- Shi Beidan has 2,000 bamboo rats that she plans to
sell at market
- She is fattening them up with bamboo to be eaten or
turned into fur coats
- Cash-strapped farmers in Guizhou Province are
breeding rats for income
- They can grow up to 50 centimetres in length and four
kilograms in weight
- Rat meat costs four times more than chicken or pork
and twice that of beef
- It
is also believed to cure baldness.
By Matt Blake
PUBLISHED: 11:03 EST, 19 December 2012 | UPDATED:
14:31 EST, 19 December 2012
When Shi Beidan spotted a rat the size of
a small dog scuttling across her kitchen floor, the last thing she wanted
to do was call in the exterminators.
Instead she caught the rodent, gave it a
lunch of bamboo and put it in a box to breed more.
She now has more than 2,000 giant bamboo
rats at her home in Congjiang, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, all
of which she is fattening up to sell at market.
Fat rat:
Shi Beidan holds up one of her specimens to the camera. She has spent
months fattening it up by feeding it bamboo
They are a popular delicacy in some parts
of china and are eaten in a variety of dishes, but the biggest ones can
also be skinned and turned into fur coats.
It is a scheme that is sweeping across
the region, with cash-strapped farmers turning to breeding the rats as a
new source of income. And it is becoming big business.
Tasty
dish: They are a popular delicacy in some parts of china and are eaten in
a variety of dishes, but the biggest ones can also be skinned and turned
into fur coats
Rodent
family: She now has more than 2,000 giant bamboo rats at her home in
Congjiang, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, all of which she is
fattening up to sell at market
Just a
baby... for now: Bamboo rats are a species of rodent that are found in
the eastern half of Asia and can grow up to 50 centimetres in length and
four kilograms in weight
Big
business: Cash-strapped farmers are breeding the rats as a new source of
income. A pair of well-kept breed bamboo rats can sell for between 600
and 900 Chinese yuan (£60 and £90)
Congjiang county already has 18 bamboo
rat farms, and it is planning to expand that number to 20 in 2013.
Bamboo rats are a species of rodent that
are found in the eastern half of Asia and can grow up to 50 centimetres
in length and four kilograms in weight.
A pair of well-kept breed bamboo rats can
sell for between 600 and 900 Chinese yuan (£60 and £90).
And they reproduce rapidly with three to
four litters of two to five offspring a year.
Rat meat costs over four times more than
chicken or pork and twice that of beef in China. Eating rat is even said
to prevent baldness and is considered a winter dish.
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