Transcription
[Music]
Welcome back to my Animal House everybody. We're down here in the hide, and, uh, I'm at the rat rack. I just kind of want to go over, you know, with the general public and just whoever might search this video, exactly, you know, I mean, not even exactly because I'm no expert on none of this. Don't get me wrong, but I just kind of want to go over what an African soft fur rat is and why us ball python keepers love them so much. You know, every, I've even walked into a pet store here locally and I was like, you know, they're feeders, they got roaches, they got all kinds of different feeder animals, and I was like, "Hey, do you guys have ASF rats?" And they're all like, "Whoops, no stuff, right?" And I'm like, "Really?" So, I mean, it was in a store, they didn't even know what it was. So I just kind of wanted to go over what they are. I got some here, and I got a couple different colonies. I want to show you and just kind of some ins and outs and my struggles, what I'm going through with breeding them. I mean, I got babies coming out all over the place, so I have no problem. They're just a couple little issues, and we're gonna go over all that today. And I'm just gonna show you something all the way from maybe a day old, a couple months old, all the way to full-grown, full colonies that are working. So here we go.
All right, let's get in here. Well, uh, we'll check these out. These are my African soft fur. If this is Mary, I think, kind of more of a traditional color of what I've seen them. These are the ones I got mine. This is pretty much the original ones look like this. I kind of picked out some more wider ones there down below, but, um, I just kind of wanted to share these with you. I got all kinds of babies in there, you know. And the reason why that, you know, like, and what these are, African soft fur rats, I don't know if I said that correctly or not, but ASF, that's what they call it. So when you hear anybody like ball python people talking about ASF rats, you know, it is a certain kind of rat because they come from Africa. This is basically ball pythons, you know, food of choice. It's where they live. These rats come from Africa. This is what they're hunting down at night when they're looking for their food. These are the rats they're looking for. These things are like, if you take like this rat right here, the size of these, the protein in these are like, if you take a regular rat that's twice the size of these, these have twice as much protein as a bigger rat. So you basically can pack in like almost two normal rats in just one size rat that a ball python can eat. And the best part about breeding these guys is if you can get a good colony going and, you know, you don't mind messing with them because they are a little cantankerous, but is that they'll never outgrow what a ball python can eat. You know, I thought about breeding other rats and people say, "Oh, you should breed other ones," and this not, I just, I'm really not sure about that because they get, there's so many of them that gets so big, man, and jumbos get so, and I have nowhere that nothing to do with those. I don't know anybody that has a big snake to to pawn them off to or nothing. So I keep these guys so they'll never get too big. And like I said, there's just tons of protein. These are like the porterhouse of rats to your ball python. So anytime you, you know, see anybody talking about ball pythons and breeders or something, they talk about ASF, this is what they're talking about, is this type of rat. And they are, if they, especially when they got babies, and they got a lot of different names, ASF, African soft fur rats, a couple other names, but the one that gets me the most that I like the most is they call them devil dogs because they are mean and and they're looking. These ones are pretty good here because we've been messing with them and I, and I mess with them quite a bit. But if there's babies, they give you this shady look like little possums, man. They just look mean. But hey, I should show you some of these. Check these. There's a lot of babies in here. That's it. Oh, we got babies everywhere. Some of those. So like these are just like the perfect little, the perfect food for a ball python. These ones are a little bit bigger, buddy. Well, yeah, if I keep them on that Aspen, it's like their hair gets thin. These ones are all pretty good. I'll show you. There's some more other ones down below. But, um, and if I put them on this pine, usually they get a little red feet. So I don't know. I'm having trouble. Like I said, in the beginning, if you're using a substrate that I can get a hold of or you have a brand name, put it down, down in the comments so I can look it up, see if I can get it anywhere locally. And I'm doing good. I got babies popping out, as you can see, little tiny ones. No, why didn't that? But, uh, see, so I can grow all these up. Usually about 18 to 20 grams, you can just, as long as their eyes are totally open and they're eating on their own, you can lead them off under their own. And however you choose to feed them to your animals, you can euthanize them, feed them live, or however you go about it. But it is the best treat that you can give to your ball pythons. And that's why you'll always hear the reference of ASF in ball python breeding and keeping and that kind of thing. So hey, well, I'll show you my other one. I used to see like these things, how they got a little more white in them. Oh yeah, see, I took a whole colony of these little guys that have a couple different deals. And I get down, buddy. Hardware stores. And I usually just cover this keyhole because that's the first place they start chewing is right there. So I have a video on how I go about fixing this. I drill the holes and and everything's all pinned in the back to where there's no rough edges on the outside. I'll put a link up in the top of the screen there for the video on how I go about fixing these. And I just use these, the pine pellets. They absorb a lot of the moisture and and then I've used a couple different substrates and I just can't get one that's, you know, quite exactly the way I need it. If I use the, the pine that's kiln dried and dust free and all that, which we all know it isn't dust free, and and I use that, and then their feet get red, and then as they get a little older, it kind of goes away. It's not as bad. And then if I use like Aspen, like it says in all the, the care sheets, it says, you know, the Aspen is great and all that, but then it's like they start to lose their fur when they're little. I don't know. I'll show you a couple of African soft fur rats a little bit better that way, but, um, so, and I was using the Aspen and I just don't know. I think I'm gonna go back to the pine. You know, there's no, there's no problem with trying other things. Just remember that, you know, monitor what you tried to work. If it's not working, go back to what you know was working better than what you just got done using. So, uh, I'm gonna go back to the pine with these guys and we'll see what happens. I'd rather have, you know, their feet are a little red. Anybody's got, and I know everybody uses the pine, kiln dried, dust free, sifted, all that. It says that I've never, that