What Are the Prospects for Bamboo Rat Farming? A Detailed Guide to Farming Considerations

Bamboo rat meat has rich nutritional value. Bamboo rat meat is tender and lean, with a delicious flavor, and belongs to the low-fat, high-protein category of meats. So what are the prospects for bamboo rat farming? What needs attention in bamboo rat farming? Let's take a look together below.

1. Analysis of Bamboo Rat Farming Prospects

1. Nutritional Value of Bamboo Rat

Bamboo rat meat has rich nutritional value. Bamboo rat meat is tender and lean, with a delicious flavor, and belongs to the low-fat, high-protein category of meats. It is rich in calcium, phosphorus, vitamin E and B vitamins, as well as a variety of amino acids essential to the human body. Eating more bamboo rat meat has effects such as strengthening liver function and resisting aging. At the same time, bamboo rat meat dishes are also a fashionable delicacy in many high-end hotels today, and people praise them endlessly, jokingly calling the turtledove in the sky and the bamboo root pig (bamboo rat) on the ground, making it a trendy food favored at home and abroad.

According to slaughter tests and nutrient composition analysis, the dressing percentage of bamboo rats is 55%-60% for male bamboo rats and 45%-50% for young bamboo rats. After skinning and removing the head, tail and internal organs, the carcass weight is 0.7-1.5 kg for adult male bamboo rats, 0.5-1.2 kg for female bamboo rats, and 0.5-1.5 kg for young bamboo rats. The fresh meat of bamboo rats contains moisture, protein, fat and inorganic salt substances at 60%-70%, 20%-25%, 4%-6% and 0.87% respectively. The subcutaneous fat and body fat of bamboo rats are extremely rich, accounting for 15%-18% of the entire body weight, and it is a raw material for high-grade cosmetics.

2. Medicinal Value of Bamboo Rat

The various tissues and organs of bamboo rats have relatively high medicinal value. In Chinese folk tradition, bamboo rats have been used as medicinal animals to treat diseases for a long history. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica," bamboo rat meat is sweet in flavor, slightly warm, non-toxic, nourishes tendons and bones, consolidates the foundation and promotes body fluids, nourishes yin and strengthens yang, and reduces swelling and toxins. In addition, the blood, gallbladder, oil and teeth of bamboo rats can all be used as medicine. The blood has peculiar effects in treating asthma; the gallbladder can improve eyesight and refresh the mind and strengthen the brain; the teeth ground with water can treat mosquito and insect bites, reduce swelling and relieve pain; the oil can detoxify and discharge pus, promote tissue regeneration and relieve pain, externally treat burns from water and fire and unnamed swelling and toxins, and can also extract foreign objects, etc. The main component of the rat tail is hard protein, which after processing can be made into hydrolyzed protein, cystine and cysteine, etc. Eating bamboo rat meat often can treat infantile malnutrition and bedwetting; the gallbladder of bamboo rats can treat eye diseases and deafness; after the testicles of bamboo rats are stir-fried dry and a little borneol is added, swallowing them with boiling water can treat persistent high fever, vomiting and wind syndrome; after the kidneys of bamboo rats are baked dry on tiles and ground into powder, taking them with egg drop soup before bed can treat palpitations, fright and insomnia, etc.; drinking white liquor soaked with hairless newborn bamboo rats aged 1-4 days can treat anemia; using bamboo rat bones as the main medicine soaked in liquor can treat rheumatism, rheumatoid diseases and joint pain.

Modern research shows that the organs of bamboo rats can be refined into various biochemical pharmaceutical preparations. For example, linolenic acid extracted from the body fat of bamboo rats has multiple functions such as resisting atherosclerosis, lowering serum cholesterol concentration, lowering blood pressure, inhibiting platelet aggregation, enhancing immunity and protecting the skin; thymosin extracted from the thymus of bamboo rats has the effect of treating tumors and various diseases such as primary and secondary immunodeficiency; cephalin extracted from the brain marrow of bamboo rats has the effect of treating thrombocytopenia, atherosclerosis and fatty liver, and at the same time, cephalin is also an important additive for functional health foods and skin cosmetics; hepatocyte growth factor extracted from the liver of bamboo rats has the effect of treating severe hepatitis and chronic hepatitis B; cartilage anti-cancer active factor extracted from cartilage tissue has the effect of inhibiting the growth of cancer cells and vascular endothelial cells, with an anti-cancer rate of 60%-70%.

3. Fur Processing and Utilization Value of Bamboo Rat

The fur of bamboo rats is fine and soft, with fine and thick down, smooth and supple, and the leather board is moderate in thickness and easy to tan, making it a superior raw material for fur making. Leather shoes made from bamboo rat leather sell for 2000-2500 yuan per pair. Fur coats made from bamboo rats cost as much as 4000-5000 yuan each. The whiskers of bamboo rats are a raw material for making high-grade writing brushes. The thread-like white tendons in the tail of bamboo rats can be made into high-grade surgical sutures.

4. Characteristics and Development Prospects of Bamboo Rat Farming

Bamboo rats are easy to raise, and farmers can learn how after one lesson.

