Here is my new ASF rack. Up til now I've just kept three sterilite tubs for my breeding colonies and one big 30gal for my weaners. I had some problems with escapees (I am not the best DIY guy, I've gotten better, but I still got a lot of work to get better), and I also wanted a better useage of space (I am going to keep this in my closet) so they built me a 3 row 3 column rack. It is going to eventually have gravity feed watering system (I may need to use water bottles for a few days or a week). I am going to pick it up tomorrow and I can't wait.

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae161/euphuistical/ASFrack.jpg

It is similar to the racks they actually use for breeding, so I hope it is a big step up in my ASF breeding experience. I think I am going to go with 6 breeding colonies and 3 tubs devoted to weaners. If I get overrun by ASFs they will take them off my hands or I can freeze them, but I definitely want to get colonies started as soon as I get the rack because it takes awhile before you get actual pregnancies and babies. As of right now I am down to only one working 1.3 colony. The male escaped from my other bin.

What do you guys think? Is 6 breeding colonies (all 1.2 or 1.3s) too much for 15 BPs? I'll have 10 adults to feed and 5 juvies or hatchlings.

Looks fine to me. It is similar to a homemade mouse rack that I have. Ought to work ok for you.

Looks good, let me know if they try to chew out. Just had to move the ASF back into glass aquariums because they thought they should add an escape hatch in their plastic container.

Here is my new ASF rack. Up til now I've just kept three sterilite tubs for my breeding colonies and one big 30gal for my weaners. I had some problems with escapees (I am not the best DIY guy, I've gotten better, but I still got a lot of work to get better), and I also wanted a better useage of space (I am going to keep this in my closet) so they built me a 3 row 3 column rack. It is going to eventually have gravity feed watering system (I may need to use water bottles for a few days or a week). I am going to pick it up tomorrow and I can't wait.

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae161/euphuistical/ASFrack.jpg

It is similar to the racks they actually use for breeding, so I hope it is a big step up in my ASF breeding experience. I think I am going to go with 6 breeding colonies and 3 tubs devoted to weaners. If I get overrun by ASFs they will take them off my hands or I can freeze them, but I definitely want to get colonies started as soon as I get the rack because it takes awhile before you get actual pregnancies and babies. As of right now I am down to only one working 1.3 colony. The male escaped from my other bin.

What do you guys think? Is 6 breeding colonies (all 1.2 or 1.3s) too much for 15 BPs? I'll have 10 adults to feed and 5 juvies or hatchlings.
Six colonies may be a little overkill for 15 snakes. :lol: If you go two females per colony, six colonies, with an average of 15 a litter on the low end, that's roughly 180 asf's every month.

Just out of my own curiosity, who is "they"? :p

Good looking rack. My mouse set ups were very similar....

Looks good, but are you supposed to have ASF in Florida?

Six colonies may be a little overkill for 15 snakes. :lol: If you go two females per colony, six colonies, with an average of 15 a litter on the low end, that's roughly 180 asf's every month.

Just out of my own curiosity, who is "they"? :p

My rat/ASF breeders, he always told me he would take extras off my hands if I needed them. Right now I have 4 colonies set up (I bought a trio already pregnant, and I added a young male to the colony that had an escapee male and there hasn't been any violence yet. And I really don't know if 180 is too many. My adults can easily do 18 a month (one of my big girls can do 1 a day easy, probably two a day if I let her).

But I am keeping the grow out tub for a bit just to keep an eye on how they grow and any new weanlings will go in to new tubs on the rack. Think about 20 ASFs per tub is about right?

And yes, ASFs are legal in Florida. Not in Georgia though.

If you've got an easy way to get rid of extras then there's really no reason not to overproduce. Better to have too many than not enough. When I said it was too many I also wasn't thinking along the lines of feeding off multiples. Most of my adult balls don't seem to like taking multiples so I stopped trying with them and just give them a single item that's big enough.

If you've got an easy way to get rid of extras then there's really no reason not to overproduce. Better to have too many than not enough. When I said it was too many I also wasn't thinking along the lines of feeding off multiples. Most of my adult balls don't seem to like taking multiples so I stopped trying with them and just give them a single item that's big enough.


Interesting. Most of mine seem to love multiples.

And I have one that only eats ASFs (all my others will take rats and ASFs) so she really puts a dent in my numbers. I have about 25 or so good sized ones in my cages right now and she could probably go through them in a week if I let her, but she is locking up with my mojo right now. Another day of them together or maybe later today I'll give her a good meal.

What brand of tubs did you use for this rack and have you had any chew outs? I have some old mouse breeding bins that have been working for my ASF colonies but I would like to set-up an ASF rack. The only concern is I've had several friends who have had their ASF's chew out of the tubs they designed their racks around.

Those racks look cool! You can NEVER have too many rats! If you produce more than you need, you can sell them, give them away, or freeze them. Eventually, if you're breeding your balls, you're going to need more rats anyway!

Cool looking rack

Looks good to me...hopefully fully functional to you (no escapees )

Looks good. Freeze them up. You can't have too many ASF.......

Bill