could you see, but I can't seem to find one that should right. So if anybody has any actual brand names of the substrate that they use and they have none of these troubles with, please, please put it down in the comments. I'll order from wherever I have to or try to find some locally or whatever. But I'm just gonna keep kind of going what I'm doing now and hopefully I can get it worked out. But I got the bedding, I just put three, four inches in. Stuff's really cheap. Being here for six, eight bucks, like ten cubic yards, I think it is or something like that. Yeah, they'll mash it down as they go. But I think a lot of the problem isn't, and because you'll get like an eye infection with your rats, like if they get too much dust in their eyes, they'll end up getting an infection. This isn't good. It's not that hard to get rid of or nothing. It's no big deal. But, um, is what I do. Use the after I get all of it in here because as they say that's free, which it's really not. It's what I do is I just take the old, you know, disinfectant, you know, because the tub's already disinfected anyway. And then I usually just hit that and then I'll just wipe down the sides like this, and it'll take away a lot of the dust that sticks to the plastic because we all know plastic, we, you know, it sticks to it because of the electricity. Light comes in there. So if you do that, and then as they, you put them in there, you know, they're disinfected. Are they gonna harm you at all when you put them in there and they're stepping on it? All a lot of it's all with wetting it down a little bit with the disinfectant, it keeps a little bit of the dust down when they're first running around to give it a chance to tamp down, and then you don't get as much dust. So, uh, that's kind of what I do for my bins. I throw some paper towels in here, you know, for, uh, for nesting and that kind of stuff or for all of them because even then the grow-out bins with the males and the females that I have, you know, that are growing out, they still have instincts to like make nests and that kind of stuff. So I just usually just rip up some paper towels and give them a little bit and then maybe tear it up way worse than that. So easy, just kidding a little bit. And then bang, I stick it over in the rack and then I'll transfer the rats into there. So, uh, that's kind of what I do on my bins. Like I said, guys, if anybody's got any brand man, brilliant brand names of some other some pine bedding that, uh, then I might be able to find, please, you know, throw down there in the comments. I always think descriptions when mean comments, but you guys know what I meant. Leave it down in the comments down below and I'll search for it and I'll hopefully get it worked out. So that's what I do with this part. More thanks for watching.
All right, let's go check these things out. These things are all the ones I picked out with a bunch of light on them when they were younger and they're colony together. They're mostly white. All right, not mostly white, they're more of probably a 60, 65% white tie ball, I guess you'd call it. It's like there's a couple different pie ball genes that you can get with and it's basically just like high white, low white. Like the top ones were more of a low white. These are more of a high white. Look, we got babies in here. Like these are tiny. These are like a couple hours old. And then they're mostly white too. So this litter is pretty new. This one here, see this, this baby right here. They keep kicking out for one. They usually kick out the right. Are usually just putting we. Pretty much basically how do you wanna see it. And the next time that they do kick one out, I'm gonna stick it with a mice coloring and see if mice will take care of it. But, um, these ones are white ones and I like them. Usually these guys, you can breed them about four months old. The females, they live about two years. The males will live three years. They'll breed like the first year. You don't want to breed them after that too much. Their litters will just drop off from numbers. Usually they have like 10 to 12, my litters. They use the 11 with the mice too. It's weird. I always have litters of 11. You know, their temperament, they are kind of ornery like these ones. You know, I've, I've messed with these ones quite a bit. This girl here is just huge. Like she's about to, she about to have some more. But, you know, and but they'll still turn around and they'll give me their little nips to let me know that, you know, this, that they'll get me. But hey, let's put some of these is chicken.
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But anyway, couple pictures and I see they'll give you that look. None of these things are giving me the look because I'm in here all the time. But yeah, these are African soft fur rats. Like I said, even this little guy right here is twice as much protein as a rat that big. It's crazy. There's so much protein in these little guys. But like I said, seem like this one here, his fur is a little thin. When they get a little bit older, see, they're starting to get thicker now. But their hair just seems thin and I think it's because of that bedding. But I'm back to the pine now, so we'll see if they get a little thicker. Reading. I'll go down and show you some grow outs and I'll show you the difference between the thinner haired ones and the ones that have been in there for a little while. But like this one, this one here, see his head looks a little thin. You're gonna get a camera? No, I'm not gonna get him in the camera because he's jumpy. Yeah, so I got four to one or one to four in here for females, one male. Okay. These are some of the grow out. See, like this one here, this one's hair is a little thin. You can kind of see it in the light. But like these ones, this one here's been in here for a while and his fur is all thick as can be. So I don't know, maybe it's the bedding. I'm not exactly sure. Heading back to what I was using normally, which they didn't have any of those problems before. So, so, but now we're back to normal again. Yeah, like I said, they breed about four or five months old, start giving you the litters. And these guys, you normally see some of their fur is just a little thin on some of the ones that I just put in there yesterday. But these ones that are a little bit older, this one, this one, this one, and one down there. But sorry, hopefully this issue resolved. And like if anybody's got any brand names, if you shoot at me, put them down on the comment. But these are African soft fur rats. The reason why we like them, the protein amount is just unbeatable. You can't beat it in any other rodent. Then both sides Python will be able to eat any one of these. So that's the reasons why ASF rats are so important to the ball python industry. So hopefully this video will help you. And so next time when you see 'em, you say, "What is it? A SF rat?" And these are some males.
All right everybody, so if you like these kind of videos, please like, comment, and subscribe to my channel. Smack that notification bell so you know what videos are coming out. And I'll let you know if that substrate helps or if I find another substrate and now decides to work. All right everybody, take care. Stay wild.