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Where to get ASF rats?

Jadie.Glitch

Jadie.Glitch

:) colubridstudios.com :)
HELP!! :nope: I have looked everywhere in my area and no luck! I live in Eastern Oregon (97838) and would travel a distance upwards of 200 miles if it meant getting 4 breeding pairs or so but I can't find them ANYWHERE?! Can anyone help??
 
There's a small little pet store here in Tacoma that sells them. I haven't bought any cause they wanted 30 a piece. My wife said last time she was in there they were on sale (didn't say how much) not sure where you live but if you want to call them let me know. Also if they sold all of them they would order more in, they usually have a wide variety of rodents.
Brendyn
 
If you come to Eugene I have too many right now. I would gladly sell you a couple of pairs. I don't know if I can do four pairs right now though as I am male heavy. Once you have one or two breeding size females the rest takes care of itself, they are very prolific. It does take a little while for them to get up to breeding size though.
 
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Boise has had some recently, but I doubt you'd want to drive all the way over here for a pair. I've been meaning to get a colony going. I want to compare them to the mice I have.
 
ghosthousecorns said:
If you come to Eugene I have too many right now. I would gladly sell you a couple of pairs. I don't know if I can do four pairs right now though as I am male heavy. Once you have one or two breeding size females the rest takes care of itself, they are very prolific. It does take a little while for them to get up to breeding size though.
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PM sent! ^_^
 
In all reality, if ASF's are anything like mice, you'd only need one male and x number of females. He will get them all pregnant, and you won't have extra mouths to feed, not to mention extra cages. Good luck! ;)
 
hiddenhollowherp said:
In all reality, if ASF's are anything like mice, you'd only need one male and x number of females. He will get them all pregnant, and you won't have extra mouths to feed, not to mention extra cages. Good luck! ;)
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*ponders* Hmm... I suppose I didn't think of that... That's for the enlightenment, lol. I do that with my mice but I figured that my ASF rats would be more like gerbils (which I breed for food as well) and they only breed in pairs.

If I can get four 1.3 colonies of ASF rats going instead of four colonies of 1.1 gerbils going I suppose I would be better off. But I love gerbil personalities! They're adorable and nice... I suppose I can keep ONE colony of them around.

Also, what kind of housing size would I need for a 1.3 ASF colony? I'm assuming that a 10-gallon tank would be a little small... What do you think?
 
They get kind of big for a 10 gal. I think 1.3 would be very crowded for them in a tank that small. I have a 1.3 in a 15 gal and the other 1.2 I just got another 15 gal for at an auction. They need room to chase each other or they don't breed. The 10 gals work ok for "grow up" tanks.
 
Oh and you will not love ASF rat personalities. Be warned if you buy mine they are very mean. I seem to have an evil strain.
 
ghosthousecorns said:
They get kind of big for a 10 gal. I think 1.3 would be very crowded for them in a tank that small. I have a 1.3 in a 15 gal and the other 1.2 I just got another 15 gal for at an auction. They need room to chase each other or they don't breed. The 10 gals work ok for "grow up" tanks.
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So for a 1.2 colony/harem/whatever, you'd still recommend at least a 15 gal?
 
I have had a 1.2 in a 10 gallon and not seen them breed. They are the ones I will be moving to a 15 and that way i can have another female in there too. So I believe they need the room to pursue one another. I am still on a learning curve here. The 1.3 in the 15 has been very prolific for me and the other 1.2 in the 10 gallon have not bred, but are a little younger so that could also have a lot to do with it.
Fact is they are a lot bigger than mice, so it just makes sense to me to give them a bigger viv.
 
Cage Size

I maintain one colony of 1.4 in a 10 gal with no issues. I knew nothing of them and started with 1.2 in a mouse lab cage and after 5 months (bought as weanlings) I still had no babies. I decided to give them one shot before offing them and placed them in a 10 gal and less than 4 weeks later I had 2 litters. I give them a hide, they seem to like keeping the babies hidden.

In regards to aggressiveness, I have not noticed any with my colony. So far they are calm and very curious. I don't fully trust them because of all I have heard, but so far no bad luck. The hold backs were handled too when I went in the building so maybe that helped.

dc
 
Interesting. Thanks for answering my question. :) Thinking of starting a tiny colony for my picky eater... their apparent lack of super stinky mouse smell™ sounds nice.
 
ghosthousecorns said:
Oh and you will not love ASF rat personalities. Be warned if you buy mine they are very mean. I seem to have an evil strain.
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Yeah, I've heard that they can be mean so I'll just be careful. How bad are their bites? I've been bitten by a hamster before and those suckers bite DEEP and HOLD ON no matter how much you scream, lol!

I am REALLY excited though, despite their temperments. I can't wait to not have to deal with that icky mouse smell...

I'm getting 3.2 (a little male heavy but we'll figure things out ^_^). I'm wondering if they aren't TOO related right now, if there would be some sort of combination I could do that would allow me to raise up some offspring for breeding and then feed off the adults when I have enough younger breeders. That way I can hand-raise the babies and socialize them...

I'm worried about too much inbreeding doing this but still maybe... I sure would like to get like ONE female from somewhere else so I can have some fresh blood in the mix (hybrid-vigor and all ^_^).

Anyone know of other sources? If not then I am SUPER content with what I have. I'm really happy to be getting any at all ^_^.
 
If I were you I would keep the female babies from the ones you get from me and try to get a male from somewhere else... But of course then you will be even more male heavy.
I think inbreeding is not that big a deal. Mice breeders inbreed a lot to create "strains" so I am guessing ASF rats would be OK too.
And I hope you have some leather gloves... taking away their babies is an adventure!
 
plausibledenial said:
Interesting. Thanks for answering my question. :) Thinking of starting a tiny colony for my picky eater... their apparent lack of super stinky mouse smell™ sounds nice.
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How big is the piky eater. The ASF pinks are about the size of a week old or older. They are very wierd looking when born because the fresh pinks have hair but it looks like a very balding, thinly sparced haired mid 40's man.

Good luck. Oh and BTW, they chew like crazy, don't even think of putting a plastic water bottle in with them. I also tried using the "bottle protectors" and they still managed to get to the bottle.

dc
 
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