First, bamboo rats have a wide feeding habit, and feed is easy to obtain. Bamboo rats mostly eat the roots and stems of plants and crop straw (such as corn straw), with grasses, bamboos, trees, vines and melons and fruits as the main roughage. Each rat needs 200-250 grams of roughage and 20-25 grams of concentrate per day. The amount of concentrate used is only 1/4 that of broiler chickens, 1/5 that of ducks, and 1/20 that of pigs. Even if rice, corn and other grains are not used at all, they can still be raised.

Second, feeding and management are simple. For small-scale household raising, no dedicated caretaker is needed. Generally, roughage is provided once a day and concentrate once a day, and during busy farming seasons, feeding once every 3 days is also acceptable. In summer, clean the cages once a day, and in winter, clean once every 3 days. One laborer can raise 200-300 rats, and raising one group (pair) of bamboo rats is only equivalent to 1/10 of the workload of raising 1 pig.

Third, cage and housing facilities are simple and can be adapted using local materials. Bamboo rats live in burrows, so idle rural houses can be converted, or burrow chambers can be built in basements; of course, large-scale facility farms can also be built for three-dimensional raising.

Fourth, reproduction is fast, the cycle is short, and benefits are high. Bamboo rats generally can be bred for mating and reproduction after being raised to 4-5 months or 5-6 months. One female rat generally gives birth to 3-5 litters per year, with 3-4 or 5-6 pups per litter, and as many as 8-10. Pups can be weaned after being raised to 30-35 days of age. A pair of adult bamboo rats can produce 30-40 pups per year. If a farmer uses a house to raise 6-10 pairs of bamboo rats, the income in that year can be 6000-8000 yuan, and as much as ten thousand yuan, equivalent to the income from raising 50-60 pigs. According to feeding experiments, for every 1 kg of weight gain, bamboo rats consume 15-19 kg of roughage and 2-2.7 kg of concentrate. Each kg of weight gain requires a cost of 7.18 yuan, and the output-to-input ratio is 13.46:1, that is, for every 1 yuan invested, 13.5 yuan can be earned, and the economic benefit is very significant.

Fifth, bamboo rats have strong disease resistance and low risk. Bamboo rats urinate little and have dry feces, the cages are clean and hygienic, they rarely get sick, and mass deaths rarely occur. At the same time, the feces and bedding straw of bamboo rats are also very good organic fertilizer.

2. What Needs Attention in Bamboo Rat Farming?

1. Seed Selection

Selecting a good breed is the key to successful farming, and only a good breed can create a good product. The market price of bamboo rats is determined by their own farming value. Therefore, choosing a good breed before farming is very important. When starting seed selection, you can choose to keep your own breeding stock or purchase externally. However, when purchasing externally, it is important to choose a legitimate bamboo rat seller with a license, and choose seedlings that are disease-free and harmless, growing normally, well developed and strongly resistant. This can greatly improve the survival rate of bamboo rat farming and ensure your own economic benefits from farming.

2. Mating

If you choose to keep your own breeding stock, then the mating work of bamboo rats during the farming process is relatively important, and the reproduction process requires farmers to have certain farming techniques. On the first day of farming, preparations for later mating need to be made. Select healthy, disease-free bamboo rats of uniform body size and excellent breed, and raise them separately and individually. Give them focused special care to lay a good foundation for successful mating later. When raising and mating bamboo rats, nutritional components should be added to their feed. This is especially true for female rats that have just given birth to pups; strengthen management to prevent postpartum diseases.

3. Disease Prevention

Among farming projects, what most needs our attention is disease prevention and control, and bamboo rat farming is no exception. Disease prevention and control and prevention are the keys to successful farming. Diseases deal a devastating blow to bamboo rats. If the disease is not discovered in time or treated, it will cause great losses to bamboo rats. Inspect regularly every day to see whether any bamboo rats show abnormal conditions, and promptly discover the disease, isolate the sick rats, and examine and provide corresponding treatment. Common diseases of bamboo rats include the most easily occurring cold, so attention should be paid to insulation and cold protection in the farming house and to the temperature difference between morning and evening and between inside and outside. During the seasonal transition each year, pay timely attention to controlling the temperature well to prevent sudden temperature changes that bamboo rats cannot adapt to, causing disease.

4. Feed

Bamboo rats are very small animals. When feeding bamboo rats, attention should be paid to their living patterns and eating habits, etc., and feeding cannot be blind or excessive. Otherwise, it will not only fail to normally promote the growth and development of bamboo rats, but will also make them highly prone to disease. Feeding should be carried out regularly, and each day should be at a fixed time, fixed amount and fixed location. However, the amount provided should also be determined according to the growth condition and body size of the bamboo rats, paying attention to mixed feeding of coarse and fine feed and balanced nutritional content. Also pay attention to feed quality; feed that has already become moldy must not be provided, otherwise it will reduce the survival rate of bamboo rats.

Pay attention to cleaning and hygiene in the farming house, the ventilation between houses, and timely cleaning of feces, etc., to reduce the presence of pathogens and lower the incidence of disease. In the farming process, there are still more details that everyone needs to pay more attention to.