the wire looking for a chance to escape. They do grow much slower than mice. They look so cute that some tenderhearted boa breeders can't euthanize them.
 
67temp said:
One of my colonies I'm having trouble with. I'm pretty sure they keep killing off other adults that they were raised with. Maybe once a month I'll find the remains of an adult. Typically the pelt is turned inside out with the bones, muscle and organs missing. The remaining adults don't show any visible signs that they have been fighting and babies are left unharmed. It sucks loosing a breeder considering how long they take to grow out.
Click to expand...

Is there a consistency in if it is a male or female that is killed?
What are you feeding? Maybe a deficiency?
 
Nope both males and females have been killed. Their normal diet is mazuri 6f. Every other or every third day they get supplemented with either black oil sunflower seeds for extra fat or dried meal worms for extra protein. They also get scraps of pasta, fruits and veggies left over from my normal meal prep.
 
Have you actually seen any of the colony attacking one of the ASF's? I know when one dies the others will consume the carcass, supposedly nature's way of continuing the colony, and hiding it from predators. I have read that if deprived of water rats will kill and drink the blood of the unfortunate victim. It is possible that some strains have cannibalistic tendencies, as well as aggressiveness. My own colonies are growing well on a diet of Oxbow adult guinea pig pellets, and Evolve Simply Six dog food. The Oxbow is only 12% protein, while the Evolve is 21%. My colonies love carrots and will eat them before anything else. The Evolve has limited ingredients and besides vitamins and minerals, contain glucosamine and chondroitin. Hope you can sort out the problem.
 
Just recently I caught two of them fighting, though I think they may have been both of the males. Typically before one dies they all are looking healthy. Who knows it could just be their water nozzle gets clogged for a day and they resort to violence. I'm down to only 4 left in that one colony (and no current babies) so they will be getting fed off soon and their tank will get filled with another younger colony.
 
A month ago I started a second ASF colony, well this coming weekend I will have to stsrt a third colony I must have in the region of 90 ASF's now.

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I'm finally able to sex the young ASF's. I have 4 colonies going now, two are 1.2 and two are 1.3. Should give me a good start when they are breeding age. I gave away 5 extra males that were colored like a Norway rat.
 
Twolunger said:
I'm finally able to sex the young ASF's. I have 4 colonies going now, two are 1.2 and two are 1.3. Should give me a good start when they are breeding age. I gave away 5 extra males that were colored like a Norway rat.
Click to expand...

What color are most of yours?

Mine are typically white with a brown saddle on the back. Some of them have white ears and others have black ears.
 

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